First Time Problems - hops

Just made my first all grain batch and I think there was a problem... Started with just above 7 gallons pre-boil. Ended with 6 gallons after 90 min boil. Amarillo Hop pellet additions were added directly to the boil (no bag or hop spider used) as follows: .67oz @ 60 mins, .88oz @ 20 mins and .83oz at 0 mins. Used immersion chiller and when I siphoned off, I only got 4.25 gallons of the 5.5 gallons needed before hitting a tremendous amount of hops at the bottom. I was sucking up so much hops that my filter screen kept clogging up. Is that normal? If not, any suggestions on what I need to do? Thanks so much in advance for any help.

I bag all my hops.  I don't like messing with them.  You can get hop bags from your local homebrew supply shop or from one of the online homebrew suppliers.  For leaf/whole hops you can even use a grain bag, as they'll stay in it.  A grain bag doesn't work for pellet hops though, as they go right through the coarser mesh of a grain bag and end up in your wort anyhow.

To add to what Scott said, get the ones you can wash. I have a bunch and reuse them all the time. I was getting the throw away ones but brewing lots of double ipas with multiple hop additions, I was spending an extra 4-5 bucks per brew.

Brewmex41 said:

To add to what Scott said, get the ones you can wash. I have a bunch and reuse them all the time. I was getting the throw away ones but brewing lots of double ipas with multiple hop additions, I was spending an extra 4-5 bucks per brew.

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I agree 100%.  Try to clean them first as best you can, to make sure you don't have any grains or hops in them, before they go into the washing machine.  I have one really large bag (mash tun sized) that I put all of my hop and grain bags into.  I tie off the big bag with the little ones in it and throw it in the washing machine.  Soap, but no fabric softener, quick wash cycle.  When they are done, I hang them up to dry out.  Works like a charm.

Thank you so much for the advice and suggestions That's an easy fix. On my way to pick up more grains and bags.

You could also try using whole hops next time. They tend to spread themselves out over the bottom of the boiler. Pellets form into a sludge which floats around and gets sucked into the filter easier.

Whole hops do get sucked around the filter but I've never had them block it. They still allow the wort to flow through and act as an additional fillter which effectively blocks a large part of the break material.

I believe the hops need to roll around with the wort during the boil to extract the best from them so I don't like using a bag. I know that many will disagree.

I just dump the whole thing into the primary, hops and all. By the time I rack into a secondary, the sediment has compacted enough that I leave less goodness behind than if I had strained from the kettle. That's the theory anyway. If I didn't use a secondary I might do things differently.