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Author Topic: Pellet VS Whole Cone Hops  (Read 3558 times)

Offline erockrph

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Re: Pellet VS Whole Cone Hops
« Reply #30 on: October 10, 2021, 08:04:32 am »
Would it be worth while to use some sort of cheese cloth or something to strain the liquid as I put it in the keg?  I am sure I can find some sort of cloth that would work, but would that be adviseable?

I haven't tried it but I have read of others who did that and found that the filter plugged with the material they were straining out.
I have used filter screens that fit the mouth of a 5 (or 6.5) gallon bucket, but they would always clog up something fierce with pellet hops. Search DudaDiesel on eBay if you're interested in what I'm talking about.

I have had better success making a juryrigged hopback. You can take a kneehigh nylon stocking, put about half an ounce of whole cone hops in it, and ziptie it over the outflow of some tubing that you use to transfer the beer from your kettle to your fermenter. In the end, I found that the amount of trub I transferred had no bearing on the quality of my finished beer, and I stopped sweating that particular detail.
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Offline Bel Air Brewing

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Re: Pellet VS Whole Cone Hops
« Reply #31 on: October 10, 2021, 08:15:33 am »
Would it be worth while to use some sort of cheese cloth or something to strain the liquid as I put it in the keg?  I am sure I can find some sort of cloth that would work, but would that be adviseable?

I haven't tried it but I have read of others who did that and found that the filter plugged with the material they were straining out.
I have used filter screens that fit the mouth of a 5 (or 6.5) gallon bucket, but they would always clog up something fierce with pellet hops. Search DudaDiesel on eBay if you're interested in what I'm talking about.

I have had better success making a juryrigged hopback. You can take a kneehigh nylon stocking, put about half an ounce of whole cone hops in it, and ziptie it over the outflow of some tubing that you use to transfer the beer from your kettle to your fermenter. In the end, I found that the amount of trub I transferred had no bearing on the quality of my finished beer, and I stopped sweating that particular detail.

I agree, no harm with trub in your wort.
We do not want this in our beer, only because we harvest our yeast. It is desired to have the yeast as clean as possible. And so far our yeast harvests are hyper clean.

Offline denny

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Re: Pellet VS Whole Cone Hops
« Reply #32 on: October 10, 2021, 08:26:28 am »
Would it be worth while to use some sort of cheese cloth or something to strain the liquid as I put it in the keg?  I am sure I can find some sort of cloth that would work, but would that be adviseable?

I haven't tried it but I have read of others who did that and found that the filter plugged with the material they were straining out.
I have used filter screens that fit the mouth of a 5 (or 6.5) gallon bucket, but they would always clog up something fierce with pellet hops. Search DudaDiesel on eBay if you're interested in what I'm talking about.

I have had better success making a juryrigged hopback. You can take a kneehigh nylon stocking, put about half an ounce of whole cone hops in it, and ziptie it over the outflow of some tubing that you use to transfer the beer from your kettle to your fermenter. In the end, I found that the amount of trub I transferred had no bearing on the quality of my finished beer, and I stopped sweating that particular detail.

I agree, no harm with trub in your wort.
We do not want this in our beer, only because we harvest our yeast. It is desired to have the yeast as clean as possible. And so far our yeast harvests are hyper clean.

I gotta tell ya, my experience is that it really doesn't matter.  Just a data point.
Life begins at 60.....1.060, that is!

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Offline majorvices

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Re: Pellet VS Whole Cone Hops
« Reply #33 on: October 10, 2021, 08:41:06 am »
FWIW for whole hops I had great luck with Denny's old trick of using a stainless/braided water supply line. You have to remove the inside tubing and crimp the one end but I never had whole hops clog using that method. It definitely ran off super clear wort in conjunction with whole hops. Gravity feed, not pumped, which may cause problems (not sure).

Offline redrocker652002

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Re: Pellet VS Whole Cone Hops
« Reply #34 on: October 12, 2021, 09:05:57 am »
I ended up using Cheese cloth that I soaked in Starsan.  It did ok, but I am sure I am going to run into more problems after I dry hop in a few days.  I am thinking of using the same style cloth over my keg and run to siphon hose off my fermenter bucket and try and catch as much as I can, but I could swear I read that you don't want to the fermented beer to spash around too much.  I wish I could find something that slips into my keg and sits at the bottom where I can run to filler tube down and go that way, if that makes sense.  I also know I am going to clog the pickup tube something fierce if I don't figure out a way to get most of the crud out of the fermented beer. 

Offline ynotbrusum

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Offline redrocker652002

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Re: Pellet VS Whole Cone Hops
« Reply #36 on: October 12, 2021, 11:52:24 pm »
I think what I am going to do is use the Muslim bag I used for the grains, put the hops in and drop it in the fermenter.  I will, of course, sanitize the bag as best I can.  That should at least keep the dry hops contained.  Once it is ready to go into the keg, I might try either the drip tube screen, or I saw this:

https://kegfactory.com/products/torpedo-keg-buoy-floating-dip-tube?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIs_zqstnG8wIV-xitBh38GwzDEAQYASABEgI4iPD_BwE

Has anybody used anything like this? 
« Last Edit: October 12, 2021, 11:55:00 pm by redrocker652002 »

Offline ynotbrusum

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Re: Pellet VS Whole Cone Hops
« Reply #37 on: October 13, 2021, 11:21:35 am »
I use a floating dip tube in the fermenter only.  Works well for early racking and spunding in keg for the last couple points.

https://clearbeerdraughtsystem.com/

There are several iterations available from other mfg's of similar floating dip tubes with filters that seem to work well.
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Offline Saccharomyces

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Re: Pellet VS Whole Cone Hops
« Reply #38 on: October 16, 2021, 07:10:10 am »
I have used filter screens that fit the mouth of a 5 (or 6.5) gallon bucket, but they would always clog up something fierce with pellet hops. Search DudaDiesel on eBay if you're interested in what I'm talking about.

Loose pellets with an immersion chiller are one big pain in the backside.  Sure, one can whirlpool, but even then one is going to end up with pellet debris in one's fermentation vessel if one does not leave a substantial amount of wort behind.  I use a cloth bag-based spider for pellets.  That way if it clogs mid-boil, I can just replace the clogged bag with a new bag.  If I ever switch back to using a counterflow chiller, I going to do knock-out hop additions using whole hops and a hopback.  Whole hops hold pellets back very well. The Alan Pugsley installed breweries use this approach.  Pellets are used for kettle additions and whole cones are used in a hop back (the hop perculator) to hold back the pellets.  It is a very simple and effective design. However, it does require one to use counterflow or plate chiller.

Offline denny

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Re: Pellet VS Whole Cone Hops
« Reply #39 on: October 16, 2021, 08:09:27 am »
I have used filter screens that fit the mouth of a 5 (or 6.5) gallon bucket, but they would always clog up something fierce with pellet hops. Search DudaDiesel on eBay if you're interested in what I'm talking about.

Loose pellets with an immersion chiller are one big pain in the backside.  Sure, one can whirlpool, but even then one is going to end up with pellet debris in one's fermentation vessel if one does not leave a substantial amount of wort behind.  I use a cloth bag-based spider for pellets.  That way if it clogs mid-boil, I can just replace the clogged bag with a new bag.  If I ever switch back to using a counterflow chiller, I going to do knock-out hop additions using whole hops and a hopback.  Whole hops hold pellets back very well. The Alan Pugsley installed breweries use this approach.  Pellets are used for kettle additions and whole cones are used in a hop back (the hop perculator) to hold back the pellets.  It is a very simple and effective design. However, it does require one to use counterflow or plate chiller.

Depends on your kettle design.  I haven't found it to be a problem.
Life begins at 60.....1.060, that is!

www.dennybrew.com

The best, sharpest, funniest, weirdest and most knowledgable minds in home brewing contribute on the AHA forum. - Alewyfe

"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts." - Bertrand Russell