Anybody ever used a tea infuser to dry hop?

I was reading on another forum and a guy said that he uses stainless steel tea infusers to dry hop. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004X4LGIO/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Pellets are thrown in, they sink to the bottom and are easy to remove/avoid when kegging or bottling. Obviously if you are using a carboy you have to be careful about the size you order.

Any thoughts?

Incredibly common, used by many people successfully. Check the threads below for more information/discussion too.

I went through a huge hop tea kick for a while. Really nice to add at bottling time

I bought 5 of those big tea balls. What I found out.. the hop additions swell up so much that they totally fill the ball such that there is NO room for exchange of liquid around the hops. AND I didn't even put a whole ounce in there. Blows me away. I'm going to sell mine and go back to bags. Actually, I recycle my wife's panty hose when she gets a run in them.. Wash, rinse well, add hops, tie a knot and toss into the boil. Works very well. When done.. toss.

I would highly recommend dry hopping in primary. No bags, mesh balls, etc. needed. Just throw 'em in and rack off 'em in a few days. Much easier and gets you the same result.

jmadway:
Thank God! You may save us a lot of research! The hops you call "'em", do you use leaf or pellets? I love the results of pellet dry (shouldn't it be called cold hopping?) hopping, but hard to get fine particles out. Been thinking of sewing 'em into a coffee filter, but, if I don't have to....
I use Carapils, too, so I'm used to a layer of crud. I was very surprised how well the grain crud settles!! It may help to settle the hop crud. Thanks.

You can also put a panty hose or other similar filter over the end of your racking cane when racking from fermentor to bottling bucket to prevent the pellet particles from getting into your finished beer.

pdxal said:

You can also put a panty hose or other similar filter over the end of your racking cane when racking from fermentor to bottling bucket to prevent the pellet particles from getting into your finished beer.

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Wow, that seems like a great idea! Do you soak the panty hose in vodka or boil them before doing this?

Panty hose soaked in Vodka... That sounds like a night that either went terribly wrong, or awesomely right.

This thread reminds me of Mr. Roper's brew session

Sanitize panty hose or hops bag/mesh bag over racking cane like any other plastic/nylon touching your beer.

AlCophile said:

jmadway: Thank God! You may save us a lot of research! The hops you call "'em", do you use leaf or pellets? I love the results of pellet dry (shouldn't it be called cold hopping?) hopping, but hard to get fine particles out. Been thinking of sewing 'em into a coffee filter, but, if I don't have to.... I use Carapils, too, so I'm used to a layer of crud. I was very surprised how well the grain crud settles!! It may help to settle the hop crud. Thanks.

Click to expand...

Yes, I use pellet hops when I dry hop. I put a hop bag over the end of my tubing when I rack to my keg (over the end that goes into the keg). That keeps any hop sludge out of the finished product.

pdxal said:

Sanitize panty hose or hops bag/mesh bag over racking cane like any other plastic/nylon touching your beer.

Click to expand...

Of course I would sanitize, I'm just wondering about the best method. I wouldn't wanna soak them in star-san. I would either boil them or soak them in vodka, I was just wondering which one yall do?

Also, do you just secure the panty hose to the end of the racking cane with a rubber band or a twist tie or something like that?