Janx
Well-Known Member
As many of you know, I generally only use whole hops, never pellets. I have a number of reasons for this: They don't seem like they could possibly be as tasty and fresh, having been so abused. But mostly, they're just a pain in my experience. They clog everything and they get into the fermentor, leaving you with a bunch of hoppy sludge you don't want in there.
Well, for Humboldt Hop Rod yesterday, all I had for Columbus was pellets. So I decided to give them a go again after many years. After all, lots of people here use them, commercial breweries use them. What a mistake that line of thinking was!
Within minutes of starting the chill, the dang things clogged the filter on my kettle so bad that I could just barely keep it going by scraping the filter with a spoon. I had to sit there and do it for about an hour while the wort trickled through the chiller. At the end, it seemed like I was left with a lot of wort that was just way too sludgy to reclaim.
A lot of hops definitely went into my primary, which never happens with whole hops. Once I finish this pound of Columbus, I am definitely swearing off pellets forever.
I think I should have started a whirlpool in the kettle and let the pellet crap settle to the bottom before starting the flow and that might have helped a little. But I'm curious, do you pellet users just let the hops get into your fermenter? I can't imagine an effective way of filtering them. Any experience brewers who prefer pellets over whole hops?
Well, for Humboldt Hop Rod yesterday, all I had for Columbus was pellets. So I decided to give them a go again after many years. After all, lots of people here use them, commercial breweries use them. What a mistake that line of thinking was!
Within minutes of starting the chill, the dang things clogged the filter on my kettle so bad that I could just barely keep it going by scraping the filter with a spoon. I had to sit there and do it for about an hour while the wort trickled through the chiller. At the end, it seemed like I was left with a lot of wort that was just way too sludgy to reclaim.
A lot of hops definitely went into my primary, which never happens with whole hops. Once I finish this pound of Columbus, I am definitely swearing off pellets forever.
I think I should have started a whirlpool in the kettle and let the pellet crap settle to the bottom before starting the flow and that might have helped a little. But I'm curious, do you pellet users just let the hops get into your fermenter? I can't imagine an effective way of filtering them. Any experience brewers who prefer pellets over whole hops?