A couple of questions after brewing for first time.

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Rexorotten

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I brewed my first batch a couple of weeks ago and I am going to try to brew again tonight. My first batch was a Liberty Cream Ale Midwest kit. Tonight I'm brewing another midwest kit: Autumn Amber ale. After my first brew I noticed that the hops really make a mess in the wort after they dissolve.

Will putting them in a muslin bag help or is there another way to keep them from getting everywhere? Also, for some reason, the muslin bag that came with this kit is a lot shorter than the one I used on my first kit.

The muslin bag in my first kit, I was able to tie it to the handle of my brew pot, this one, I'll be lucky to tie the bag with the grains in it. Will it be ok to just tie the bag and throw it into the bottom of the kettle, or will it burn? Thanks.
 
My main concern would be getting a new bag for the specialty grains. You won't get the full benefits of the grain if they are tightly compacted in the bag and it will effect your final product. Try to get a longer bag from the company and use this one for your hops to minimize the mess.
 
I agree with bchurch. Hop utilization will decrease if there is not room in the bag for them to move around.

There is no need to tie the bag to your kettle. I just toss 'em in and siphon the wort off after cooling. You could always tie a piece of butchers twine/flavorless dental floss to the bag. Another option is to go pickup some cheap pantyhose to use as a hop bag. Paint strainer bags also do the trick.
 
You can use a bag to contain hops, although I normally just toss them in and then filter using a paint strainer or a cheese cloth when I am transferring. I know it looks messy, but there's really no harm in the hop debris, you can just toss it in to your fermenter if you want and, ultimately, it will get trapped underneath the yeast cake and won't pose much of a problem thereafter.

At steeping temperatures, I wouldn't worry about the grain bag burning. Generally, you don't need to keep the heat constant during that process anyways. I would just heat the water up to about 170 and then drop the grains in and let them sit for about 30 minutes with a lid on, you'll lose some heat during that time but you'll get the job done.
 
During my first batch I freaked out when I put the hops in, too. It got everywhere and made my wort look like swamp water. I siphoned out of the pot and through a strainer to get the hops out.

Now after 8 batches I don't worry, relax, and have a home brew. I just dump everything into the fermenter. The hops will settle on the bottom and have little effect on the taste. Also you WANT the hops bitterness, flavor, and aroma. That's part of what makes beer great, imho.

Mike
 
Thanks for all of the great advice everyone. I'm heading to Home Depot for Paint strainers.
 
Honestly, I never worry about it, So far with good results, they end up being in the trub anyways and when I rack they get left behind. If it is an exceptionally hoppy lighter colored beer then I cold crash prior to transfer to bottling.
 
I use pellet hops and just toss them into the boil. I drop the3 cooled wort through a sanitized ss strainer into the fermenter to aerate and pull out the hops and trub debris. I assume this would also work for leaf hops, although I have never tried.
 
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