Love this thread. Any experiments done with increased pellet hops like an IPA?
That's something I'm quite interested in myself. I use a truckload of hops in my IPA's, and I've had several lately that end up with a lot of harsh "raw hop" flavor that I'm assuming is from all the fine hop debris that doesn't clear. I've assumed that this is coming from the dry hops rather than the trub, but it would be nice to see a test.
I've done several batches without filtering out the trub or break material & hops, two of them were IPAs with 10.5oz of hops for 5.5 gal (7.5 in the boil, flameout & hopstand; 3 oz dry hop). Flavor comes through rather nice, perceivably better than when I used a large hop bag to contain them, however; this could also be due to the added contact area from not being contained.
My dumbest guess might assume that once the wort is cooled to pitching/ferm temps, then there isn't any bitterness being imparted. Though, a lot of the trub gets stirred up during fermentation. I guess my next batch of IPA I could split the batch between 3 gallon carboys, pitch, and ferment side by side at the same temperature and compare.... but then I'd have to tie up two kegs vs. one for a single batch.