Almost a disaster using hop flowers

[leahy268]

So last night I ran my system through it's first official brew as a system.
Been using it in parts for months and just transferring.

So last night I decided it was time I ran it through a mash all together, had a couple of days with no kids so I got all of the remaining work done and away I went.
I also decided to use whole hops for the first time.. Bad move...

Everything was going great during mashing and sparging..
Ok well I don't think I sparged very well since I was a little low on my preboil gravity but hey such is life..


Thought I had everything down pat.
Then got to the boil. All was good until I put the hops in..
All up nearly 150gm's mostly late all without a hop bag... Smelled fantastic.

Then got to chilling.. I have an immersion/whirlpool chiller using a LBP to circulate the wort, plus several of those 3 way motorised ball valves.
Worked sensationally during testing with just water..

Having never used hop flowers in my all grain brewery before I didn't know to expect the sheer amount of crap that was in the kettle.
Well it then proceeded to plug up the pickup tube, and each and every fitting in the system..

All up took me about 3 hours to get it drained. Tried everything.
In the end I put a strainer in the top of my fermentor and tipped it in.

After all the stuffing around if I don't get an infection out of this one I don't know how..
Ended up a little under gravity but a lilttle over volume so I may have under boiled a titch as well.

i.e 26 L 1.030 aiming for 23L of 1.039.
Should I adjust it a little with some LDME?

Also what does everyone do for hop flowers?
Do you just put it in a hop sock or what do you use to keep the pickup tube clean?

When I finished and cleaned it there were little leaves in every little crevice in the system..
It was stuck up the pickup tube, it was stuck in the compression fittings, it was stuck in the camlocks it was stuck in the LBP, it was stuck up the silicone hose..

 

[r055c0]

Problem solved!

 

[QldKev]

I've never seen a recirculating whirlpool system that actually works. Keep the recirculation for when chilling, but stop the pump 10mins before you drain the wort and whirlpool manually and let it settle.

I'd be adding some LDME to make up the gravity points and you have a lot of hops there.

 

[Yob]

Stainless steel scrubbers on the pickup works well

 

[HBHB]

Any reason you can't just put a boil screen in place of the pick-up tube?

Or use hop socks for the hops additions.

 

[leahy268]

Any reason you can't just put a boil screen in place of the pick-up tube?

Or use hop socks for the hops additions.

What do you mean by boil screen? Just a screen over the outlet or do you mean one of those screens that cover the entire bottom with the pickup facing downwards?

 

[leahy268]

Stainless steel scrubbers on the pickup works well

I shall have to get me one of them..

 

[leahy268]

I've never seen a recirculating whirlpool system that actually works. Keep the recirculation for when chilling, but stop the pump 10mins before you drain the wort and whirlpool manually and let it settle.

I'd be adding some LDME to make up the gravity points and you have a lot of hops there.

Yeah a lot of hops.... all late.. about 35ibu.. Sounded yummy, hell tasted yummy coming out of the kettle...
Might put some ldme in to it.

 

[HBHB]

What do you mean by boil screen? Just a screen over the outlet or do you mean one of those screens that cover the entire bottom with the pickup facing downwards?

There's several versions of screens out there available from different sponsors all with different dimensions etc, this is just one example:

Basis for their effectiveness is the large screen area allowing uninterrupted flow to the large outlet. Very efficient way to combat these problems.

Martin

 

[leahy268]

Will definitely try the scrubbie next time and see how that goes..

 

[Yob]

Any reason you can't just put a boil screen in place of the pick-up tube?

Or use hop socks for the hops additions.

I dont like hop socks as I think (probably doesnt matter a great deal) that it constricts them too much, I like to fee ball and maximise the wort contact / surface area of the hops exposed in the boil.

 

[leahy268]

I dont like hop socks as I think (probably doesnt matter a great deal) that it constricts them too much, I like to fee ball and maximise the wort contact / surface area of the hops exposed in the boil.

I'm with you on that one. Hence why I just threw them in..
I think there was a little too much surface area of them in contact with my fittings and pumps and so forth however.
Will definitely give the stainless scrubbie a go though..

 

[HBHB]

I dont like hop socks as I think (probably doesnt matter a great deal) that it constricts them too much, I like to fee ball and maximise the wort contact / surface area of the hops exposed in the boil.

Personally, I've never had an issue with lack of bitterness or flavour from the hops Yob. I must say I was tentative at first when using them, but didn't notice any difference on brews done with socks. That said, I still prefer the screen / blocker method in my larger system.

Cheers,
Martin

 

[leahy268]

I've never seen a recirculating whirlpool system that actually works. Keep the recirculation for when chilling, but stop the pump 10mins before you drain the wort and whirlpool manually and let it settle.

I'd be adding some LDME to make up the gravity points and you have a lot of hops there.

Well I added 415gm of ldme to it last night(All I had left).. Good news though there was lot's of nice healthy krausen on top and it smelled fantastic.

So fingers crossed all is still well.

There's several versions of screens out there available from different sponsors all with different dimensions etc, this is just one example:

Basis for their effectiveness is the large screen area allowing uninterrupted flow to the large outlet. Very efficient way to combat these problems.

Martin

Sorry Martin, I didn't originally understand what you meant.. Thought you meant the false bottom style ones for a start.
Rather than the bazooka screen style that is.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Hop flowers are a trick for new brewers

 

[krausenhaus]

I made a 45L batch on Sunday with 150g of Motueka flowers plus an extra 300g of pellet hops (thanks Yob) and had similar problems, which I was fully anticipating.

I've got a small bazooka screen on the end of my pickup but I had to stand there with a long spoon scraping it back and forth the whole time to stop it blocking. Took an agonisingly long time and ended up losing 10L or so to trub and absorption.

Still, I think it'll be worth it...

 

[McFeast]

Thanks for the topic. I am hoping to get some flowers with my Victoria hops this season (planted b4 winter) or later in the year. I was just going to put them in the sock and go from there. I wouldnt think there would be too big a problem? How did you know how many hops to put in? I'd throw em in fresh i suppose.

 

[leahy268]

Thanks for the topic. I am hoping to get some flowers with my Victoria hops this season (planted b4 winter) or later in the year. I was just going to put them in the sock and go from there. I wouldnt think there would be too big a problem? How did you know how many hops to put in? I'd throw em in fresh i suppose.

I bought mine so to work it out wasn't all that hard for me. Knew the approximate %alpha's and so forth. Looked up some recipes and got some advice. NFI about home grown hops though mate.. Not at that stage for the time being. But yeah from reading my hops book fresh hops to make a harvest beer thrown in late are apparently pretty damn good. It talks about using pellets though for the start of the boil at one point though. At least in your case you would know how bitter it was going to be..

 

[Mardoo]

Hop flowers are a trick for new brewers

Me, I just feed my rabbits hop flowes. Voila, hop pellets!

Seriously though every time I use flowers I end up pouring the wort through a strainer. I brew small batches though.