Question about Adding the Hops

I have a question about adding the hops. In the video I watched on brewing the guy put his hops in a nylon bag and then removed them after boiling. In some of the instructions and books I've looked through it doesn't say anything about putting the hops in a bag. So my question is, do I need to bag em, and if not, do I need to strain them out when I pour the wort from my boil pot into my fermenter? I'd appreciate any advice. I'm sure this is a minor issue, but I'm curious what effect each method would have.

JB

the last kit i did (my second) came with hops and i too wondered if i needed to put them in a bag. Called the guy at the LHBS and told me to just through them in there. They did disolve pretty well BUT i did wish I poured my wort through a strainer. Not there is all sorts of floatsum in me beer.

Still very new to this so take my advice for what it is...newb advice.

Well if you are using whole hops, then you can strain them out as long as whatever you use has been sanitized. With pellets, some will get caught up in the protein material (aka break) and the rest will settle out in the fermentor. You just avoid siphoning (racking) the sludge (trub) on the bottom when you transfer to either bottles or a carboy.

As for leaving them in, it is not a big deal really, iirc some people claim it makes a difference, but when I used pellet hops they stayed in and the end product was fine. The hop pellets will settle out by the time you are ready to transfer. I would advise against a bag because you want the hops to move around, getting exposure to the boiling wort and thus helping to utilize the full potential of Alpha Acids. I am not sure how well a bag would work with pellets, but it would be a mess to clean the bag.

My method now is whole hops, and the cooled wort is strained through a sanitized aluminum tomato strainer. I have very little trub as most of the break gets caught in the hops. I also have very little waste using this method, I just let the last bit drain in the strainer.

You lose utilization from putting hops in a bag. Just throw them in and relax.
Just try to keep as much out of your primary as you can without getting worried.
It will all settle with the trub and you can rack off it when primary is finished as was mentioned.

Just toss them straight in and read up on the whirlpool method. I just finished an 80 IBU IPA this afternoon using all pellet hops and between whirlpooling and irish moss I got so little hops in my fermenter it's not worth mentioning.

I always strain my wort after it's cool into the fermenter. I just sanitize a regular colander. This helps aerate the wort as well as strains out the big chunks. The stuff that makes it in, though, is no problem at all. It settles out. I never use hops bags.

Thanks for the help. I like the idea of using a collander. I was wanting to aerate the wort a bit on the way into the primary anyway, and that sounds like a great idea.

JB