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Currently I'm in the process of (re)building my big gear (2,5 - 4 hl) and I'm contemplating the addition of a hopback / hoprocket kind of device. I'd weld it together of 30 l keg.
When cooling the wort I use a 50 l/min pump and a big plate chiller (water is 75 l/m), so in just a few (5 - 10) minutes the wort is through.
Now, if I add a hopback, would I extract all the goodies from the hop in this short time or do I have to drastic reduce the flow? I'm targeting 4 - 10 gram/liter of hop in the hopback.
Anyone with some experience in the matter?
Posted 34 days ago.
A hopback (in my mind) is strictly for extraction of essential oils to get them into the wort, right? So the idea is to heat the hops enough so they extract, but then chill the solution quickly before they volatilize. You want your wort between roughly 98 - 71 C (depending on what you're trying to pull out) as it runs through the hopback and chill it as fast as humanly possible after that. So really, you need to speed the wort through the system, not slow it down. The mitigating factors that determine the effectiveness of the hopback are really how much wort you're able to run through it and the distance between the hopback and chiller. For maximum efficiency, connect the outlet of the hopback directly to the inlet of the chiller. As to the proper hop volume per volume of hot wort, that's a bit of a trickier proposition. I know a 3bbl system (roughly your system size) uses a 10-15gal (37 - 56L) hopback. So it seems, if anything, your hopback would be on the smallish size compared to standard industry pairings, so I'd think you'd get pretty good extraction there. You just need to be careful not to overpack the hopback and clog it.
Posted 34 days ago.
Thanks.
For what I've read so far on the bigger systems the essential oils are extracted within the first 20 min of cooling. In my current system I cool a full batch in merely 5 minutes hence the thought to slow down.
Your info on the size of the hopback is useful, may need a 50 l keg. Overpacking is indeed a problem, I'm looking into a system to create a cyclone in the keg, like a whirlpool and push the hops to the centre axis of the keg. Then extract the wort from the side. So instead of a relative small filter/mesh in the centre there will be a very wide filter near the wall.
Posted 34 days ago.
Where do you get 20 minutes from? Most of the scientific literature I've seen says ~5min. Maybe 20 minutes if you're doing a hopstand. That's a completely different beast than a hopback.
Posted 34 days ago.
The 20 minutes came from an interview with ???? where was said that the hops were completely tasteless after running the wort though the hopback for 20 min. Can't find it, sorry. But indeed, most extraction could have been done earlier in the process ...
Do you have a pointer to the literature that mentiones ~ 5 min. as that would fit the system perfectly. So far I have not found much om hopback, except in ancient English brewing book. In the German/Continental brewing literature there isn't much more than just mentioning them.
Posted 34 days ago.
I've seen 5-10 minutes for steam distillation and for the French press method of hop oil extraction. Granted, neither of those are exactly a hopback, but the French press method is pretty close.
Posted 34 days ago.
Thanks, I'll look in to it. With the speed of cooling a hop back may be overkill but I hope for more control than with the whirlpool.
Posted 34 days ago.
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