HopRocket & Rice Hulls

[TimmyR]

I hear Tasty and a few others have tried this. Anyone have any suggestions for how many oz rice hulls to throw into my HopRocket for my Maerzen?

[spiderwrangler]

http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=27619

[TimmyR]

Thanks Spider...sometimes I forget how to use the "Search" function.

[spiderwrangler]

You bet.

[TimmyR]

Used about 5 oz in a sack without the high flow insert. Worked like a charm.

[jmcamerlengo]

Used about 5 oz in a sack without the high flow insert. Worked like a charm.

Timmy what'd you end up doing for "sterilizing" the hulls. I have hooked my Rocket up to be in between my kettle and chiller ala Tasty. I usually re-circ the last 10 minutes of the boil to sanitize the chiller and hoses and pump. Is it ok to put the hulls right in there during that re-circ?

[TastyMcD]

One of the main reasons I use a hopback is to keep the trub out of my plate chiller. I sanitize the hopback, plate chiller, pump loop by recirculating during the first 10 minutes of the boil before any hops have been added. 10 minutes before flameout I put the hops (or rice hulls) in the hopback and fill the closed hopback with boiling wort.

You could certainly do the sanitizing loop during the last 10 minutes but you'd be filling your "filter bed" up with trub. Waiting until after the whirlpool when the trub is in the center of the kettle away from the knockout port would be much better, just be careful not to disturb the trub pile.

BTW, I actually sanitize my loop twice. As I heat my HLT water to 180F for the sparge, I recirc the HLT through the hopback, plate chiller, pump loop.

Tasty

[TimmyR]

One of the main reasons I use a hopback is to keep the trub out of my plate chiller. I sanitize the hopback, plate chiller, pump loop by recirculating during the first 10 minutes of the boil before any hops have been added. 10 minutes before flameout I put the hops (or rice hulls) in the hopback and fill the closed hopback with boiling wort.

You could certainly do the sanitizing loop during the last 10 minutes but you'd be filling your "filter bed" up with trub. Waiting until after the whirlpool when the trub is in the center of the kettle away from the knockout port would be much better, just be careful not to disturb the trub pile.

BTW, I actually sanitize my loop twice. As I heat my HLT water to 180F for the sparge, I recirc the HLT through the hopback, plate chiller, pump loop.

Tasty

Genius. I put my hull in a sack (yep, yup, yep, yup), heated to 150-170 in a small pot of water and steeped for about 15-20 minutes. So far so good