I’ve always just thrown my hops right into the boil, but I’m getting tired of cleaning my little funnel/filter out 4 or 5 times when transferring from my brew kettle to my carboy. How many use hop bags out there and do you notice any loss in utilization?
I used to back in the day, but found it was more trouble than it was worth. I throw them in loose, and I don’t bother to filter them out of the carboy either. Even on light beers (drinking a fantastic helles right now), I don’t notice a difference.
I use them for whole hops but not for pellets.
It sounds like you’re pouring the wort into the fermenter. That would be one reason you’re fighting with the trub. A proper whirlpool and cooling will allow you to siphon off the wort from the kettle into the fermenter while leaving more trub behind.
Yes, I do pour. My bootleg manner of adding oxygen is pouring between my bucket and brew kettle a few times before pouring through a mesh screen. If I want to whirlpool I stir and let settle, then siphon? Or is it more complex a process than this?
+1 to martin - you’d be amazed when you see the ‘cone’ form.
even better - hook up a weldless ball valve setup with a pickup tube against the side…
get a mix stir for oxygenating.
I use them for all hops these days. Primarily because the whole-hop seeds jack with my march pump and I can’t seem to filter them without the trub then causing a problem by clogging up the filter.
I use all manner of bags for dry-hopping and boiling. Last night I used a large coarse mesh bag and just added the hops to the bag per the schedule. For the keg I use little bouquet garni bags that hold about a 1/4" of whole hops each.
I used to use them all the time. Anymore I just toss in pellets and I used a paint straining bag suspended in the kettle for whole hops.
I’ve tried straining but the trub just clogs the screen and takes forever to drain.
Paul
i use a false bottom and almost always use all whole hops.
I use a hop bag cause otherwise my spigot gets all clogged up, I have not been able to get the whirlpool to work for me. Perhaps I am doing it wrong but I do notice a little loss of utilization. I just bump up the hops a bit to account.
I use a 5 gallon nylon paint strainer for everything but a FWH addition. Works great – minimal mess.
For what it is worth, I have bought nylon strainer bags (but have yet to use them).
I use pellet hops in the BK. Even add pellet hops for aroma when the temp drops below flash point (<180F) and let it steep for 30-45 minutes during chilling with the IC.
No whole hops are used.
I do 10 gallon batches and note that it drops quite clear during that time.
The first 5 gallons that go into the fermentation bucket is crystal clear (no trub, no hops).
The second 5 gallons that go into the second fermentation bucket is clear for the first 4 gallons and then it comes time to decide whether I want to stop there or try to strain out the last gallon of wort. Being the ever-so-frugal kind-of-guy, I can’t seem to help myself from straining the rest of the wort out from the break material and hops. I use an 8-inch SS china cap buillion strainer (extra fine SS mesh)–almost the same result as a fine nylon mesh bag (though I think the nylon mesh is even more fine than the SS strainer). I would recommend the bag versus the 4 inch diameter disc that sits in the large funnels you can buy at the LHBS. Simply for the reason that there is more surface area to prevent clogging.
I’ve used bags on less than 1% of my brews. 98% of the time I’ve dumped the whole boil. As late I’ve been whirlpooling and siphoning. I’ve lost some of my hop balance I’d had before so my recipes need some adjustment. I think I lost some astringency from the hops so it’s worth the extra effort. I’ve also noticed lower attenuation. The break is good for the yeast.
False bottom in the brew kettle, so no bag.
Nylon bag goes around the racking cane to filter out the hops when dry hops are in a carboy.
Hops go in a nylon bag if keg hops are used.
I nearly always use hop bags for the boil, but never for dry hopping. I did side-by-side brews with and without hop bags and I couldn’t tell the difference, but enough other people could that I concluded that there must be a small decrease in hop utilization.
This is my SOP as well(large self fabbed hop strainer in BK).
I really want to try a paint strainer. I used to always use hops bags and I just tried a brew without a bag to see if I noticed the difference. There was a lot more mess that made it into the primary. I’ll try and remember to get back to this post in about a month when its done and give my opinion then.
If I’m using more than 3 oz. of hops in the boil, I’ll bag the early hop additions. I ferment in a 10 gallon corny keg and transfer under CO2 pressure through the liquid out dip tube to the serving keg - having less hop material in the fermentor makes that transfer a much smoother process.
I like this idea, but it seems like it would be somewhat difficult to use with an immersion chiller.
I just brewed a beer today that had 4.5 oz of pellets. I didn’t use any containment (bags, etc…) for the hops. I did use a Blichmann hop blocker and it works great. I was able to keep about 90% of the hop pellets in the kettle after racking into the fermenter. This was the first time I had actually tried using the hop blocker as a strainer. There was also a considerable amount of trub left behind as well. I am impressed!