I have been using a lot of whole hops lately and I can't get a good hot break like when I used to use pellets. I can't get the whole hops to sink and I don't want to scoop them off the top, or I'd mess up my bittering addition. Anyone else have this problem? I don't use a hop bag, I just throw them in loose. I know that one answer would be to buy some Magnum pellets and make sure I'm using them in the beginning of the boil. I'm curious to hear what others have to say.
I would just wait until the hot break occurs, and dies down, before adding your first hop addition. I haven't been using a lot of whole leaf hops lately though.. a lot of them tend to make it into the fermenter, and start to look pretty nasty come bottling time. Pellets just seem to dissolve better into the beer. One thing I've noticed, is if I use pellets there is a good deal of foaming and boiling over in the first addition, as opposed to if I were to use whole leaf for the bittering.
This is what I do too. 70 minute boils if I have a 60 minute hop addition, 60 minutes if no additions until later in the boil.
I do the same thing as CurtFromHershey, I let it hot break first, then it doesn't foam or boil over with pellets. But since I've been growing my own hops I've been using a bag, placing a couple of whiskey rocks in the bottom, and putting the hops in there. I'd like to think it's a cool tip and a better way of doing it. It's a heck of a lot less mess, and I really don't care if I have to add more hops to get the flavor I want. Not having to deal with the mess... = awesome.
Yea, I just did the same thing with a saison. 90 min boil, and didn't add my bittering hops til 50 min so the hot break was long gone by then
