Pellet Hops & Seep Bags?

Hello all! Was hoping to get a couple opinions/answers. I am very green to brewing as well as very anxious to learn.
When adding bittering hop pellets to a boil is a seep bag needed or do you just toss them in? If a seep bag is needed, do I add my finishing hop pellets to the same bag the bittering are in or do I need a seperate bag for the finish? Thank you in advance!
Tim

I think most people just toss them in. They can be strained out when you move from kettle to fermenter, or they can be left in to settle out during primary.

I always use a bag for both my bittering hops and my finishing hops. With pellet hops a lot manage to get through the bag but it will significantly reduce the amount of crud in your primary.

You don't have to use a bag but I like to.

If I'm going to be using more than two ounces for a beer I'll use a bag just to help reduce the amount of crud in my keggle. I use one bag for all my hop additions, I just leave it open and zip strip it to my keegle.

This is of course, not required but it can make things go easier at the end of the day.

I use either muslin hop socks or 1-gal pain strainer bags for pellet hops so that they don't clog my bazooka screen and plate chiller. Leaf hops I just throw in since they don't clog the bazooka screen. Standard practice with plain stockpots is probably the opposite. Either way works, it just depends on what your preferences are and how your brewing system is designed.

Thank you for the replies! I only currently have 1 seep bag. I guess my plan was to use it to boil the grain, discard the grain using the bag again with the bittering pellets I have then adding the aroma pellets to finish. Was curious how others did it.
Thank you again!

I prefer to bag them but it doesn't hurt to toss them in. There's no wrong answer. I like to try and get my beer as clear as I can so I will always either bag the hops or strain the wort so I have less trub to accidentally siphon up (perhaps flawed logic, I dunno).

If you toss them in, you get more trub (as was mentioned). You can reduce this by straining it as you pour into the fermentor. I've had my strainer get all plugged up and the process of unclogging it, spilling some wort, dropping some clumps of hop-gunk into the bucket anyway, etc. - I have been bagging since. My last batch, I bagged the hops and then strained just to see what was left. The strainer didn't catch more than a few grams so I feel really good about hop bags.

You can get re-usable nylon ones or disposable muslin ones from any homebrew store. I've re-used muslin ones a few times before. Not sure it this is normal or not, but if you wash them out and they get boiled anyway, it seems like using them until they get a hole (a few uses) doesn't hurt.

I hope your not actually boiling the grain but only steeping it at 170-ish. It'll come out better than way.

I'm guessing that your bag is the typical muslin bag most LHBSs use for steeping grains. If so, it's probably too coarse a mesh to contain pellet hops. You need a fine mesh hop bag. Panty-hose may work in a pinch.

Ravenshead said:

I hope your not actually boiling the grain but only steeping it at 170-ish. It'll come out better than way.

I'm guessing that your bag is the typical muslin bag most LHBSs use for steeping grains. If so, it's probably too coarse a mesh to contain pellet hops. You need a fine mesh hop bag. Panty-hose may work in a pinch.

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Ha! Good catch! Steeping it at 170 is exactly what I meant to say.....still learning....

unionrdr said:

Once again,those muslin grain sacks are the same mesh size as the hop sacks,& they work fine for both. I don't think they restrict water flow as much,but that's me. And stay below 170F,as that's the tannin extraction threshold. 155F or so would be better for steeping.

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We're probably talking past each other. The grain sacks I have in mind are not much finer than cheesecloth. The hop bags I'm thinking of are much finer regardless of material.

OP: You're asking the right questions, the rest of us are just jousting for the best answer.

Welcome.