Hop Boiling

[Dale]

Hey Guys,

Just a question on boiling my hops is there any advantage/disadvantage in boiling hops directly into the brew kettle over having the hops in a muslin bag? I've been using a muslin bag as easy to get ride of all the leftover's from the pellets. If boil direct what do you guys use toe get rid of the crap at the end?

Thanks again.

[MrC]

I just throw hops straight into the kettle (no bag). I strain the wort through a sanitised seive when transferring from kettle to fermenter.

[Tony]

Same as Mr. C

[James P]

I throw my hops in and whirlpool it at the end.

[JoKing]

Me too. I use quite a lot of hops in the boil... quite a lot of the time. I just check them straight in - they find there way to the bottom of whichever vessel the beer is in at some stage. It doesn't really matter if they make it into the final beer in the end - my mother always told be to make sure I get plenty of greens.

[Dale]

Thanks guys, thanks joking yes i remember something about eating my greens as well. Maybe this is a good way to start!!!!!

[vdog]

I just chuck them in as well - in our system because we run off from the very bottom, once it's whirlpooled and has sat for a little while, the first few litres basically gets discarded as it contains most of the trub - so gets rid of most of the hop and protein crap without it ending up in the fermenter. As Joking says though, it doesn't matter that much - if it ends up in the fermenter it'll settle out with the yeast anyway.

[Dale]

Well did my brew last night and just through the hops in put through a sieve when putting into fermenter and prob got rid of half the hops so will see what it's like when i put into keg in a couple of weeks.

Question though I made my first ever yeast starter a couple of days ago using a little wyeast 1084 got the starter going and got the white crap at bottom and bubble out of the airlock but never got the foam buildup on top of starter. Smelt ok so still pitch into brew but nothing happening yet. So do I just give it time or should I go get some dry yeast to get the brew going?

Thanks

[Haish]

Just give it more time. It can take over a day for the yeast to take off. If your fermenter isn't 100% airtight then your airlock won't bubble either and it won't look like its doing anything when its happily fermenting away.

What temperature is the fermenter sitting at? Too cold a temp will also slow fermentation.

[Dale]

running it 20-22C which is the same temp as the starter was at. So with the starter does it not always get the big foam head? I'll grab a gravity on it tomorrow and see if it's gone down.

[James P]

Sometimes I only get a small amount of bubbles in my starters, but there are all good. Caveat that I use a stirplate...

[MrC]

Where did you get your yeast? Was it a smackpack, one of those little viles from DMH or from another brewer?

[Dale]

Was a smackpack propagator. Used that on my first brew but kept a little from that smackpack for second brew. Only kept 3 odd ml so thought i should do a starter first.