Leaving hops in primary

[knowitman]

I currently only have 1 extract brew under my belt, and that beer is still fermenting. When I made my batch, the owner of my LHBS told me to not put my hops into hop bags and to just throw them in the boil kettle and then just dump everything into the primary fermentation vessel. I have never heard of anyone doing this until he said it. Has anyone else ever heard of this practice happening or is this known to have a detrimental effect on the beer?

[BDawg]

It would be ok for a big hoppy or darker ale (like IPA or porter).

Generally, getting some break material (trub) into the fermenter is a good thing in small amounts, but it can cause off flavors (typically lipids form soapy off flavors) when left in the fermenter in large amounts or also in lighter colored/lighter flavored beers like pilsners, kolsch, etc.

What I'm saying here is that it's not really the hops that are the problem, it's the break material that does it. Filtering out the break material helps remove the hops. Or looking at it another way, whole hop flowers form a really nice filter bed through which the trub can be filtered out. Two sides of the same coin here.

HTH-