So I've brewed the Firestone DBA clone twice now. The last charge of hops (around 6 ounces) causes a thick hop sludge at the bottom of the kettle. I'm amazed that out of the 5.5 gallons destined for the fermenter I lost about a gallon and a half of precious wort that could not be transferred through the autosiphon.
I looked into maybe using a braided steel hose cover, but then read that they work for leaf hops, but that pellet hops will clog those up as well.
A whirlpool chiller is not a possibility at this time. Pump + chiller is too expensive.
To reduce the hop sludge, I think my only option is hop bags. Is there an estimate of utilization loss with a hop bag versus just dumping them in. Is the utilization loss different for bittering, flavor or aroma additions.
Hop Bags (gallon paint strainer bags) are cheap, but need to know if I need to adjust the recipes.
Thanks,
The Fool