[attachment=0]Hop Pellets Clog Blichman False Bottom2.JPG[/attachment]Good Morning Brewers !!
We were pumping 12 gallons of Belgian quad wort into the fermentor and the flow through the pump completely stopped. At first we thought the ball valve was plugged but were unable to clear it. Eventually we had to siphon the wort from the top of the brew kettle. Then we discovered that the false bottom was completely clogged by the pellet hops!!
This is the first time we had brewed with pellet hops and in this case it was only 2 ounces of the total of six ounces of hops. The other four were leaf hops.
Check out the attached photo and you’ll see the false bottom was completely plugged !!
If others have had this experience… please comment !
I see a muslin hop bag in your future, or a hop spider.
I’m wondering why you have a false bottom on a kettle anyway?
I have a false bottom in my kettle too. I only use it if i’m boiling with whole hops. If I use pellet, I just whirlpool with my spoon to collect all the pellet gunk in the middle, away from the port.
I think they come with false bottoms so you can use them as a mash tun if you wanted to.
Would pumping it too fast cause it to clog the false bottom, similar to a “stuck sparge”?
[quote=“tom sawyer”]I see a muslin hop bag in your future, or a hop spider.
I’m wondering why you have a false bottom on a kettle anyway?[/quote]
+1.
I use a hop spider, even when using leaf hops. And I also don’t use a false-bottom in my kettle. If you’re not using a plate chiller, I believe you can just pump the pellet hop debris straight into the fermenter, arguably without issue (unless you plan on yeast harvesting/washing).
Wasn’t paying attention to his use of whole hops. Guess this is a lesson we can all learn from.
