Beer Forum

I think it was the last Sunday show where I heard Tasty say he no longer uses hop bags. Tasty, how do free-ball hops not clog your Therminator? I also use a plate chiller, so I'm intrigued.

Also, thanks for getting my sour tasted a few weeks ago! I never thanked you for that.

luvs_simcoe wrote:I think it was the last Sunday show where I heard Tasty say he no longer uses hop bags. Tasty, how do free-ball hops not clog your Therminator? I also use a plate chiller, so I'm intrigued.

Also, thanks for getting my sour tasted a few weeks ago! I never thanked you for that.

Not Tasty, but he has a hopback before the plate chiller.

Yep. So do I. I'm just concerned with beers with high hop loads. Seems like enough buildup would clog the hopback even.

luvs_simcoe wrote:I think it was the last Sunday show where I heard Tasty say he no longer uses hop bags. Tasty, how do free-ball hops not clog your Therminator? I also use a plate chiller, so I'm intrigued.

Also, thanks for getting my sour tasted a few weeks ago! I never thanked you for that.

When I stopped using hopsacks I also modified the way I sanitize the Therminator. Now I recirc boiling wort before I've added the late addition hops. Usually at 30 minutes before flameout. My kettle shape is such that I get a highly functional whirlpool so the late addition hops are not an issue. On most beers I use a hopback which also keeps any trub from getting into the Therminator.

The sour beer was great. Glad we got to try it.

Tasty

Tasty,
My process is the same to sanitize my chiller and hop back.
This weekend I tried something different in my process and it worked pretty well.

I always boil 4 gallons of water in my HLT on the start of brew day, then I pump through MT, kettle, CF chiller, and the hop back if I'm using it.

I then disconnect the chiller and hop back and then cap each disconnect with sanitized tin foil.
I still recirculate @ 10 minutes to sanitize the pump but I don't connect the chiller or hop back yet.
At 0 minutes I kill the burner and start my 20 minute whirlpool.
When I'm done whirlpooling I hook up the sanitized chiller and hop back.
I then turn on my water and turn on the pump.

Less break going through the chiller, I also get to load the hopback with hops when it's cold and not
hot.

I use a plate chiller (and now a hoprocket) with a pump. I'm also fairly heavy-handed with the late hops.

I'm not so concerned about sanitizing because I figured out the recirc trick. I figured if switched to freeball I'd just drop the end of the hose in sanitizer after recircing but before adding late hops.

What I'm mostly concerned with is clogging. I boil in a 20 gallon boilermaker and from what I understand the geometry is very different from the MoreBeer kettles (taller/narrower). Also I think the dip tube is pretty different.

Does anyone think this will cause issues with the plate chiller clogging?

luvs_simcoe wrote:I use a plate chiller (and now a hoprocket) with a pump. I'm also fairly heavy-handed with the late hops.

I'm not so concerned about sanitizing because I recirculate hot wort through the chiller late in the boil.

What I'm mostly concerned with is clogging. I boil in a 20 gallon boilermaker and from what I understand the geometry is very different from the MoreBeer kettles (taller/narrower).

Does anyone think this will cause issues with the plate chiller clogging?

If you're not opposed to throwing money at it (about $70 if I recall) the Hop Stopper is pretty awesome; works with whole and pellet hops. I've only clogged it once so far but that was with about 2 pounds of hops in a 5 gallon batch. After I cleared the blockage and ran off slower (i.e. sans-pump) it didn't plug up anymore. At "normal" hopping rates I've never noticed the collection being slower than the standard Blichmann dip tube.

When all the wort is collected and I back-flush the Therminator I find very few (if any) solids being flushed out.

Ok, so I went halfway on my last brew. I used hop bags for the 60 minutes hops, recirced to sanitize the chiller at 10, then threw in the whirlpool hops freeball. Everything went great. Consider me a convert.