Sludge Bucket

[Portreath]

Hi all

I have a kit brew Kentish bitter on the go, and now 8 day in. As instructed in the guide I have added the dried hop pellets 'mashed in boiling water', and now I have 23l of brew with a lovely florescent green layer of sludge on top:shock: what might be the best method of siphoning the brew without drawing off the sludge too? Will I need to run this through some sort of sieve as I've just taken a hydrometer reading and there is a fair bit of material in suspension?
Not confident on this one!

 

[Manxnorton]

hallow m8,
are you able to cold crash?
have u a auto syphon?
in TIME...the brew would settle anyways.
you can as you said syphon using a sieve...or muslin bag (large on over the bottling fv.)
I use pellet in a hop bag (weighted down with a marble or two)
Bri

 

[dad_of_jon]

i find jumbo marbles do the job for me...
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/160651911691280000/

 

[Portreath]

Hi
Thanks for the responses. I've just Googled the auto siphon, looks like a great bit of kit, do these come with a little filter down in the business end? I like the idea of putting the hop pellets in a little bag, surely makes more sense than just chucking a load in the brew. Good tip regarding the marbles, although I'd waste a load of time trying to impress my kids with my playing skills! Cold crashing, not come across that one, so I'll look it up.

 

[chewie]

The auto siphon comes with a cap over the end which keeps out large bits, it won't keep out fine yeast sediment particles, quite a few on here wrap muslin or similar around the end to filter the finer particles.

Good practice in racking and not being greedy trying to get every last drop out is the way to go.

 

[Graz]

All you need to know:

https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/syphoning-with-lots-of-hop-debris.74542/

Cold crash + siphon filter worked very well for me. It's a right PITA when it doesn't go to plan though.

 

[Portreath]

Thanks for the tips, I'm of to the homebrew supplier today and hopefully he will have these in stock. I'll post the results either way.

 

[Dads_Ale]

I have just kegged a brew that was dry hopped a couple of days ago with 80g pellets, chucked in and as you have seen then form a nice sludge on top. Ideally you need to cool it down to get the pellet material sink to the bottom I dropped mine to about 16c for a day and found that most of the hops dropped out. I did not use a filter but you do have to be careful not to disturb the stuff at the bottom as it is quite mobile.
I would be aware that if you are planning to rely on a filter then there is a good chance it may get blocked as pellet hops are very good at blocking filters quickly.

 

[RichK]

I've done a few festival kits so always just tie one of their hop sacks round the end of the syphon. I now always do that regardless of whether I've been dry hopping or not.

 

[Portreath]

Well I managed to get the brew siphoned off into another FV ready to filter off into the barrel later today. Yes, there was plenty of stop - start and clear the tube going on, so it took a while. As an aside, I scooped out a ladle full of the hoppy yeast from the bottom, put in in a tub with equal parts flour and water, covered it with cling film, and now I have a very active beer yeast start for making bread, happy days.:thumb: