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Author Topic: Hop Bag or no?  (Read 6162 times)

Offline HoosierBrew

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Re: Hop Bag or no?
« Reply #15 on: January 18, 2017, 12:24:17 pm »
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.
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Offline denny

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Re: Hop Bag or no?
« Reply #16 on: January 18, 2017, 12:31:59 pm »
When I use my main system, I bag whole hops but not pellets.  When I use the Grainfather all hops get bagged.
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Offline Slowbrew

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Re: Hop Bag or no?
« Reply #17 on: January 18, 2017, 03:03:30 pm »
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!

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
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Offline scribo

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Re: Hop Bag or no?
« Reply #18 on: January 18, 2017, 06:02:38 pm »
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.

http://brulosophy.com/2014/06/02/the-great-trub-exbeeriment-results-are-in/

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Offline coolman26

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Re: Hop Bag or no?
« Reply #19 on: January 18, 2017, 06:08:25 pm »
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.


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Offline golfgod04

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Re: Hop Bag or no?
« Reply #20 on: January 18, 2017, 06:38:24 pm »
thanks for the info. i appreciate it the input. cannot wait to brew