Hop Pellet Trial

[Dads_Ale]

Well I wasn't lucky enough to win the Geterbrewed hop giveaway on this forum but did manage to win the selection of hop pellets on Jims Beer Kit :thumb:

Great news but I have never used hop pellets before and had heard stories about hop filters blocking and cloudy beer :-(.

So time for a bit of a trial. I also had a new mag pump to try and a corny dry hopper.

The dry hopper was intended to try and improve flame out hop utilisation by recirculating the wort via the late hops placed in the hopper.

The picture is just for clarity as during use the hopper was in the boiler. This worked pretty well as expected. (I used some cheap Herkule hops for this and they really smell disgusting, like rancid cheese :-x)

I also tried some hop pellets in the hopper but while it contained the residue it did stick to the sides resulting in very poor utilisation as the waster just flowed straight out the bottom.

Anyway on to the hop pellets.

I put 20g in the boiler and boiled for 10 mins. At the end of the boil, after doing the above trails, I set the outlet hose into the boiler so as I created a whirpool effect and left running for about 5-10mins. After this I let it all settle for 20 mins and then used the pump to drain.
I put the runnings through the dry hopper and some cheesecloth to see what crud was collected:

As you can see very little debris made it out.
Once drained I checked the boiler filter and this was perfectly clear with the hop debris having sunk to the bottom.

The resultant 'wort' was also pretty clear, although not crystal clear.

Well I think all in all this trial was a success and will plough on with the all hop pellet brew next week, fingers crossed.

I may also use the dry hopper in the FV, decision on that one on the day

:

 

[TartanSpecial]

You're lucky (skillful?)..I used hop pellets for the first time on a galaxy pale ale with a boiler set up pretty much like yours..ie a long bazooka filter, and I had problems with it blocking so was constantly scraping the filter with a brewing paddle towards the end of the draining to get all the wort out. Not a disaster, but I thought to myself, 'H'mm i'll go back to leaf hops from now on'

 

[Dads_Ale]

You're lucky (skillful?)..I used hop pellets for the first time on a galaxy pale ale with a boiler set up pretty much like yours..ie a long bazooka filter, and I had problems with it blocking so was constantly scraping the filter with a brewing paddle towards the end of the draining to get all the wort out. Not a disaster, but I thought to myself, 'H'mm i'll go back to leaf hops from now on'

This was with just water, so have yet to try with wort which is thicker and may impede the hop pellet crud dropping. Will find out next week, fingers crossed then. :)

 

[TartanSpecial]

I think it was the combination of the hop pellets with the protein break material that combined to from the 'super crud'.

 

[Tony1951]

I think it was the combination of the hop pellets with the protein break material that combined to from the 'super crud'.

Yes I think that water hop tea is no comparison to a 1.066 sg wort with an inch and a half of trub and a pile of hop debris. Thinner water will find its way through much more easily. An interesting approach though using a pump. It could easily suck out even in difficult circumstances maybe.

 

[Dads_Ale]

Yes I think that water hop tea is no comparison to a 1.066 sg wort with an inch and a half of trub and a pile of hop debris. Thinner water will find its way through much more easily. An interesting approach though using a pump. It could easily suck out even in difficult circumstances maybe.

Half tempted to remove the Bazooka filter and just recirculate with the pump via the dry hopper.

 

[Tony1951]

Half tempted to remove the Bazooka filter and just recirculate with the pump via the dry hopper.

The pump might clog if you did that. There is a lot of old muck in my boiler after a boil and it might well clog up a pump and stop it turning. A hop flower in the pump might stop it turning .

Edit - ah your'e thinking of using the dry hopper as a filter. Gotcha.

 

[Dads_Ale]

The pump might clog if you did that. There is a lot of old muck in my boiler after a boil and it might well clog up a pump and stop it turning. A hop flower in the pump might stop it turning .

Edit - ah your'e thinking of using the dry hopper as a filter. Gotcha.

Yes, although this would be after the pump. I think the pump will cope (fingers crossed) with the hop pellet crud and break material, I am not intending to add leaf hops this time.

Worth giving the pellets a try as they seem to be becoming more popular with suppliers (and I have a couple of kilos stashed away :)

I will update when I try the full brew..

 

[Hoppy]

If your hops are cheesy, they are immensely oxidised, would you use sour milk?
Herkules hops are not cheap as such, they yield 3x weight per acre than other hops.
If you boil hops for 20 mins and settle for 20 , all you are achieving is bitterness, 80% of the nominal 35% utilisation of alpha acids. Use P90s as whole hops, you don't need whirlpools just give than 5mns to settle in your copper. They will settle quicker than your trub as they are more dense.
Commercially brewers recirculate and cause clogging with leaf and pellet, just drop them in and let them settle, draw off clear wort. Seriously.
The reason P90s are more popular? Globally 39.8% of all hops produced are extracts (CO2, hexa tetra, oils etc) and 59.5 % are converted to pellet, doesn't leave a lot of whole hop does it.

WBR
Hoppy

 

[Covrich]

I have used Leaf and pellet I am indifferent to be honest, using leaf does feel nicer but pellet seem powerful and absorb less,, scraping the filter doesn't always seem a great idea though that said I used loads of pellets in my slovenian IPA and I scraped after a while but I have a quite small trub (probably 1.5-2 cm)but I did allow for a liter or so for trub and didn't start tipping too much

 

[geetee]

I have never used pellets before until my recent Slovenian brew and whilst it is not yet finished I found that the pellets, places in nylon stocking, did not seem to give the same extraction as leaf. maybe when the brew is finished this may be more conclusive.

As far as filtration (in the kettle)is concerned is there any benefit in using leaf hops for bittering to provide a layer of hops that act as a filter for the later pellet hops. This may stop the bazooka or other manifold being swamped with sludge. I am not really familiar with pellets but as I now have loads of them I need to find the best way to use them and may try this next time, e.g magnum/target at start and Solvenian pellets Bobek, Goldings and/or Aurora later.

 

[Covrich]

I have never used pellets before until my recent Slovenian brew and whilst it is not yet finished I found that the pellets, places in nylon stocking, did not seem to give the same extraction as leaf. maybe when the brew is finished this may be more conclusive.

As far as filtration (in the kettle)is concerned is there any benefit in using leaf hops for bittering to provide a layer of hops that act as a filter for the later pellet hops. This may stop the bazooka or other manifold being swamped with sludge. I am not really familiar with pellets but as I now have loads of them I need to find the best way to use them and may try this next time, e.g magnum/target at start and Solvenian pellets Bobek, Goldings and/or Aurora later.

I always thought / heard it was the other way around in that pellets are a little more effective.. Although I found putting hops in socks or bags diminished them by a bit, if you keep your kettle flat and let them settle you can get most your wort out without it blocking I find..

I don't have much preference to be honest but I have found trub as much if not bigger when I use leaf than when I use pellet.. Odd.. even though leaves are well leavy do they give off debris and stuff??