Boil hop pellets in the fermenter?

[Norik]

Whats your opinion on transferring the boil hops (pellets) from your kettle to the fermenter along with your wort?
I imagine that whole hops could be a pain, but hop pellets should just compact down into the trub, but what do you think?

I'm considering doing away with hop bags/spiders just to make cleaning up easier at the end of the day.

[Kev888]

It can be done, but depends on the capability of your pump and and any in-line cooler. A chugger and decent bore of pipework can just about manage if the pellets are reasonably sloppy, a solar pump and/or plate chiller, not so much. So most people who avoid filters or hop sacks implement a whirlpool to keep the worst of the matter from being transferred. You may find the process less efficient too, since all the extra sediment in the FV tends to remain quite soupy - so avoiding getting it in the keg/bottle can leave a fair bit of wort behind with it, especially compared to the minimal losses from a drained/squeezed hop sack.

My opinion is that I wouldn't intentionally do it without a fairly effective whirlpool 'unless' transferring to a conical FV, from which it can soon be dumped, or to an intermediary settling tank from which it can soon be racked. Lots of green matter in the wort/beer for very long periods isn't great and nor is hot break (though cold break is not so bad).

There is some pseudo-science in the form of a Brulosophy webpage that people inevitably trot out on these occasions, but it means very little outside of the specific scenario they used and the (incomplete) scope of their results assessment. Whilst one could choose not to worry about masses of hot break and other boil-related crud in the FV, it is generically 'not' best practice - so IMO worth testing for yourself first, to see if it is acceptable to you in your own process, including stability in storage (if you keep it for any length of time) and with your more subtle brews. Rather than (say) just early taste tests of highly hopped beers.

[Fil]

perhaps you could just relax a tad with the urgency of cleaning hop spiders and bags, if left to dry with residual hop/break matter in place you can simply flex n brush(for SS mesh) and then a quick shake in the wind will remove all the debris for you, my old SS braid hop filter would benefit from a 2nd wetting /dry/flex cycle but a nylon grain bag is a single cycle job. all you need do post brew is remove most of the hop matter and hang up to dry then next day spend 2-3 mins de dusting em outside in the wind.

[Fil]

btw hop socks (the knitted tube variety) are imho single use disposable items unlike nylon mesh which can be cleaned, but life is just way too short to pick stems n seeds from the fabric of a woven tube..

[Norik]

Thanks for the replies, I'll have to weigh things up.
The problem with leaving things to clean later, is that is a slippery slope, and with my memory there is a good chance I'll just plain forget until the next brewday :/.

What about using a BIAB bag to line the whole kettle?

[RobP]

I put a fine kitchen sieve in the run-off from boiler to fermenter. When it gets clogged I tap the contents back into the boiler and rinse with boiling water. Works well enough.

[uminocha]

[quote="RobP"]I put a fine kitchen sieve in the run-off from boiler to fermenter. When it gets clogged I tap the contents back into the boiler and rinse with boiling water. Works well enough.[/quote]Not sure what you're trying to achieve. You would be transferring hops along w the hot break whose transfer from kettle to fermenter is to be avoided/minimized.

Also, hops in the fermenter for do long would extract vegetal flavor.

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