pellet hops in muslin bags?...

when using pellet hops in your wort do you need to put them in muslin bags or just toss them into wort and strain before going into fermenter?..Knox.

KnoxMainer1 said:

when using pellet hops in your wort do you need to put them in muslin bags or just toss them into wort and strain before going into fermenter?..Knox.

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Just toss them in. You don't need to strain them or siphon off the wort either. A lot of people just dump the whole boil, trub and all, into the fermenter.

will it just settle in the fermenter?..

Either way works. I personally throw the hops directly into my boil kettle. Once you're done boiling, you can then whirlpool the wort a few times when cooling. This will make sure that most of the break material and hops are clumped together in a cone in the middle of your kettle. You can then use you siphon to get the wort transferred over to your primary leaving the hops and break material in the kettle.

Using a muslin bag works great too, but that's just one more thing to clean out afterwards... I'm kinda lazy and don't use the bags anymore.

KnoxMainer1 said:

will it just settle in the fermenter?..

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Yep. You can rack the beer off from the trub later on, i.e. when you move to secondary if you're going to be using a secondary.

Since I use a plate chiller (which can clog) I once tried using muslin bags but found I needed up up the hops by 10%. I then switched to a reusable nylon bag and haven't noticed any decrease in utilization rates as compared to just dumping them in the kettle. But if clogging isn't an issue for you I would just dump them in.

i use a bag and it works fine. i forgot to buy enough bags once and i noticed a difference in the clarity.

I used to use muslin bags for my hops, I thought it would make for easier straining. When I made extract brews on my kitchen stove, this was fine.

Then I purchased a propane burner so I could brew outside. The burner gives a much stronger boil than the stove. Anyway, I put my hops in the bag like I always did and threw it in. An hour later I pulled the bag out and guess what? No hops were in it. Never used a bag again. I always strain my wort with a fine cheese cloth like strainer and this gets 99% of the hops.

Next time you're at Lowes or Home Depot buy one or two 5 gallon size, and three or four gallon size nylon mesh paint strainer bags.

I used to weigh out and pre-package my hops ahead of time into however many gallon strainer bags, and then I would just toss the proper bag into the boiling wort when needed.

I still weigh out the hops, but put them into plastic containers. I use the five gallon nylon bag and just dump the hops from the container into the one large bag and tea bag the whole thing. I'd also give it a little love from the stir paddle during the boil.

Only have to clean one bag, not a bunch of goo in the kettle, and I get the right hops into the boil at the right time with no stress.

I use a plastic spring clamp to clamp the five gallon bag to the side of the kettle. Don't let it touch the bottom.

Good Luck.

Sometimes muslim bags work, sometimes they don't usually not fine enough. But I have paint straining bags, I'll have to try that instead.

rsmith179 said:

Either way works. I personally throw the hops directly into my boil kettle. Once you're done boiling, you can then whirlpool the wort a few times when cooling. This will make sure that most of the break material and hops are clumped together in a cone in the middle of your kettle. You can then use you siphon to get the wort transferred over to your primary leaving the hops and break material in the kettle.

Using a muslin bag works great too, but that's just one more thing to clean out afterwards... I'm kinda lazy and don't use the bags anymore.

Click to expand...

I agree. I use a converted keg with a bazooka screen. Just dump in my hops and whirlpool when cooling.......very little enters the fermenter and even so I like the little extra hop character.

off topic: Adam great beer name btw "Goat Scrotum Chocolate Porter"

Can't say i want to try that one but it definitly caught my eye

I started out using them, but quit after a while. Most of what I brew is some sort of an IPA and I broke my hops bill down into smaller, more and frequent additions. Just not worth it to me for that type of thing.