Should I have transferred the sludge?

[Terry_R]

Yesterday I brewed my second 5g batch (a pale ale, single hopped with East Kent Goldings). A question occurred to me as I transferred the wort from boil pot to FV. Should I have transferred all the sludgy hop material? The reason I pondered the thought is because the recipe called for 75g of hops at flame out. I did decide to transfer the sludge, my rationale being that if I left the sludge behind then the late hop addition is wasted... Right or wrong?

 

[MickDundee]

It depends what you mean by the sludge. I wouldn’t be tipping all the break material into the FV (although some people say it acts as a yeast nutrient) but I just let what comes out of the tap go into the FV. I removed the bazooka filter from my boiler because it was constantly clogging so my false bottom acts as a grub filter and I often get hop material into my FV without any noticeable impact on the finished beer.

 

[chthon]

Normally, when hops are added at flame out, that is supposed to be for a certain time, and after this time has elapsed you start cooling. The reason is not for bittering, but for extraction of flavor during this time, between flame out and cooling.

Bottom line: it is OK, you should not transfer the sludge from the boil pot to the FV.

 

[Terry_R]

It depends what you mean by the sludge. I wouldn’t be tipping all the break material into the FV (although some people say it acts as a yeast nutrient) but I just let what comes out of the tap go into the FV. I removed the bazooka filter from my boiler because it was constantly clogging so my false bottom acts as a grub filter and I often get hop material into my FV without any noticeable impact on the finished beer.

 

[Terry_R]

Haha. I tipped it all in. I got about 2 inches of mushy hops sitting at the bottom of my carboy, so if it's a nutrient for the yeast, my yeast will be having a party. Think I'll siphon off to secondary FV in a few days after primary slows down and leave the sludge.

 

[Dutto]

I always use a Hop Bag for both Bittering and Aroma Hops. If I am putting a variety of hops at different times (a very rare occurrence) I use the Hop Dropper. Both of these devices minimise the amount of hop debris in the finished boil.





At the end of the cooling period, all I ever do is to "whirlpool" the stuff in the Boiler (to move the heavier stuff towards the centre), let it all settle for at least 15 minutes and then slowly drain it from the side without any form of filtration.

I stop when the level gets down to about 1cm and debris starts entering the FV. The system results in a loss of about 1.5 litres but I get a fairly clean wort in the FV.

Enjoy! :thumb: