Anyone use one of these (Amazon.com) for hops in the boil?
One reviewer says they work great for homebrewing, but the mesh looked maybe a bit open for containing pellet debris well. I currently use a 5-gallon paint strainer bag which works well enough and is super-inexpensive, but I like the idea of the durability of stainless and not having to worry about my bag coming open and hops getting everywhere. These are inexpensive enough, I maybe
have to try it regardless, would have enough other uses around the kitchen anyway.
No…but I like the idea. Let us know how it works out if you decide to try it. I have also used the paint strainer bag which worked out pretty well but now I’m using muslin bags.
I’ve used the smaller 2" versions to dry-hop in the keg. A while back people were talking about using the 3" tea balls to good effect. I like the looks of this 5.5" “jumbo” version.
BTW, a few fragments do make their way out of the mesh but nothing to deter using this approach.
Excellent, I shall procure one and report on it’s performance.
One thing I’m trying to envision is how easy it is to open when in use. I’d like to put all hop charges for your average batch in at their appropriate intervals. Wonder how easy the thing would be to open\use after removing it from boiling wort!
Hot stainless steel. Not something I want to touch.
Perhaps if you had two or three of the smaller ones?
I’ve opened the muslin bags (or whatever they’re made of) to add hops and they can get hot enough that I wouldn’t want to be grabbing a steel tea ball.
I use dental floss,the flat ribbon to suspend recaoture the ball.BTW this looks like a great mousetrap. I have been using the smaller 2" stylewith Hop Plugs and good results. They do however leave little hop “Ghosts” floating around
until much time and settling has occured.
Edit: I wonder how well a 5 inch diameter ball will fit into the lid opening of a corny keg??
I use that exact giant tea ball when I want to use large amounts of pellet hops. The hops will expand and soak up wort enough to fill the whole thing, but I don’t think that has any ill effect - it works great, IMO. But don’t try to se it for dry hopping because there is no way it will fit in a corny keg.
I’ve also heard that on some of those stainless steal tea balls, the clasps are chromed brass and therefore not good for dryhopping as it will slowly dissolve into the beer. This happened to someone on the NB forum.
I think these stainless steel tea bags work great. They fit in a corny keg with no problem. I’ve used it in the boil and in the corny with aging beer, with no issue of corrosion. I bought mine for 5 dollars.
The diameter for this tea bag is 3 inches and it holds about 2-3oz hops with enough room leftover for proper circulation.
Yeah foobrew, I had seen those types of contraptions too. Works great for hops, but seemed over-engineered and would be awkward when it’s time to drop the immersion chiller in.
I liked the perceived durability of the tea-balls being stainless and - and yes, concerns about enough ‘flow’ through the ball for good alpha acid extraction we in the back of my mind, thus wondering about what size\how many to get.
However, the inconvenience of having to pull it from the wort, open it (coated in very hot wort), drop in more hops, close and re-immerse have prevented me from getting one (or two) just yet. I may visit the local Asian market and see if they’ve got some I can look at in-person. The security and ease of operating the clasp could make or break it for me.
The reusable nylon hop bags are great for adding hops to the boil. I find I can even add hops to a bag but it is hot!. The real pain is cleaning them. :-\ Beer.
I love my tea balls. I use the giant one for a single large hop addition (when I bittered my märzen with 3.2% AA Tettnanger, or when I put 4-6 oz of pellet hops in at 5 min for an IPA). I use a 3-inch one for keg hopping and for moderate hop additions in the boil. I use little ones (2") for keg hopping and for small additions. Since I mostly use whole hops, I only need the balls or hop bags when I am using more than about 1.5 ounces of pellet hops. When that does happen, I have had absolutely no problems with the stainless hop balls. the large one would be impossible to open mid-boil to add hops to since the hops expand to fill the ball no matter how many hops I put in it. I have not had a problem with AA extraction - it has always been roughly the same as when using a nylon “hop bag” or a cheesecloth peasant’s purse.
