Wand kept blocking.

[mongey]

So last night bottling an ipa I had issue I haven’t had before. Dry hopped ipa with 120g pellets. Cold crashes all that. The damn bottling wand kept getting blocked. I have had it happen once or twice when bottling a hoppy beer before but I seriously cleared it 25 times. Took me an hour to fill 7 longnecks, with 23 more to go Ended up just taking the end off the wand and using the pipe. Beer flowed free but there’s allot of hop gunk in the bottles to settle out.

If I had a 2nd fermenter and a siphon I would’ve siphoned off the top to the other fermenter. But I dont , so just went with option 1

Any other remedy tips for a continually blocking bottling wand v

 

[brewgasm]

You can try using a hop bag /ball

 

[mongey]

You can try using a hop bag /ball

Yeah. Next time I do a big dry hop I will use a bag for sure.

Just wondering if there was an option yesterday I didn’t think of.

 

[wide eyed and legless]

So last night bottling an ipa I had issue I haven’t had before. Dry hopped ipa with 120g pellets. Cold crashes all that. The damn bottling wand kept getting blocked. I have had it happen once or twice when bottling a hoppy beer before but I seriously cleared it 25 times. Took me an hour to fill 7 longnecks, with 23 more to go Ended up just taking the end off the wand and using the pipe. Beer flowed free but there’s allot of hop gunk in the bottles to settle out.

If I had a 2nd fermenter and a siphon I would’ve siphoned off the top to the other fermenter. But I dont , so just went with option 1

Any other remedy tips for a continually blocking bottling wand v

I do often go to a secondary fermenter but in your case here it sounds like you are bottling directly from the primary fermenter. Have you considered getting a bottling bucket? I did notice yesterday the 20 litre pails in Bunnings were on special for $14, that way you can bulk prime, and filter from the primary into the bottling bucket. (Ignore this if you are already using a bottling bucket but still filter the beer)

 

[brewgasm]

I do often go to a secondary fermenter but in your case here it sounds like you are bottling directly from the primary fermenter. Have you considered getting a bottling bucket? I did notice yesterday the 20 litre pails in Bunnings were on special for $14, that way you can bulk prime, and filter from the primary into the bottling bucket. (Ignore this if you are already using a bottling bucket but still filter the beer)

I'm not sure if it is best practice but would lining the bottling bucket with a grain bag be worthwhile. The bag would probably need to be removed prior to racking but it should take all the hop matter with it.

 

[brewgasm]

Actually I think that I have seen someone on YouTube put a hop bag in a keg then rack down the hatch and then carefully removed the bag. It might have been gash slug or Craig from craigtube

 

[wide eyed and legless]

Actually I think that I have seen someone on YouTube put a hop bag in a keg then rack down the hatch and then carefully removed the bag. It might have been gash slug or Craig from craigtube

When I use the Argon method for adding late addition hops I boil a bag to sterilise it and pour the wort and hops into the fermenter.

 

[mongey]

I do often go to a secondary fermenter but in your case here it sounds like you are bottling directly from the primary fermenter. Have you considered getting a bottling bucket? I did notice yesterday the 20 litre pails in Bunnings were on special for $14, that way you can bulk prime, and filter from the primary into the bottling bucket. (Ignore this if you are already using a bottling bucket but still filter the beer)

I’ve always bottled from primary and never had issues like this. Granted this was 20g extra dry hop than I have done before and the giga yeast Vermont ipa pack I used def had more yeast cake than other yeast I’ve used. With the cold crash the cake was up to the tap level.

Have thought about going the bottling bucket bulk prime route but it had always just been another thing to Clean. But I should probably buy a set up in case of an issue like this again.

The beer was damn tasty out of the fermenter, maybe my best ever. Hoping all the hop matter in the bottles don’t lead to uncontrollable gushers.

 

[wide eyed and legless]

I’ve always bottled from primary and never had issues like this. Granted this was 20g extra dry hop than I have done before and the giga yeast Vermont ipa pack I used def had more yeast cake than other yeast I’ve used. With the cold crash the cake was up to the tap level.

Have thought about going the bottling bucket bulk prime route but it had always just been another thing to Clean. But I should probably buy a set up in case of an issue like this again.

The beer was damn tasty out of the fermenter, maybe my best ever. Hoping all the hop matter in the bottles don’t lead to uncontrollable gushers.

I very often drink from the secondary if I have primed it, a bottling bucket is so easy to clean so I would not be worrying about that, you will get a better beer in the bottle once it has conditioned.

 

[Dominic]

I've used a sanitised hop sock as a filter over the end of the pipe for bottling. It will still fill up with hop gunk, but it's much easier than continually cleaning the end of the bottling wand. Low tech, but effective.

 

[Maheel]

try: When fermenting / crashing put a lump of wood / plastic cutting board etc under the tap side of the fermenter tilting it back so hops settle away from tap.

out of interest how long had hops been in there / cold crash?

 

[JB]

Hoping all the hop matter in the bottles don’t lead to uncontrollable gushers.

Yep, that's what you can probably expect, unless you drink them quickly ... so hop to it, get busy!

 

[mongey]

Yep, that's what you can probably expect, unless you drink them quickly ... so hop to it, get busy!

Yeah. They gushing but can get 90% of the beer if I open super slow and vent off some gas.

Shame too cause the beer is great. Gonna have to remind brew

Just bought a siphon and bottling bucket for next big dry hopped beer.

 

[mongey]

try: When fermenting / crashing put a lump of wood / plastic cutting board etc under the tap side of the fermenter tilting it back so hops settle away from tap.

out of interest how long had hops been in there / cold crash?

Fermented a week then added hops for 3 days then 7 day cold crash.
My fridge is pretty tired so it takes 4 or 5 days to get beer down to 2. So it’s only a day or so at 2.

 

[mongey]

So drank half the batch and had to chuck the rest, Gushing was getting worse. Was worried getting a bomb and hurting someone.

TLDR taking off the end of the wand was a bad idea. Should’ve put it back in the brew fridge and bought a siphon the next day.

All set up to siphon and bulk prime now. So can avoid this in future.