Reducing the amount of hop crap in the bottom of the FV

[Leard]

What are the ways people have found to reduce hops going into the FV? At the moment I have a sort of false bottom thing that came with my Peco Boiler. However it never stays still during the boil and whirlpool and usually ends up shifting, leaving a gap for hops to get to the bottom. I also use a kitchen sieve to pass the wort through. However it's never easy to keep it over the FV and often it falls in defeating the purpose for it's use. I've considered a hop spider but they seem expensive. Has anybody got other techniques or equipment they've found useful?

What about dry hopping as well? At the moment I tend to just dump them into the FV. However I've noticed that this results in a reduced volume at kegging/bottling because I have to leave more at the bottom of the FV. How does using a strainer bag that I can lift out and squeeze impact dry hopping?

 

[Benfleet Brewery]

I put my hops in Lidl nylon fruit and veg bags and hang them on the side of the Peco with bulldog clips during the boil. the Bags work well at keeping most of the crap out of the kettle. They can be washed out after and used over and over again. Same with dry hopping but this time they are soaked in Starsan first.

 

[Clint]

After the boil and chilling I leave the kettle sit for about half an hour while I clean the chiller and sterilise the fv.
I fit the tube to the kettle tap then just crack the tap to start the wort transfer.
The break material and hops will now be mostly settled and the flow through the bazooka filter attracts some of this...the filter will start to fur up with material but don't worry as this acts like a prefilter....a few holes will appear in it..this is ok. As you progress the flow will decrease a bit so just crack the tap a bit more. You will get a tiny bit of hop etc through the pipe to start but it really is not worth worrying about.
As for dry hop....I bag them with a couple of steel spoons to weigh it down.

 

[Galena]

I hop in the boil a muslin bag clipped to the side of the kettle weighed down with a spoon.
Just done my first dry hop and as it was only 5 grams of pellets I just chucked them in the FV but I did buy THIS to try though not used it yet.

 

[Leard]

I put my hops in Lidl nylon fruit and veg bags and hang them on the side of the Peco with bulldog clips during the boil. the Bags work well at keeping most of the crap out of the kettle. They can be washed out after and used over and over again. Same with dry hopping but this time they are soaked in Starsan first.

Aldi do something similar I think, maybe I'll pick some up and try that technique.

 

[Session]

What are you trying to achieve? Are the hops causing a specific problem? I don’t tend to worry about them in the FV, instead filtering them out using a floating dip tube when transferring to a serving vessel.

 

[Leard]

What are you trying to achieve? Are the hops causing a specific problem? I don’t tend to worry about them in the FV, instead filtering them out using a floating dip tube when transferring to a serving vessel.

I transfer to kegs and bottles using a syphon, and more trub at the bottom of the FV means I'm not able to transfer as much of the beer out. I do cold crash before I syphon, but it still seems there's recoverable beer buried under all the hop matter. I just want to reduce the amount of hop matter at the bottom so there's more beer to syphon out.

 

[Rodcx500z]

What are the ways people have found to reduce hops going into the FV? At the moment I have a sort of false bottom thing that came with my Peco Boiler. However it never stays still during the boil and whirlpool and usually ends up shifting, leaving a gap for hops to get to the bottom. I also use a kitchen sieve to pass the wort through. However it's never easy to keep it over the FV and often it falls in defeating the purpose for it's use. I've considered a hop spider but they seem expensive. Has anybody got other techniques or equipment they've found useful?

What about dry hopping as well? At the moment I tend to just dump them into the FV. However I've noticed that this results in a reduced volume at kegging/bottling because I have to leave more at the bottom of the FV. How does using a strainer bag that I can lift out and squeeze impact dry hopping?

i got one on amazon for 18 quid never looked back, some say you loose some hop aroma but i cant tell a difference

 

[Baz Chaz]

Kids bought me a hop spider for birthday/ fathers day present, very pleased.

https://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/product/hop-spider-35cm/

 

[Session]

I transfer to kegs and bottles using a syphon, and more trub at the bottom of the FV means I'm not able to transfer as much of the beer out. I do cold crash before I syphon, but it still seems there's recoverable beer buried under all the hop matter. I just want to reduce the amount of hop matter at the bottom so there's more beer to syphon out.

That makes sense, although the hops are going to absorb wort at some point regardless. Whether it’s in your kettle or your FV, I would imagine the volume lost to trub is going to be the same.

 

[Leard]

That makes sense, although the hops are going to absorb wort at some point regardless. Whether it’s in your kettle or your FV, I would imagine the volume lost to trub is going to be the same.

There's no oxidation risk pre fermentation though. I can let hops that have absorbed wort drain after the boil.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

I use a big jug and a rectanglish sieve to remove hops going into the FV and it oxidises the wort.

 

[Backafter8]

I simply run the cooled wort from my boiler (fitted with a stainless steel hop filter on the tap), into a spare FV and let it settle for around an hour.
This 'spare' FV has an additional tap I added which is some 100 mm up from the bottom, this allows me to a quickly run off the first 4 gallons with negligible risk of disturbing the sediment, the second, lower tap is opened slowly to run off the remaining wort carefully, the vessel being inclined carefully to get the last of the wort out.
I find this method very effective and I can transfer practically crystal clear wort into my FV in just a few minutes.
I'm pretty sure some commercials use a similar process, the vessel being called a settling back?

 

[MickDundee]

Kids bought me a hop spider for birthday/ fathers day present, very pleased.

https://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/product/hop-spider-35cm/

I’ve ordered one of these from good old China, although it’s 15cm wide all the way down rather than tapered.

Before now I’ve not really been bothering with anything but I’ve found it easier with my BrewDevil on the floor than on the worktop so I’ve needed to us the pump to transfer to FV which I probably shouldn’t do with hops floating about. Last couple of brews I’ve used mesh dry hoppers and tea strainers

 

[Session]

There's no oxidation risk pre fermentation though. I can let hops that have absorbed wort drain after the boil.

True. There are ways of mitigating oxidation risk when adding dry hops though if that’s the issue.

I use a hop bag stuck to the underside of the lid with magnets, positioned before transferring wort. This means the hops are fully purged of oxygen using the CO2 naturally produced during fermentation, and allows you to dry hop once fermentation has finished without adding any oxygen to your beer. It may give you another way around the problem if you struggle to reduce trub in the FV and your problem is a concern re: oxygen ingress via dry hop.

 

[monkeygrinder]

True. There are ways of mitigating oxidation risk when adding dry hops though if that’s the issue.

I use a hop bag stuck to the underside of the lid with magnets, positioned before transferring wort. This means the hops are fully purged of oxygen using the CO2 naturally produced during fermentation, and allows you to dry hop once fermentation has finished without adding any oxygen to your beer. It may give you another way around the problem if you struggle to reduce trub in the FV and your problem is a concern re: oxygen ingress via dry hop.

I really like this idea of using magnets as a remote control