So I am making the switch to all grain brewing. My Brew Pot does not have a ball valve or false bottom. So my question is, should I use hop bags or not? When doing partial mash, I think Ive had issues getting the full effect from my hops. I used muslin bags. When I would transfer wort from my kettle to fermenter, I would use the auto siphon. So should I keep doing that in all grain? Should I use muslin or nylon hop bags? Thanks in advance.
Whirlpool, rest, rack from the side.
I use 5 gal nylon paint strainer bags from the local hardware store for my hoppy beers (mostly so I can squeeze it with the back side of my spoon to save wort.) I think the thing to note is the hops need to be able to have space to move around in the bag to work their magic. I do use an autosiphon and try to leave the thick stuff in the kettle.
-Tony
so no bag? whirpool after it has been chilled and let it rest for 20 minutes?
do you keep the bag open so you can add hops to it at different times
Yep. I’ve used bags and prefer to avoid them. Only time i use bags now is with whole hops to keep them out of my pump. If you do use a bag, use the largest bag that you can. Paint bags are good and can be clipped to the side or made into hop spider type devices.
Thanks, I have my old grain bag I used that is nylon. I almost always use pellet hops.
I don’t use bags of any kind in the boil kettle, and my kettle doesn’t have a valve or false bottom, or a trub dam; it’s just a kettle. I see no need for them. After the boil, I chill, whirlpool, and rack. Break material and spent hops settle out quite nicely. Rack from the side, of course.
FWIW I use a 10" stainless spider in the kettle on hoppy beers, and dry hop in the keg using 5 gallon paint strainer bags. I like the results.
thanks everyone. I appreciate it. I wont use bags any more in the kettle
I like bagging mine. Whole hop cones especially. Pellets, don’t need to so much unless using a lot.
is it really necessary to do that though? It was my understanding that it may be good to have the break and hop material in the fermentor? or at least didn’t matter enough that it wont change flavors.
I’ve always read that as “it’s good to have SOME trub and hop material make it into the fermenter”. I would put all of it in.
That said I use a 5 gallon paint strainer bag and a hop spider type thing I built to keep the majority of the hops out the fermenter. It make removing the hops so much easier and keeps most of the plant material out of my floor drains. I haven’t noticed any utilization issues but I am not a big fan of really hoppy beers so I may not notice.
For me, it is a convenience thing for the most part.
Paul
So whats the difference n having all or some? I have always just put basically all of what was in the kettle into my fermenter. Im not experienced wnough to say whether this has had a huge impact on my flavor but I haven’t experienced anything I would say is an off flavor, or grassy. Not tryint o put you down, just trying to understand!
Hop leaves get into everything and clog up tubes and things. That’s why I think it’s better bagging the whole hops at minimum.
Also I have done pellets both ways, bagged and not, and can’t really notice a difference – even bagging I still get plenty of bitterness and flavor in line with whatever the recipe says. If a bag reduces these amounts, it’s not noticeable, to ME. YMMV.
I agree, Dave. I used to use a big strainer bag in a makeshift poor man’s spider before I bought the SS spider. I’ve heard the stories of utilization falling off, but I haven’t noticed it to any real degree. I’ll say that the size of the bag or spider does matter though - it needs to be big enough to allow the hops to circulate freely. I also gently stir the hop matter in the spider every few minutes as well. Maybe different methods net different results there.
When I use my main system, I bag whole hops but not pellets. When I use the Grainfather all hops get bagged.
The biggest difference is the amount crud you need deal with when you rack out of the fermenter. I have a valve on my boil kettle with a siphon pickup. If I’m not careful I can suck all kinds of trub out of the kettle. I stop transferring when basically all the clear wort is gone. That leaves most of the gunk behind.
I can’t really say if it makes a difference because I have never dumped my kettle into the fermenter. I’ve always minimized how much I transferred.
What I’ve seen in print has been “don’t put all the trub in the fermenter but a small amount may be beneficial to yeast health”. I 've accepted it as fact I guess with no data to use to support it.
Paul
I do not use bags. I pour off the wort into the primary and bring a lot of trub with it but leave a quart of sediment in the kettle. I tend to to think the trub is helpful to help the yeast finish but I think thats not clearly supported by evidence. But the trub is ok either way, meaning transfer it or not. . See the link below where the trub was mostly viewed as marginally better. a downside of bringing the trub is that you don’t get a clean yeast cake in primary so you have to live with that if you want reuse the yeast or, more likely , take steps to wash the yeast that are more trouble than avoiding transfer of trub… You will also lose some beer in your primary to the big trub deposit.
Cheers!
I currently use a 10" stainless spider in my BK. It doesn’t matter what type of hops I use, they go in there. I used to use nothing. I fought it like a caveman. I then bagged and got tired of the empty, clean, tight-ars thing. Then I enjoyed tossing into the easy clean, no clog, stainless piece of heaven. I clamp to the side and let it drop down when I lid the BK for chill. I don’t whirlpool for trub separation anymore. I whirlpool when I chill now. No need for the hop pile, it is my stainless hop collection Coupe de Ville. Everyone has different methods, this one is one of the best pieces I’ve ever made period. I do think that this would have been better if it matched the id of my BK.