Using A Coffee Dripolator For Hops

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Old_Bob

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I have been brewing for quite a while, but only Kit and extracts because I don't really have the time to do all grains. For the last few batches I have been using Alan's excellent spreadsheet and this has improved my results enormously (Thanks Alan).
My question is though, has anyone been using a coffee dripolator with filter paper for their hop additions? I have used one for adding aroma and flavour hops, when using pellets, so that the beer has less sediment suspended at the end of ferment. The only problem is that it doesn't really fit in with the spreadsheet. To overcome this I have guestimated that when I add say 30gm of pellets to the filter and pass 14 cups of water (by the measurements on the coffee maker) through it, I enter it as 30gms at 5 mins in the spreadsheet. Admittedly the water isn't quite at boiling temperature, but I was interested in any thoughts anyone may have on this. Or if anyone else does something similar.
Cheers
Bob
 
The gravity of whatever liquid you boil in will significantly affect your hop utilisation and other flavour/bittering factors. Usual recommendation is boiling in wort with a gravity between 1030 and 1050 so your plain water may throw your calcs right out.

Hop sediment tends to drop right away anyway - only a possible issue in the last bottle if you can't bring yourself to leave it behind, or if you are rough with your beer (which you shouldn't be for different reasons).
 
Coffee filter paper traps aromatic and volatile oils in coffee, so i would assume it may have some kind of the same effect on hop oils as well.
So you may not be getting the best out of your hops either. I could be wrong though.
 
Do a search for french press hops. Basically it just putting hops in a french press, adding boiling water and steeping for a few mintues. Then push the handle down and add the hoppy water to the fermenter or keg. Basically the same as what you're proposing but i imaigne it takes far less time, those filters would gum up pretty quick.

I do it instead of dry hopping, because if i dry hopped straight into the keg the flowers would block up the dip tube.

If you aren't kegging and aren't reusing yeast why not just chuck them straight into the fermenter. Dry hopping for me has always worked as a great clarifier, its almost like the hops grab some of the yeast particles and take them to the bottom of the fermeter.



If you want to add flavour hops your best bet is to do a small boil in wort and chill as quickly as you can ie top up with cold water and the rest of your ingredients


I have been brewing for quite a while, but only Kit and extracts because I don't really have the time to do all grains. For the last few batches I have been using Alan's excellent spreadsheet and this has improved my results enormously (Thanks Alan).
My question is though, has anyone been using a coffee dripolator with filter paper for their hop additions? I have used one for adding aroma and flavour hops, when using pellets, so that the beer has less sediment suspended at the end of ferment. The only problem is that it doesn't really fit in with the spreadsheet. To overcome this I have guestimated that when I add say 30gm of pellets to the filter and pass 14 cups of water (by the measurements on the coffee maker) through it, I enter it as 30gms at 5 mins in the spreadsheet. Admittedly the water isn't quite at boiling temperature, but I was interested in any thoughts anyone may have on this. Or if anyone else does something similar.
Cheers
Bob
 
The gravity of whatever liquid you boil in will significantly affect your hop utilisation and other flavour/bittering factors. Usual recommendation is boiling in wort with a gravity between 1030 and 1050 so your plain water may throw your calcs right out.

Hop sediment tends to drop right away anyway - only a possible issue in the last bottle if you can't bring yourself to leave it behind, or if you are rough with your beer (which you shouldn't be for different reasons).
Yeah, that's something else to consider too, but I think the temp and time is even more of an issue though. I've tried adding the hops to the boil in teabags, but have found that they sometimes break open and the resulting beer is very cloudy in the keg even after aging for a couple of months. I don't use bottles.
Thanks for the extra thoughts though.
 
Coffee filter paper traps aromatic and volatile oils in coffee, so i would assume it may have some kind of the same effect on hop oils as well.
So you may not be getting the best out of your hops either. I could be wrong though.
Yes it sounds feasible that this may happen too, but i figured that if you can use filters for coffee it was worth trying for hops.
Cheers mate
 
Do a search for french press hops. Basically it just putting hops in a french press, adding boiling water and steeping for a few mintues. Then push the handle down and add the hoppy water to the fermenter or keg. Basically the same as what you're proposing but i imaigne it takes far less time, those filters would gum up pretty quick.

I do it instead of dry hopping, because if i dry hopped straight into the keg the flowers would block up the dip tube.

If you aren't kegging and aren't reusing yeast why not just chuck them straight into the fermenter. Dry hopping for me has always worked as a great clarifier, its almost like the hops grab some of the yeast particles and take them to the bottom of the fermeter.



If you want to add flavour hops your best bet is to do a small boil in wort and chill as quickly as you can ie top up with cold water and the rest of your ingredients
It looks like the French Press is similar to a coffee plunger, is that right? I do use a plunger when using flowers or plugs, but for the pellets the particles are way to small and don't get trapped by the mesh in the bottom. Are the hop bags you can buy fine enough to stop the pellets from just passing straight through them?
 
Yeah, that's something else to consider too, but I think the temp and time is even more of an issue though. I've tried adding the hops to the boil in teabags, but have found that they sometimes break open and the resulting beer is very cloudy in the keg even after aging for a couple of months. I don't use bottles.
Thanks for the extra thoughts though.

Cloudy with hop residue or something else?

Hops in teabags are the least economical way of buying them and they are rarely well stored or fresh.

Alright for new brewers to get a handle on the idea of adding hops but if you are going to be using them regularly, then look at better and cheaper packaging. Hops should be kept cool, in vac sealed, foil/light resistant packages.

I add hops loose to the boil and dry hop with loose hops and do not get cloudy beer.

Don't underestimate the hop utilisation difference between hot water and sugary wort. Use a recipe design spreadsheet, make up an extract recipe that's 1010 and one that's 1090. Add the same amount of hops to both at 60 mins from the end of the boil and see what results you get.

Not a big deal if you are just steeping flavour hops for a kit brew but you said you are making extracts to so I assume you are adding your own bittering additions.
 
I have been brewing for quite a while, but only Kit and extracts because I don't really have the time to do all grains. For the last few batches I have been using Alan's excellent spreadsheet and this has improved my results enormously (Thanks Alan).
My question is though, has anyone been using a coffee dripolator with filter paper for their hop additions? I have used one for adding aroma and flavour hops, when using pellets, so that the beer has less sediment suspended at the end of ferment. The only problem is that it doesn't really fit in with the spreadsheet. To overcome this I have guestimated that when I add say 30gm of pellets to the filter and pass 14 cups of water (by the measurements on the coffee maker) through it, I enter it as 30gms at 5 mins in the spreadsheet. Admittedly the water isn't quite at boiling temperature, but I was interested in any thoughts anyone may have on this. Or if anyone else does something similar.
Cheers
Bob

My profound apologies to ianh, it is your spreadsheet I am using (don't know where I got Alan from?) And once again, thanks for the effort you have put into the spreadsheet Ian.
 
Cloudy with hop residue or something else?

Hops in teabags are the least economical way of buying them and they are rarely well stored or fresh.

Alright for new brewers to get a handle on the idea of adding hops but if you are going to be using them regularly, then look at better and cheaper packaging. Hops should be kept cool, in vac sealed, foil/light resistant packages.

I add hops loose to the boil and dry hop with loose hops and do not get cloudy beer.

Don't underestimate the hop utilisation difference between hot water and sugary wort. Use a recipe design spreadsheet, make up an extract recipe that's 1010 and one that's 1090. Add the same amount of hops to both at 60 mins from the end of the boil and see what results you get.

Not a big deal if you are just steeping flavour hops for a kit brew but you said you are making extracts to so I assume you are adding your own bittering additions.
Yeah, I didn't explain it sufficiently I guess. I use hop plugs or flowers in the boil for bittering, placed in "knee high stockings" that I buy new and boil for about 20 mins before use to remove any dye or contaminants. The teabags I have tried with pellets for bittering are new teabags that I add 20gm of hop pellets and heat seal them. I buy the hops in 90gm vac sealed sachets from one of the suppliers and store them in a fridge and heatseal them into the teabags just before use. The problem is when I want to add some flavouring or aroma hops that isn't available as plugs or flowers. To be honest, I try to avoid pellets as much as possible, but sometimes it is all that's available. When adding my aroma/flavour hops, if I have plugs or flowers I generally use a coffee plunger or at times have just put the plugs or flowers into a clean stocking and dropped it into about a litre and a half of just off the boil water to loosen it for about 5 mins then dropped that into the wort (both hops and water) before pitching. If the hops I want to use for flavour/aroma are only available in pellet form, then I use the dripolator.
 
Makes more sense.

Are you happy with the results thus far?

Any reason you are opposed to pellets?
 
Makes more sense.

Are you happy with the results thus far?

Any reason you are opposed to pellets?

The results have been pretty good using the dripolator, but as someone else said, it takes a while to go through when making 55L batches and there maybe up to 90gm done in 3 lots of 30gm. I just think there may be a better way to use pellets. The main reason I don't like the pellets is that the hops have been ground so fine that I find the particles stay suspended for a long time if I add them loose. Even the stockings aren't fine enough to filter out the particles. If the brew has been in the keg for a couple or 3 months it isn't so bad I guess though.
 
I use pellets mostly as that's what is available more often in the varieties I like (have used flowers and plugs too) and to be honest with you, my processes for dropping out yeast seem perfectly adequate for dropping out hops.

Leave for one week at ferment temp after reaching FG, minimum 1 week at cold temps, 1-2 more weeks in the bottle (should be similar enough in a keg I would presume).

No finings, no filter, no hop sock yet clear beer with no floaties. I dry hop, late hop and FWH sometimes and all seems good. Maybe there is another cause of the cloudiness, or something else you are doing to cause the hop debris to remain in suspension?
 

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