Hops

When adding hops to the brew is it nessary to use a hop bag for either pellets or whole flour?

No. But some prefer to do so depending how you transfer your beer from kettle to carboy.

Not necessary, but certainly okay. I just strain my hops when I transfer to the primary.

I've done it both ways. I don't care for fishing out all the hop leaves once I want to transfer to the carboy, so I have been trying to find a 5 gallon paint strainer. I bought what I thought was a 5gallon bag, but it was barely 1 gallon, just made to fit over a 5 gallon circumference. Tricky HomeDepot!

This website is a great source of knlowdge thank you! I ended up using a metal mesh strainer. It worked great for whole flower hop addition.

If your brew pot has a spigot at the bottom, you can swirl the wort around the pot so there's a nice dip in the middle, all the sediment will get pulled to the middle. You can then drain it out the side, and the bulk of the material will stay in the center. Kind of like a brewing centrifuge...

I used to use a small bag but in the end it was just one more thing to clean.

Since I moved to a kettle with a spigot I don't. It all settles tothe bottom below the spigot. I just open and dump the wort, wash remainder down sink.

I use a hops bag that I got as part of a kit a year or two ago, but it's a pain to use for multiple additions. I don't have any problem with cleaning the bag; I just turn it inside out and rinse it off.

For a few buck in materials, I'm going with the paint strainer bag and collar for my next batch, though.

I suppose I could drill a hole and attach a spigot to the bottom of my kettle; that would allow me to do the whirlpool chiller I've been fantasizing about.

MY LHBS sells socks for like a buck. They are long enough I can cut them in two and still have enough room for (2) 1 oz additions to the boil. For smaller additions I can cut them in 3 pieces. I just put the leaf in them, tie off the ends with twine and drop them in the kettle. When the boil is done I toss them is the trash.

It is not as economical as a reuseable grain bag, or paint strainer, but it is one less thing to clean. The mesh on these may not be suitable for pellets however. I haven't tried. Just my .02

ccoulombe said:

I ended up using a metal mesh strainer. It worked great for whole flower hop addition.

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I use a metal mesh strainer that sits over my alepail and I pour my wort through it, and it catches all of my hops (I use pelets)

I just dump everything into primary and it settles with the rest of the trub. Once in a long while I will find a bit of hops in one of my finished beers, they are good luck.