Filtering out hops from heavy-duty dry-hopping?

[Joerg]

A while ago I made a Pliny the Elder clone and tried the first couple of
bottles. Woohoo! Tastes very close to the real thing and nobody will be
allowed to drive after that. However ...

I netted only 4 gallons out of a 5-gallon batch. This beer requires
almost a pound of hops and roughly half go in at two dry-hopping stages.
I didn't use muslin bags because there'd be no way to get them out via a
carboy neck (we had a discussion about that). I tried that before on a
Session Ale with only 1oz of dry hop and squirted out lots of "hop
clouds" in the process. So I splashed all those hop pellets through the
neck sans container. The hop sludge at the end must have contained at
least another half gallon of the good stuff. Even while not being greedy
and stopping rack-off at 4 gallons I had hop floaters in the last four
bottles. No problem, I just mark such bottles with an "X" below the
batch number so I won't give these to friends.

Question: What would be a good method to separate the hop sludge from
beer without introducing too much oxygen?

[baloonon]

Post by Joerg
A while ago I made a Pliny the Elder clone and tried the first
couple of bottles. Woohoo! Tastes very close to the real thing
and nobody will be allowed to drive after that. However ...
I netted only 4 gallons out of a 5-gallon batch. This beer requires
almost a pound of hops and roughly half go in at two dry-hopping
stages. I didn't use muslin bags because there'd be no way to get
them out via a carboy neck (we had a discussion about that). I
tried that before on a Session Ale with only 1oz of dry hop and
squirted out lots of "hop clouds" in the process. So I splashed
all those hop pellets through the neck sans container. The hop
sludge at the end must have contained at least another half gallon
of the good stuff. Even while not being greedy and stopping
rack-off at 4 gallons I had hop floaters in the last four
bottles. No problem, I just mark such bottles with an "X" below the
batch number so I won't give these to friends.
Question: What would be a good method to separate the hop sludge from
beer without introducing too much oxygen?

One starting point is to experiment with cutting back on the amount used. I
share the opinion of some (others disagree, of course) that there's a point
of severely diminishing returns reached fairly early on, and you may well
be happy with half as many hops. I've lately been casting a skeptical eye
on recipes that call for huge hop additions.

I seem to recall you ferment in buckets then transfer to carboys, and you
may want to do your dry hopping in primary after the FG is reached. You
don't need to dry hop all that long for most recipes, and that will be a
lot easier to dry hop in a bag that can be removed for draining. I think
the realistic amount of liquid that will be retrieved isn't that much,
though. It will, however, minimize solid bits of hops in the bottles. You
can then skip secondary and just bottle. If you have a bottling bucket,
you can also dry hop in that with a bag of hops.

[Joerg]

Post by baloonon

Post by Joerg
A while ago I made a Pliny the Elder clone and tried the first
couple of bottles. Woohoo! Tastes very close to the real thing
and nobody will be allowed to drive after that. However ...
I netted only 4 gallons out of a 5-gallon batch. This beer requires
almost a pound of hops and roughly half go in at two dry-hopping
stages. I didn't use muslin bags because there'd be no way to get
them out via a carboy neck (we had a discussion about that). I
tried that before on a Session Ale with only 1oz of dry hop and
squirted out lots of "hop clouds" in the process. So I splashed
all those hop pellets through the neck sans container. The hop
sludge at the end must have contained at least another half gallon
of the good stuff. Even while not being greedy and stopping
rack-off at 4 gallons I had hop floaters in the last four
bottles. No problem, I just mark such bottles with an "X" below the
batch number so I won't give these to friends.
Question: What would be a good method to separate the hop sludge from
beer without introducing too much oxygen?

One starting point is to experiment with cutting back on the amount used. I
share the opinion of some (others disagree, of course) that there's a point
of severely diminishing returns reached fairly early on, and you may well
be happy with half as many hops. I've lately been casting a skeptical eye
on recipes that call for huge hop additions.

It's a recipe kit and AFAIK it has been very carefully dialed in. I also
think they won't include excess hop quantities as that cuts into their
profit or raises the already high kit price. Pliny is not easy to
emulate, even a well-known local brewer needed three attempts.

Post by baloonon
I seem to recall you ferment in buckets then transfer to carboys, and you
may want to do your dry hopping in primary after the FG is reached. You
don't need to dry hop all that long for most recipes, and that will be a
lot easier to dry hop in a bag that can be removed for draining.

I could. That blocks a primary for brewing but, oh well. Though when I
tried a bag I noticed that it did release large amounts of "hop cloud"
into the beer. Looked like smoke from a poorly operated wood stove.

Post by baloonon
... I think
the realistic amount of liquid that will be retrieved isn't that much,
though.

I had the usual 5-1/2 pre-boil water volume plus all the malt extract
yet I yielded only four gallons instead of five. The hop sludge was so
thick that it could easily be a gallon.

Post by baloonon
... It will, however, minimize solid bits of hops in the bottles. You
can then skip secondary and just bottle. If you have a bottling bucket,
you can also dry hop in that with a bag of hops.

That's an idea. If I can find a bag fine enough that won't spew a hop
dust cloud. Maybe a paint strainer.