I was wondering if anyone had any opinions regarding placing your hops in muslin bags or just having them loosing during the boil? Does it have any impact either way or any best practices.
Hops loose versus in muslin bags
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Bisco_Ben
Well-Known Member
I never used muslin bags but I did use a nylon hop bag with a drawstring. From my experience, using that bag absolutely effected the hop utilization and resulted in less bitter/aromatic beers. I could imagine the muslin bags having a similar impact although I dont know for sure. I have now started to have them loose in the boil and filter them after while transferring to the carboy. In case it is of interest, I do this by lining my bottling bucket with a "sparging bag" found at my LHBS and that catches mostly all of the hops/break material.
slarkin712
Well-Known Member
The muslin bags shouldn't affect you hop utilization too much. The problem with the nylon bags is that the pores are too small and just get all clogged during the boil so that liquid doesn't pass through hardly at all. I like to use paint strainer bags, as they less liquid pass through very well and are very large, so that can hold lots of hops. I use a hop spider that I built to hold the strainer bag, and is very convenient.
Do you have a picture of your hop spider?
5 Gallon Nylon Mesh Paint Strainer Bags
They come in sets of two at Home Depot. Pick up a couple boxes and use them for your boil hops. Just wrap the opening around the kettle handle away from the flames. No bag for dryhops. I prefer my dryhops to be tossed in loose w/o a bag for convenience purposes. At the time of racking, carefully siphon with your racking cane by placing the cane through one of these empty bags so no particulates pass through and you're left with clean, clear beer.
And hop utilization is not affected with these large, breathable bags. They can also be rinsed and reused.
They come in sets of two at Home Depot. Pick up a couple boxes and use them for your boil hops. Just wrap the opening around the kettle handle away from the flames. No bag for dryhops. I prefer my dryhops to be tossed in loose w/o a bag for convenience purposes. At the time of racking, carefully siphon with your racking cane by placing the cane through one of these empty bags so no particulates pass through and you're left with clean, clear beer.
And hop utilization is not affected with these large, breathable bags. They can also be rinsed and reused.
slarkin712
Well-Known Member
The hop spider I use is identical to this one:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/hop-spider-woes-solved-stainless-274172/
I have a stash of hop,steeping,biab muslin socks. They have good flow through,so utilization is pretty good.
I clean them by untying the not & turning them inside out into a bowl. Then rinse under the faucet to clean out the grainy stuff. then into a sauce pan with water to boil 15-20 minutes on average. Drain & into a tupperware sandwhich container with PBW for about a week to soak. Rinse,wring out & hang up to dry. Clean as new.
I clean them by untying the not & turning them inside out into a bowl. Then rinse under the faucet to clean out the grainy stuff. then into a sauce pan with water to boil 15-20 minutes on average. Drain & into a tupperware sandwhich container with PBW for about a week to soak. Rinse,wring out & hang up to dry. Clean as new.
