Boil dilema

[littlebrew]

I use a lot of pellet hops.  The problem is that I lose entirely too much wort and it creates a mess + other problems that occur if I fail to rack when scheduled.

In my new system under development (HEman), I plan to hop while lautering in a single infusion (170F) mash.  Maybe the recirculating is the answer to a clean wort for the boil, using a bagged hops for aroma!??!

Any thoughts on this    Might u c a potential problem?

I am ALWAYS building and experimenting with my equipment, but I am getting too old to keep this up.  I need to settle down and brew!  

[carboy7]

If I understand correctly, you are going to put your hops in the mash tun while Lautering, except for a bag of arome hops which you will put in the boil. If you only put hops in the mash tun, the only hop extraction you will get will be aroma. You have to boil hops in order to get the bitterness extracted from them. I also use pellets and don't have a very big problem at all. I bag all my hops except my aroma which I throw right in the boil. I use whirflock also, and that seems to work better than irish moss at pooling all the trub to the center of my kettle. Maybe you need to check your grist, and your runoff. You may be getting too many solids from your mash. Good Luck
                                   Carboy

[Shakey_Dog]

I bag all my hops.  I did not always do that but I loose less wort that way.  I have not noticed any loss of hop flavor or aroma.

Or you could go to whole hops and a bazoka screan.

Don

[hunter]

why do you lose wart if you hop without hop bag.and also why do you have to whirlpool everything into the middle,i've never done a full boil before but i just got some hops and crystal grains and dried malt to add to my coopers kits.(baby steps man).

[littlebrew]

Hops looses up to around 90% of its weight when dried.  Rehydrating in the wort, it expands many times the size it was when you put it in...kinda' like a dry sponge acts when adding water to it...POOF!!!  

Whirpooling moves the sediments, protiens and such to the center.  When draining the wort, we try to keep most of the "crud" in the kettle.

Pick up one of the better homebrewing books(Papazian, Miller, or others).  Combined with the great advise and experiences of the more advanced brewing gods of this forum, and you can learn a lot.  They are always teaching me something new and improved.