Blichmann Hop Rocket

[BrewGuru]

View attachment 44250

Flowers didn't expand as much as I thought they would... overall, very good result; wort smells awesome!

I need a hop rocket as well. I notice you have modified the tap on yout braumeister any benefits??

 

[KillerRx4]

Based on a comment earlier in this thread about the high flow upgrade, I contacted Ibrew (who is the distributor in Aus).

Cost me $8 for postage & they sent me out the Free high flow upgrade kit. Pretty happy with that.

 

[reVoxAHB]

Hats off to Jayne at iBrew. She worked with me on price where I purchased 6 units, some with fittings. Cost including delivery to Melbs. was on par (slightly more) than if I'd gone direct to the US but I'm happy to support her Australian distribution channel. The service I received was excellent. She was very quick to answer all email, invoicing and payment a breeze. Can't go wrong with FastWay as a courier, too. Highly recommended, across the board.

Cheers iBrew :icon_chickcheers:

 

[fraser_john]

Hats off to Jayne at iBrew. She worked with me on price where I purchased 6 units, some with fittings. Cost including delivery to Melbs. was on par (slightly more) than if I'd gone direct to the US but I'm happy to support her Australian distribution channel. The service I received was excellent. She was very quick to answer all email, invoicing and payment a breeze. Can't go wrong with FastWay as a courier, too. Highly recommended, across the board.

Cheers iBrew :icon_chickcheers:

Darn, wish I had known you were doing a mini-bulk buy I'd have been in on it, I really like the look of this unit.

 

[Effect]

 

[reVoxAHB]

Nice work, Phillip.

 

[Malted]

You fellahs could make things a lot easier for yourselves if you had some of these:


It was a shame I couldn't stay because from what I saw it would have been a great day.

 

[Hatchy]

You fellahs could make things a lot easier for yourselves if you had some of these:


It was a shame I couldn't stay because from what I saw it would have been a great day.

I've seen those & wondered how durable the plastic bits are, thus the screwdriver.

 

[DJR]

Picked mine up today - pretty happy with the construction. Looks pretty good.

Some of the US guys have had results with pellets that were just fine, this may have been before the high flow adapter came out though. Looking at the unit there would be two ways to make it work better with pellets, that'd be putting a finer mesh (e.g. frypan splatter guard) on the bottom of the top filter with the bell-housing, and putting a stainless scrubby in the very top above the bell housing filter bit. Would slow down flow a little though.

Only problem now is i need to get a plate or counterflow chiller instead of an immersion, oh well.

Just had a thought, like with Torpedo they use a recirculated device like this on a bigger scale.It would probably be possible to pump beer outta the fermenter, run it through the hoprocket back into the fermenter just before bottling or instead of dryhopping, you could leave it running on the pump for half an hour or more. I wonder what the result would be like :icon_drunk:

 

[rotten]

I see an experiment brewing. let us know how it goes-brews-tastes.

 

[Batz]

You guys who have bought Hop Rockets, how have you found them? Do you use them as much as you thought you would? How many hop flowers do you use per batch and do any of you use pellets?

I have seen one and I know the quality is there but wonder if it's something that would end up in the brewing cupboard.

Batz

 

[seamad]

I use mine every time i use my chiller. I find that some beers benefit from chillers and that those beers also suit the flavour / aroma that the hop rocket gives, if i gotta clean the chiller might as well clean the rocket too, plus it filters out crud that may block the chiller.

Probably 1/4 of my beers use the chiller/ rocket.

Typically i use 2 g/ l so in my case 45 g. Have used double that twice and worked well. Have also used pellets in it a bit. Normally wrap them up in a bit of voile from my biab days, usually with some flowers to help filter. Have also double bagged with rice hulls first then pellets in seperate bag. Was suprised at the shitty rice hull tea the first time i boiled them to sanatise so i now try not to use them or boil, empty water and reboil and rinse.

Cheers
sean

 

[Batz]

I use mine every time i use my chiller. I find that some beers benefit from chillers and that those beers also suit the flavour / aroma that the hop rocket gives, if i gotta clean the chiller might as well clean the rocket too, plus it filters out crud that may block the chiller.

Probably 1/4 of my beers use the chiller/ rocket.

Typically i use 2 g/ l so in my case 45 g. Have used double that twice and worked well. Have also used pellets in it a bit. Normally wrap them up in a bit of voile from my biab days, usually with some flowers to help filter. Have also double bagged with rice hulls first then pellets in seperate bag. Was suprised at the shitty rice hull tea the first time i boiled them to sanatise so i now try not to use them or boil, empty water and reboil and rinse.

Cheers
sean

Thanks, I would use it much as you, not often but when I did it was worth it. After the Xmas spending I think I'll buy one.

Rice hulls? I ordered a heap once and made a tea in my coffee plunger to access the flavour. I then used them in the chooks laying boxes.

batz

 

[DJR]

If you have a plate chiller or CFC they are great.... with an immersion chiller not that great but still handy. Could be OK for no-chilling though, haven't tried, might give it a go sometime.

Typically between 25 and 50g of flowers is the way to go in addition to flavour/aroma hops, just replace the whirlpool hops with the hoprocket, I have used NZ cascade, NZ Sauvin and I have some Galaxy flowers to put into it

 

[CONNOR BREWARE]

Great thread.

That settles it, i've told the fiscal overlord what she's getting me for Christmas.

Being eyeing this off for a while and after seeing the latest beer camp pics with their massive hop back 'torpedo' and reading this thread I gotta have one. Wish I had more than just cascade growing.

 

[neal32]

Love my Hop Rocket. Has anyone actually used pellets with it yet? I have a heaps of rice hulls and was thinking of mixing them with the pellets and using a hop bag. After boiling the rice hulls though to get rid of the rice tea flavour.

 

[Dunkelbrau]

Took a drive to ibrew yesterday had a look at one of these Hop Rockets and bought one on the spot. I found the guy to be very friendly and helpful he spent some time talking with me about brewing It is not so easy to buy from the USA these days most of the big Corparations will not accepy credit cards from outside the USA. Items I have tried to buy useing Paypal are also being refused by Palpay with the reason, this item can only be bought with a Paypal account linked to a credit card issued in the USA. It makes useing a proxy useless. I think Harvey Normans owner and his complaint earlier this year re overseas online shopping is behind this and as a result of this I will not enter any of his stores again.
Cheers Altstart

I shop for most things in the US, and I've need had an issue with the credit card, only distribution regs from the parent co pant not wanting to undercut their aussie distributor. Fair enough in my opinion.

But, hop shop and go takes care of that, they ship on to me from my own US address. They will even purchase it on behalf of me and let me pay them via PayPal.

 

[Batz]

I have seen these and they are a quality item, I'm just not sure if I would use it enough to justify the price. I have tried plenty of US retailers but the savings are only around $20.00 so I'll rather shop local for one.

In the meantime I'm going to have a go at building one out of a Woolies asparagus steamer ($20.00). I have not doubt that if I use it a lot I will eventually buy the genuine hoprocket.

Batz

 

[peas_and_corn]

I incorporated mine into my kegging setup, so I use it all the time. It's great for infusing a lot of hoppy goodness into a beer

 

[Batz]

Well I bit the bullet and have one of these now, can't wait to brew with it.

Batz