Homebrew Beer Blog

So, we all know that whole hops will filter out a bunch of crud in the boil kettle. A couple years ago I did a lot of this with a Bazooka-T and braid. This worked well enough with hot wort, but I found it didn’t work so well with chilled wort. A lot of cold break would still get sucked through the hops. I suspect a part of the deal is that the Bazooka and braids I’ve used were a small surface area and there was a lot of wort coming through there.

For a while, I’ve been just doing pellet hops and only whirlpooling the kettle. Most all the hops and hot/cold break would settle out and I could get pretty nice clear wort in the fermenter. The problem with this method is it takes a while. I’d have to let the kettle setting for 30-45 minutes after chilling. That’s not really weekday brewing friendly.

Through the hop crisis, I started using whole hops again along with pellets. I added a new false bottom to the kettle to accommodate the whole hops. This was interesting because it had a bigger surface area, so I think it makes a better filter. I kept up the whirlpool method of stirring it up and let it settle out. While filling two fermenters, I think I can observe the hops rebuilding a filter bed and it gets clearer and clearer through the end.

Also since back in the day, I started doing the whirlpool chilling thing with a pump. Towards the end of the chill, I pull a hydrometer sample while still chilling from my pump’s purge valve. I started to notice that this sample was surprisingly clear. That got me thinking about what’s going on here.

It seems that when the pump is recirculating with no boiling, it’s setting up a filter bed just like the mash. So, for the past couple batches, I waited minimal time for things to settle out. Basically I shut down the chill, remove the chiller and start cleaning up the pump. By time I’m done cleaning the pump and chiller, and get them put away, I start pulling the wort from the kettle. That’s about 5-10 minutes or so. The wort is pretty clear. Not as clear as 45 minutes of settling, but I think it’s a pretty good compromise of time and better than I’ve done in similar times with other methods.

So, some food for thought. Here’s some pics from the weekend. This is an IPA with only 1 ounce of whole hops and three ounces of pellets. I think the wort in fermenter was pretty clear, particularly for a hopper beer.