Beer brewing has been around for thousands of years, but with the explosion of craft breweries in recent years, there are now more ways to brew it than ever before. One of the key steps in the brewing process is the addition of hops, one of the four major raw materials of beer, which imparts bitterness, aroma and different flavors to beer. But the way hops are added to the hot wort varies widely in modern beer brewing. In this article, we are very happy to introduce two different methods of adding hops.
 
Pour from the manhole



This is the traditional way of adding hops, and it is also the way to open all home brews, most wineries, and even some breweries choose to add hops. Because you only need to open the manhole, lift the bucket containing the hops, and pour the hops into it. And cheap, no need to install additional devices.
Of course, this traditional way of adding hops also has some disadvantages. For example it can be time consuming and laborious. Smaller batches are fine, but with larger batches it takes a lot of effort to lift the hops to add. It also allows oxygen to enter the boiler. But this is only a small problem, and the biggest disadvantage lies in the safety of this kind of operation. Opening the manhole while boiling is a safety hazard. The first thing you have to face when you open the manhole is the steam from the pavement. The temperature is very high and there is a risk of burns. If the pressure in the tank is abnormal, opening the manhole may even cause the pot to overflow, causing personal injury. Therefore, this method is more commonly used in home brewing, beer houses, breweries and other stores that use small beer equipment, and breweries prefer to use Hops pitching tank and hop gun to add hops.
 
Hops pitching tank



The safer and less time-consuming way of adding hops. Just need to install a pot on top of the kettle tun. It looks a lot like an opaque hydrator on a mash tun, with valve controls on the connections. The brewer first adds hops to the hop adding tank, then opens the valve at the connection, and the hops fall into the boiling pot to complete the addition. Relying on this method of adding hops, the brewer will not directly contact the steam in the pot, and opening the valve will not cause outside air to enter, and there is no risk of overflowing the pot. The above is the operation using PID control. If it is a brewery controlled by PLC, the degree of automation is higher. Add sensors to the valve and program, set a specific time to open the valve, and release a specific amount of hops into the boiling pot. These two are the most common ways of adding hops to hot wort in modern breweries using hop tanks. Compared with opening the manhole to pour hops, it costs an extra hop adding tank, but for breweries, safety must be the first priority.
 
These are just two ways to add hops to the boiler. There are more than these two ways to adjust the hop flavor in beer, as well as the hop gun and dry hop. If you want to know more about beer equipment, warmly welcome to contact us, we are very happy to discuss more details with you.
 
Edited by Cassie
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