When brewing IPA’s with large pellet hop additions do you use Socks?
Just curious?
I prefer to use a large mesh “paint” strainer bag which can be purchased at your LHBS. I simply open it up each time I want to make a hop addition and then tie it to the handles on my kettle so it won’t open and fall in to the boiling wort. Occasionally during the boil, I make sure to push the bag back down into the wort and squeeze the bag against the side of the kettle to totally immerse the hops after each addition.
After cooling I use a sanitized pair of metal tongs to gently squeeze out the remaining delicious hop juice and oils before racking over to my fermenter. This seems to minimize my loss of wort from huge hop additions while still allowing the hops to properly boil in the kettle for the specific times needed.
+1. Works like a simple hop spider.
I dont use a hop sock or any similar device when brewing or in secondary, etc. I just throw the hops in freely and let them do their thing. Lets them move around in the boiling wort and I dont have to worry about anything holding onto those precious oils. I haven’t had any problem with using a hop catch in my kettle when transferring to primary nor do I have problems getting hops into my keg from secondary as long as you cold crash your beer and let everything settle to the bottom and siphon off the hop cake.
When using whole-hops a coarse-mesh bag is indispensable as is a finer weave for pellet hops.
I’ve done it all whichaways and settled on bags for my system.
Hop catch?
Something like this. Call it a screen, filter, whatever. I phrase it as hop catch since it catches all my hops. Have heard similar things referred as hop catches.
http://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&docid=vK_8DOoKly48hM&tbnid=GCCN5tfgOkJ5ZM:&ved=0CAUQjRw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wellbom.com%2F12l-12npt-stainless-steel-brewing-kettle-screen-homebrew-beer-filter-accessories-p-549.html&ei=ln6cU__iEMOAogTP-4LIAQ&bvm=bv.68911936,d.cGU&psig=AFQjCNFigPPP5sqRz7WaSOyj83au8Kkolw&ust=1402851314831024
Right on I use the Free Hop method with a hop catch myself.
Interesting to see some of the different ideas though.
Ah, a bazooka tube. I used one of them in my whole hop days. These days I’m all pellets. These days it’s in my mashtun.
All of my hops go commando
Me too. I notice little difference from using strainer bags. I just dry hopped for the second time with no hop sack and used it on my auto siphon instead. It kept the hops in my fermenter when transferring to my bottling bucket so I’m sold on letting it all hang out. 
Commando…don’t fear the floaties ;D
I dump em right in. They fall to the bottom.
Stockings, actually. I stuff a knee-high nylon with about an ounce of whole cone hops. Then I zip tie it over the out of my autosiphon tubing. When I rack out of my kettle the whole hops filter any hop bits passing through.
If it’s really mucky in the kettle I’ll also put a nylon over the “in” of the siphon to keep it from getting clogged. I usually have to keep moving the siphon in a figure 8 to keep it from getting jammed up enough to break the siphon.
Dry hops go in bareback. I like to live on the edge [emoji6]
I like the idea of straining the wort through the whole hops in a stocking. Does this catch much trub?
The best part about the stockings (Leggs) is that they are so cheap as to be disposable. Very quick and easy to clean. Just throw the sock away…
I used a mesh hop bag on my last batch with pellets. I have mostly used whole hops with no trouble but on my last two brews I used pellets and clogged the screen in my kettle. Not wanting to go through that again I tried a fine mesh hop bag for the pellets and it worked perfectly. No clogs. I could imagine causing a flavor and utilization issue if the bag was too full but so far I’m happy.
Easy to over fill those bags. Even the 5x8 bags get pretty dense with 1.5oz of pellets. I try to keep them to 1oz or less.
No hop sock or strainer needed. Just whirl pool and rack off trub/hops.