No More Hop Bags

[dmcoates]

I hate cleaning hop bag when i get finished brewing. So i said screw them who needs them anyway.

I just added all my hop pellets to the boil kettle with no bag, after reading how some people do it on the board. So after a good whirlpool then i used my auto siphon with a paint strainer bag around it to siphon my wort into the fermentor.

Of course i soaked the paint stainer and the rubber band in starsan 1st.

It worked really good and there is almost no hops or other trub in the fermentor. I didnt come up with this method but id thought id share how well it does work.

 

[Double_D]

Next you can try using whole leaf it works even better and it helps catch other floaties. You don't have to worry though, most stuff would fall out during fermentation followed by the rest coming out during secondary.

 

[jakecpunut]

I've considered doing away with hop bags.. not because of cleaning because I just buy 5 gallon paint strainers and toss them.. I just worry about hop utilization.. My pickup tube on my keggle is dead center so I don't care to whirlpool and siphon so I may just start tossing them in and letting them go in the fermenter as well..

 

[unionrdr]

I don't mind using the hop bags,they keep all the leavings in a convenient easily removable package. And they're not hard to clean at all. I take the bag out of the boil,hold it up with my spoon to drain till it stops. Then toss it in a cereal bowl till it drains a little more.not to mention cool off. I've even let them sit in that bowl till the next morning. Then untie it,turn it inside out over the bowl. Nearly all of it comes out,just some granules stuck in the weave of the cloth. Boil some water in a saucepan & dunk the bag in it with tongs. Dunk in & out a few times,& presto! Clean with no stains. Hang it up to dry,then just spank that bad baby a few times,& the few dried particles that are left come right out. Gotta save $$ any way I can.

 

[Pilgarlic]

Haven't used one since my first brew.

 

[Captain Damage]

I've only ever used hop bags for dry hopping. Although, when I make my ginger wheat beer I wrap the ginger boil additions in cheesecloth.

 

[molsonG]

i usually only use them for leaf hops

 

[noreaster40s]

I use muslin bags for hops. I just keep adding whatever additions into the same bag then just toss the bag after I'm done.

 

[GuldTuborg]

Haven't used one since my first brew.

Same here. Bags are more hassle than they're worth.

 

[Snowhere]

I use a mesh bag for the boil, I tend to get enough cold break no matter what I do, so no need to take up more space in the fermentor with the spent hops. But when I dry hop, I just add then to the carboy. I find that easier to deal with rather then trying to pull a bloated hop bag through the neck of the carboy. They all just drop to the bottom before I bottle so it does not effect me at that point.

 

[El_Exorcisto]

I always use whole hops and whirlpool. It makes for a fairly trub-free fermenter and I get good utilization.

 

[Gunfighter04]

Has anybody else noticed that when there isn't any hop residue left in the primary fermenter that the kreusen takes a lot longer to fall?

 

[jmferris]

I personally have no issue with hop bags. I find them to be easy to use and clean out. Until I get around to building a hop spider, I will probably continue to use one. When whirlpooling without a bag, the time it would normally take me to clean out the bag was countered by the time it took me to whirlpool and then siphon (as I don't have a bulkhead fitting/dip tube installed currently).

Cleaning the bags are easy. I take it out when I am done and put it into a bowl. After cleanup, I empty the liquid from the bowl and leave the bag overnight. In the morning, turn it inside out over the trashcan and empty, then tie the drawstrings on to the upper rack in the dishwasher (away from the arm, so it doesn't get tangled) and it runs through the next load of dishes. Comes out clean as can be, and I will just throw it in my StarSan solution when I am prepping the equipment on the morning of the next brew day, like anything else that I wanted to sanitize.

The bags I am using are actually polyester veggie/fruit bags from Target. Got a pack of six (I think) for something like four or five dollars. There was a larger bag that was good for steeping up to two or three pounds of grain, and smaller bags that were good for smaller steeps and for hops.

 

[Hex]

I dump it all in--most of the whole hops get stopped at the funnel.

 

[dmcoates]

I personally have no issue with hop bags. I find them to be easy to use and clean out. Until I get around to building a hop spider, I will probably continue to use one. When whirlpooling without a bag, the time it would normally take me to clean out the bag was countered by the time it took me to whirlpool and then siphon (as I don't have a bulkhead fitting/dip tube installed currently).

I was going to build a spider, but then i would have to sanitize my chiller. Another reason i stopped using bags is i am doing a lot of small hop additions. I have about 8 hop additions thru out my boil. 60,45,30,20,15,10,5,Flameout. Thats alot of bags to clean

 

[Airborneguy]

I just bought these from Austin Homerbew, and am loving them:

http://www.austinhomebrew.com/product_info.php?products_id=894

When you are finished, you pop it open and get a perfect little ball of hops. It comes right out, and you just rinse the little bit that remains. To me, these were well worth the money.

 

[glenn514]

I use a nylon hop bag, and really don't find it inconvenient. Since I do compost ALL vegetable/organic matter...including hops and spent grain...I just dump the used hops into my compost bucket. When the bucket is full, I dump it into the compost bin outdoors.

glenn514

 

[lou2row]

I have started out with a hop bag. That way I dispose of the hops properly, rather than risk forgetting they are in the yeast and my dogs get into the garden and eat it.

 

[topend]

Is it necessary to filter out the hops (with a cloth bag or steel mesh ball) at all? I'm curious if the hop bits impart undesirable flavors/smells if they sit in the fermenter for a week or two before bottling/kegging.

 

[Double_D]

You're going to have to do it sooner or later they probably won't impart anything "bad" but they also won't do anything "good". It's best to remove hops after the cooling process because they're basically spent plus if you aerate a little/splash a little while trying to get every last drop of wort out of the hops it's actually beneficial in so far as aeration is necessary for yeast reproduction/fermentation. You wouldn't want to do that with fermented wort because late aeration will cause off flavors.