That's Not Gone Well Then

[drfad]

So I decided to put down a brew today on my first day of leave. I thought I'd do my first ever hops boil with some cascade hops... got organised, measured them out, put some DME in the boil as per the calculator... things were going well.

Shame I forgot to put the pellets in any sort of bag. WOOSH! Boil immediately goes over and I see pellets become a fine suspended mist which I know I'll be picking out of my teeth 2 months from now. Also, SWMBO's superhuman hearing picks up on it and I hear "What was that?!" from the loungeroom where she was ensconsed under the A/C. <_<

Knowing that I've already got the cleanup doubled I tie up the fermenting hops into a chux and start getting everything else ready with the fermenter. DME, dextrose, tin of goop, yeast. OK I can salvage this...

I cool the boil down, and start pouring everything into the fermenter and start stirring. Mmmm, smelling good. I duck over to the sink to get some more water to top up and suddenly think "why are my feet wet?". :huh: Ah yes. That would be the fermenter tap I forgot to turn off.

I decided to skip drowning my sorrows with a beer and went straight to the bourbon.

By the way, what's the best way to filter the vapourised hops when I'm bottling?

 

[Cube]

I have never had any problems adding pellets to a boil. Noy sure why you had the 'woosh into your teeth' problem. I have had malt over boil before when adding dried malt but never hops.

Indeed happy misses = happy kitchen brew time. I have also done the tap thing once. I have never done it again...HOT HOT on bare feet lol.

It will all be better from here on out :lol:

 

[WarmBeer]

By the way, what's the best way to filter the vapourised hops when I'm bottling?

RDWAHAHB - (Relax, Don't Worry, And Have A Homebrew.)

The hops will all settle out into the trub (the yeast stuff on the bottom of your fermenter) during fermentation. Very little, if any, will get into your bottles. Just be sure to wait until fermentation has fully completed, 3 days of consistent, low, hydrometer readings, and you'll be fine.

 

[drfad]

RDWAHAHB - (Relax, Don't Worry, And Have A Homebrew.)

yeah, but as I said, I decided to skip that and go straight to the harder stuff. Hey, I'm on holidays! B)

 

[mwd]

If you have a good rolling boil and chuck the hops in then they do tend to whoosh. Lesson 1 use a big pot with plenty space for expansion. I have never had a problem with hop debris in brews it all settles down the bottom with the yeast trub and other rubbish. Never had much problem with dry hopping either apart from blocking the debris filter on the fermenter tap once.

 

[shavey147]

Had a similar experience on my first brew for the year, managed to melt the spoon to the hotplate on the stove, saw the malt boil over the top of the pot and forgot about taking an OG reading until about 4 hours after pitching the yeast. That being said, all taste tests during the ferment were pretty good so hopefully the final result is worth the effort.

 

[DustyRusty]

Yeah boilovers are annoying and hard to stop. The best solution i've discovered is to use a pressure cooker. Make sure the valve or lid switch is completely open because the pressure could change the time the hops need to cook. You're effectively using the pressure cooker as a saucepan with a lid, but the advantage it has is a very good seal around the rim meaning that only steam and condensation will escape, not your hops or malt.

 

[drfad]

If you have a good rolling boil and chuck the hops in then they do tend to whoosh. Lesson 1 use a big pot with plenty space for expansion. I have never had a problem with hop debris in brews it all settles down the bottom with the yeast trub and other rubbish. Never had much problem with dry hopping either apart from blocking the debris filter on the fermenter tap once.

Thanks all for your responses. They've waylaid my concerns somewhat.

One more question, will leaving the boiled hop debris in the fermenter have any (more) adverse effects?

 

[beerandgarden]

When I added hop pellets straight into boil, I used a sanitised strainer to strain out the hops when transferring to fermentor. It does tend to gunk up in the strainer because there is quite a volume of hops sludge but I used a spoon to help the liquid through the strainer.

But I don't think you'll have any adverse effects of having the hops sludge in your fermentor, it should all drop out. You could add some finings or cold crash it if you notice that there is still hops particles in suspension after fermentation is done to help them drop out.