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I thought a hopback had to be a fully sealed system. wouldnt the vent hole in the lid of that nearly defeat the purpose? whats the advantage of using this system over just chucking a bunch of flowers in at flameout and then putting the lid on the kettle anyway?
 
I would have thought that too Sammus - but I've seen the Hopback at LC, its about 1000 x 1200 and its open at the top, so it can't be that bad.

Nice setup RR - and congratulations on the comp results !
 
Hey Guys,

for all those interested i've snapped a quick few pics, since i'm around my mates thats housing all my brew gear.
if the aroma comming out of the fermenter is anyting to go by this brew will rock my world, the proof will be in the
pudding.

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Rob.
 
i've got a fair wack of brass in my brewery and a little scared that caustic would affect it?
i think it was about $180 it's a very high quality pot has a thick base, i haven't got it with me at the moment but can bring it to the next meet if u guys wanna check it out for ideas etc.
Maybe a sodium percarbonate based cleaning regime then? bring it to the next meet and I will bring mine and we can see how much different they are.

I thought a hopback had to be a fully sealed system. wouldnt the vent hole in the lid of that nearly defeat the purpose? whats the advantage of using this system over just chucking a bunch of flowers in at flameout and then putting the lid on the kettle anyway?

I would have thought that too Sammus - but I've seen the Hopback at LC, its about 1000 x 1200 and its open at the top, so it can't be that bad.
lts !
Sammus as Goat said it's not all that necessary and as long as you regulate flow out of the kettle into the hopback so that it does not exceed flow out via the pump/gravity to the chiller then all is good. The benefit of the hopback is that the wort is run over the hops for a brief period and is then quickly chilled to lock in the aroma. A hopback is useless with an immersion chiller as the wort needs to be just off boil to get maximum out of the hops. The problem with adding a large amount of hops at end of boil and then letting them steep before chilling is that it can have a marked effect on your IBU calcs. However if you are aware of this then it is not a problem anyway! plus some of us just like to make/have cool toys to play with ;)
 
Sammus as Goat said it's not all that necessary and as long as you regulate flow out of the kettle into the hopback so that it does not exceed flow out via the pump/gravity to the chiller then all is good.

So do you need the pump between the hopback and chiller? Is there any reason why you cant go Kettle -> pump -> Hopback -> chiller -> fermenter?
 
You wouldnt be able to pump through an open system any faster than the outflow from the hopback would allow.
 
yeah I realise that, but is there any other problem? and do hopbacks like this have issues with HSA, with the wort dropping on to the flowers from a height...

edit: I just realised that the speed of pumping through an open system wont be at all influenced by where the pump is in the setup... I was just wondering why people seem to think you should 'suck' wort through rather than push it though
 
and do hopbacks like this have issues with HSA, with the wort dropping on to the flowers from a height...


my hopback was chockers full of flowers (as pictured) as there wasn't any "dropping from a height" (well maybe 5mm) :icon_cheers:

Rob.
 
If you're worried about splashing you could always run the inlet at the bottom and the out up top. Of course, you're going to lose more wort if you do it this way (approximately one hopback's worth at a wild guess).

Alternatively, you could get an enclosed hopback. Beerbelly make one though I've never used it myself.
 
If you're worried about splashing you could always run the inlet at the bottom and the out up top. Of course, you're going to lose more wort if you do it this way (approximately one hopback's worth at a wild guess).

Alternatively, you could get an enclosed hopback. Beerbelly make one though I've never used it myself.

Would kinda defeat the purpose of the false bottom on the hopback... splashing im not too worried about though, just confused as to why everywhere I've read seems to recommend sucking the wort through instead of pushing it though, but without an explanation...

edit: spelling
 
You could always turn it into a false top :)
 
Hey Guys,

i decied to give plugs a whirl and up the anti as well.

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250g of dried plugs in hopback.

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adding wort and them swelling up.

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They were jammed packed in the hopback i emplied them out into a bucket and i couldn't believe how much i ended up with.

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Close up.

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I squeezed them just to see how much "hop juice" i could get out of it.

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this is a mayo bucket lid, with the plugs rung out after use.

it was pretty jammed packed as compared to my last effort with 100g of flowers so i don't know if that'll be a good or a bad thing, we'll find out in a couple of weeks.

Rob.
 


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