• Welcome to the new forum! We upgraded our forum software with a host of new boards, capabilities and features. It is also more secure.
    Jump in and join the conversation! You can learn more about the upgrade and new features here.

Removing hop residue from brew kettle

D

DrT

Apprentice
Joined
Jan 12, 2015
Messages
14
Reaction score
0
Location
Michigan
When racking my wort into my primary fermenter, how important is it that the hop-pellet resin not make it into my primary fermenter.  I typically leave about .75 gallons of nasty in my brew kettle, but I know others that take the whole batch to their fermenter.  I just moved to  all-grain, so the only thing in my brew kettle at the end of my boil was the hop-pellet resin and irish moss I added.  I'm not worried about clarification because between my primary and secondary, beer should be nice and clear.  But any off-flavors possible by transferring more of the trubb from the bottom of the brew kettle?

Thanks!
Dr. T.
 
I try to leave as much at the bottom as possible...That aint just hop residue down there. However i don't want to leave too much wort either, so it is a balance. Crap will all settle to the bottom anyway, but some of the spooge at the bottom can leave some grain bitters.
 
Unless I'm making a really hopped up brew, I just dump the whole thing in there. I might leave some of the thick hop sludge if it is settled, but I don't worry about it. Then again I also rack to a secondary, so the brew only sits on the hops for a week or two. Longer if I'm making lager, but I don't use a lot of hops in my lagers. In a commercial setting it would matter a lot more, but not for home brewers.
 
I, too, use a secondary.  I've been in there for 3 days and my fermentation is complete, so things don't tend to sit in the primary for very long.  I avoided most of the residue, so my loss was about 1.5 gallons (too much in my opinion).  I think I'll take a little more of the residue next time.
 
I used to be careful about not letting hops into the primary, and like you said there was a lot of loss. If you let the hops into the fermenter, they it settle out with the yeast. Much less loss that way.
 
Hops in beer have a definite shelf life. I just killed my last IPA by letting too much hop bits get into my keg. The first month the beer was amazing. It is not anymore.
 
DrT said:
I typically leave about .75 gallons of nasty in my brew kettle
Thanks!
Dr. T.
Click to expand...

Me too.  I just make more wort to make it up.  I prefer having cleaner wort and longer primary-time and skip the secondary to "clear things up." 
 
Sounds like you need to drink faster  ;D

TAHammerton said:
Hops in beer have a definite shelf life. I just killed my last IPA by letting too much hop bits get into my keg. The first month the beer was amazing. It is not anymore.
Click to expand...
 
I am stoically working on emptying it so that I can get my Farmhouse Saison in the keg this weekend. Normally I would have finished it earlier but I was trying to save some to bring to the brew club meeting last Tuesday. By the time Tuesday rolled around I did not want to take it anymore :(
 
I use hop bags for my hop additions and they work out pretty well. There will still be trub in the bottom of the kettle but I am still able to rack more wort to the primary.
 
I used bags for a long time, but as far as I'm concerned all they do is cost money. And I figure you get better utilization when the bits are floating free, rather than in a bag.

Even when I dry hop I just drop them in. When they sink I move to the next step. Then again, I'm also using a secondary. If I did it all in the same vessel I might reconsider.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top