Blichmann Hop Rocket

[nathan_madness]

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

Batz

You'll love it i've had mine for 4 brews now and the aroma and flavor is amazing. The only downside is that it does not gravity feed very well at all even with 45g of flowers in it. I have changed to pumping it through and it is much easier and you can fill it up with hops.

 

[jimi]

You'll love it i've had mine for 4 brews now and the aroma and flavor is amazing. The only downside is that it does not gravity feed very well at all even with 45g of flowers in it. I have changed to pumping it through and it is much easier and you can fill it up with hops.

Can't remember whether it was reVox or ThirstyBoy who PMed me their hop rocket set up as a hop back with a gravity feed. Rocket was loaded up to, so it is possible. In the coming months I'll be finally getting around to doing the same with mine .. gravity feed set up.

 

[nathan_madness]

Yeah it does work but painfully slow. I had my boil pot 1.2m up, the rocket on the floor and the chiller at the height of the fermenter. Maybe i'm just impatient but with the pump it was so much faster.

 

[jimi]

Yeah it does work but painfully slow. I had my boil pot 1.2m up, the rocket on the floor and the chiller at the height of the fermenter. Maybe i'm just impatient but with the pump it was so much faster.

Pumps fix a lot of things and you're now set. I'm not arguing any point other than pointing out that one of the Melbourne gurus have got the gravity / hop rocket thing down pat. I'm hoping that it won't be too slow when I set mine up in the not too distant future, and the advice I was given is that it should be fine. Your experience will make me more nervous though.

 

[Florian]

Yeah it does work but painfully slow. I had my boil pot 1.2m up, the rocket on the floor and the chiller at the height of the fermenter. Maybe i'm just impatient but with the pump it was so much faster.

so did you have the fermenter basically above the hop rocket?

that might be why, I'd try to sit the rocket somewhere halfway between kettle and fermenter, so it gets both the push from the top and the pull from the bottom.

 

[seamad]

Use the pump to get mine started then gravity feed with the tap partially closed, if i go too fast the wort doesn't chill enough. It does start without the pump by lowering it. Urn sits on the bench with the rocket, chiller 1/2 between floor and bench. At the end I invert the rocket to try and get all the hop goodness out.

The flowers and the rocket/chiller probably account for at least 500ml of wort so I up the batch size slightly to allow for it compared to my no chill technique. Also more careful of getting less kettle break with the rocket so batch size is + 1l.

 

[Shitchins]

FWIW, I've used the hoprocket 3 times now. All gravity fed, with only 900mm of height. No trouble with flow rate. I was a liitle anxious the 1st time and only used 40g of flowers, and was half expecting to have to hoist up my urn to give it some more grunt. On my last ale I cranked it up to 80 g of flowers and still no problems. I'm really happy with it. Wort comes out nice and clear, and hop aroma is beautiful.

 

[Batz]

FWIW, I've used the hoprocket 3 times now. All gravity fed, with only 900mm of height. No trouble with flow rate. I was a liitle anxious the 1st time and only used 40g of flowers, and was half expecting to have to hoist up my urn to give it some more grunt. On my last ale I cranked it up to 80 g of flowers and still no problems. I'm really happy with it. Wort comes out nice and clear, and hop aroma is beautiful.

Do you also feed through a chiller ?

I've ordered some flowers from CB, really keen to this this thing a go asap.

Batz

 

[roger mellie]

75 gms of flowers and up to 20gms of pellets in the little basket thing - never had an issue with blockages.

There is a lot of stuff written about reversing the flow from what Blichmann recommend - personally I have tried both and find that the reverse method works better for me.

Very happy with the results - except when using Nelson Sauvin - found an annoying cloying/sweet character - wont do that again in a hurry.

RM

 

[Shitchins]

Yep, use a 30 plate chiller. Setup is:
40L crown urn on benchtop -> hoprocket (on floor) -> plate chiller (on floor)-> fermenter (on floor)
The hoprocket and the chiller sit in a plastic tub on the floor next to each other in case there's a leak.
I sanitise it in the same tub initially, so it's a nice clean way to store it while you're stuffing around with final hop additions, whirlpooling etc.
Hope it works for you as smoothly as it has for me so far.

Mule

 

[Batz]

75 gms of flowers and up to 20gms of pellets in the little basket thing - never had an issue with blockages.

There is a lot of stuff written about reversing the flow from what Blichmann recommend - personally I have tried both and find that the reverse method works better for me.


RM

So you use the top as the inlet?

 

[vonromanz]

Hi,

I've gravity fed the Rocket from day one without any hassles. The most flowers I've used was 120g, no problems. My kettle is on a stand about 1.2m high. The 'out' of the Rocket level with the 'wort out' of kettle,plate chiller below Rocket, fermentor filling from 'beer out' on the floor.

If you are using a pump, I would suggest to back down the flow, even when gravity feeding it. The reason for this is to make sure the wort gets enough contact time with the flowers for maximum flavour extraction. The hop variety, ofcoarse, will also have a significant impact on how much flavour and aroma you will get.

Cheers

 

[Shitchins]

75 gms of flowers and up to 20gms of pellets in the little basket thing - never had an issue with blockages.

RM

That' s encouraging. I was tempted to give this a try myself but was worried about blockages given my gravity feed from limited height. I guess if there are more flowers than pellets in the mix then you might get away with it. It's a good strategy if you can't get one of the hops you want in flower form.

Mule

 

[roger mellie]

So you use the top as the inlet?

That is correct Batz

I found I waste less wort - and it just fits my Kettle --> Pump --> Hop Rocket --> CFC --> Fermenter setup the best.

If you read up on TBN there is lots written about Kettle --> Hop Rocket --> Pump - Chiller - Fermenter setups - but I am not game to try - march pumps shit me at the best of times - rather push than suck.

What I have done to reduce wastage is once the kettle is empty - put a very low pressure CO2 purge on to push the ~ 1 L of wort that can get hung up in the hop rocket through my system.

Mule - I wouldnt be putting pellets in there on there own though - if they go on top of the flowers the filter action of the flowers catches most of the pellet material.

Just kegged a LCBA clone with B Saaz flowers and Riwaka pellets as the Hop rocket candidates - is good.

RM

 

[djar007]

Just got one of these from ibrew. Got here in two days. Very happy and can not wait to use it as a hop back. Not sure about the high flow thing and where to put the hops.Anyone know? Inside or outside the cage?

 

[nathan_madness]

They go on the outside of the cage. Just bolt the cage to the plate with the smaller perforations fit the rubber seal then slide that in to the rocket fill it with hops and fit the cap on with the plate with the larger perforations. I find about 90g of hops work really well.

 

[brewologist]

Nice work djar,

I'm loving my hop back. Let us know how yours goes.

 

[djar007]

Thanks very much nathan. Will report back after next brew day Brewologist. Got some yob cascade i am going to trial with.

 

[brewologist]

Last brew, yet to taste, I put about 70g of cascade in mine and pumped the wort post plate chiller into the fermemter at 25c to pitch yeast.

I will report back once its ready to drink. Its still sitting on 120g of keg hops.

 

[browndog]

Last brew, yet to taste, I put about 70g of cascade in mine and pumped the wort post plate chiller into the fermemter at 25c to pitch yeast.

I will report back once its ready to drink. Its still sitting on 120g of keg hops.

Jeez, I think that 120g of keg hops are going to negate anything added by the Hop Rocket bro.