Idea for better hop utilisation and clearer beer?

[Tippsy-Turvy]

Newbie here.

What would be the major drawbacks to using no filter bags for boiling the bittering hops and the aroma hops (ie just throw everything in) and, on bottling day, just cover the intake end of the siphon with a nylon hop bag?

In case this is a daft question, allow me to laugh at myself first and save you the trouble..haaahaaa!

 

[Rbeckett]

Depending on how much trub is in the bottom of your fermentor you may end up cleaning the bag very frequently. You might consider pouring the brew from your fermentor to your bottling bucket through a cheese cloth ot Butter muslin filter to remove a large part of the trub. You should pour off slowly and try to stir the trub up as little as possible so when it flows through the cheese cloth it isn't carrying huge amounts of suspended particles already. The bottle as usual and you should get a pretty clear batch. Don't rush the fermentation either, let the yeast finish dinner and lay down on the bottom of the fermentor before you start racking or pouring, that will help a lot toward clearing your brew better. HTH

Wheelchair Bob

 

[RM-MN]

I put the hops in loose and boil them, then dump everything into the fermenter, no straining of it at all. When the ferment is over, the hops settle to the bottom of the fermenter and the yeast settles on top of them. If the beer is given time (a good practice) for the yeast to settle and compact, you can rack (siphon) from above the yeast and leave it and the hops in the bottom of the fermenter.

 

[hogwash]

I don't use any filters either. When you chill your wort a lot of the hops will settle towards the bottom so if you're careful you can siphon from just above them. This will cause some wort loss so you would need to account for that. I'm with RM-MN though and wouldn't worry too much about what goes into the fermenter but allow it time to all settle out then rack from above. FWIW, I would not pour it through a filter into the bottling bucket, sounds like an invitation for oxygen to me.

Oh, and your beers, especially the hoppy ones, will be better for not using a filter bag for the hops. At least that has been my experience.

 

[PistolsAtDawn]

If you want a good way to filter post-boil so that you don't lose any hop utilization during the boil, check out the EZ Bucket Strainers from US Plastics (threads about these on this forum too).

 

[Jayhem]

What you described is exactly what I do with my dry hopped beers.

Other beers just need about 3 weeks in the primary to settle fully and clear up and then just CAREFULLY siphon off the clear beer, leaving the trub behind.

 

[Tippsy-Turvy]

That's fantastic.

Thanks to everyone for replying so quickly and sharing your thoughts. I have a much better idea now.

Today's a big day for me - my first hop and specialty grain boils! Previously it had only been Mr Beer kits...ahem.