Limited only by the imagination and needs of the brewer, hop backs are a versatile addition to any nano brewery, micro brewery or brewhouse. Hop backs give your beer fresh hop nose and flavor without significantly affecting bitterness. They are a great way to improve the flavor and character of your brews.
Our Hop Backs are a great way to infuse your beer with fresh hop aroma and flavor without significantly adding bitterness. Most of our brew kettles have whirlpools and trub dams to collect hops and trub in the brew kettle. Still, many brewers like to run the wort through a hop back after the boil to give their IPA’s and pale ales that amazing hop character.
A half ounce of hops per gallon of wort in a nylon or muslin bag inside the hop back will give your beer that fresh hop nose, and filter for your wort, keeping the hops and trub in the Hop Back and out of your filter, wort chiller or fermenter. When wort cools in the brew kettle, eventually it will reach the perfect temperature to release the hop oils without isomerizing
them. Experiment with the type and the amount of hops and the temperature of the wort to find your sweet spot. Choose the right size hop back for how hoppy you want your IPA.
Some brewers use hop backs between cold side transfers as well, between the conical fermenter and the brite beer tank. Different hop flavors and aromas emerge at lower temperatures.
Hops aren’t the only thing to infuse. Hop backs can be used to infuse oak chips, coffee, chili peppers, vanilla beans, just about anything you can think of to add to your beer.
Our hop backs also work great for yeast cropping or storage. When you drain yeast from the conical fermenter, you can collect and store your yeast right in the hop back because it iss a completely sanitary, closed vessel. For your next batch, you can pitch yeast directly from the hop back into your fermenter.
Like all of our tanks and kettles, our hop backs use only sanitary fittings and hardware and are made from virgin 304 stainless steel.
Here are some examples of how brewers have used hop backs in their breweries:
- HOP BACK – whole flower hops during hot side knockout. Use a hop sack with whole leaf hops. It is easier to clean up
- INFUSER – used either during hot or cold side applications using spices coffee, fruit, blending; this vessel can be purged and contents scrubbed with CO2 to reduce dissolved oxygen pickup. Infuse that amazing hop character into your IPA’s and pale ales.
- YEAST BRINK – give this vessel a good cleaning and remove the false bottom; fill it with yeast and use it like any other brink.
- CIDER BACK SWEETENING – fill with your desired amount of back sweetening; scrub with CO2 and purge the vessel; Use the pressure to transfer to a tank of cider.
- 2nd MASH TUN – great for sour mash or adding a secondary mash to bump up gravities on large-gravity beers. ▪ OPEN-TOP WILD FERMENTATION VESSEL- great for sour / wild open-top fermentation that can be wheeled into a cooler for post fermentation.
- SOLO BLENDING / BRITE TANK – blend small batches for experiments. Carbonate small batches. Wheel into cooler and carb for small-batch one-offs.
- BARREL TOP-OFF TANK – bring your top-off liquids to the beer, wine, spirit, cider barrel,or blending tank across the brewery for pressurized top-offs, blending or transfers.
- CIP – holds caustic or sanitizer for CIP loop. Easy mobility makes your brewery safer and more efficient.
We sell a number of different sized hop backs perfect for home brewing, micro breweries or nano breweries.
