BIAB type bag for hop additions?

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rtracer

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Just had a thought and wonder if anyone else does something like this.
So far I have been too scared to just throw the hops in my kettle when brewing, though not sure why as I now just throw in my dry hops in the carboy without using a bag. Anyways, I use multiple smallish mesh bags for my multiple hop additions. I have not researched this, but I would assume that using these bags equates to less hop utilization as thee pellet hops basically turn into a ball of muck in the bags, plus the bags limit the hop exposure to the full volume of wort.
I am thinking a large kettle sized bag, similar to a BIAB bag in the wort while boiling where you just toss in all your hops at specified times might be the best of both worlds. The hops can boil freely in the entire wort volume, yet most of the residue would be removed. When done simply hoist the bag, let drain and your done.
 
oujens said:
Research a hop spider. I just made one DIY from Home Depot for $20.
Click to expand...

Yeah I have seen those, actually almost bought a nice one from Morebeer the other day, but seems like your still stuck with a relatively small bag.
I guess I could make one for a big bag
 
The hops only need to be in contact with the boiling wort. They do not need to move all over the pot. This allows the hops to be down in the boil and reduce the trub post-boil.
 
I rinse out my BIAB bag while I'm waiting for the wort to come up to the boil and then use it for my hops. The bag hangs from a hook/pulley thing and dangles into the wort, I weight it down with 2 stainless spoons😀.


Aamcle
 
The easiest thing to do is to simply dump everything, hop gunk and all, into your fermentor and don't worry about it. I myself have my hops freely floating in the boil, but strain out the hops after cooling the wort. I take a 5 gallon paint strainer bag, and boil it for several minutes in water while my wort is boiling, then dump the bag into starsan solution and let it soak there. When my wort is cooled, I line my sanitized fermentor bucket with the sanitized bag, and pour the cooled wort through the bag. I use the mash paddle to help squeeze the wort out of the hop gunk in the bag. This method prevents me from losing a ton of wort like I would if I didn't transfer the trub from the bottom of the boil kettle, and keeps the hop gunk out of the fermentor for the most part. It isn't necessary, but it is a simple method to reduce the hop gunk that makes it into the fermentor, while maximizing the amount of good wort that is in the fermentor.
 
Brew hardware has some good large bags for a solid price
I use one with a stainless garbage disposal ring as a diy spider
 
theseeker4 said:
The easiest thing to do is to simply dump everything, hop gunk and all, into your fermentor and don't worry about it. I myself have my hops freely floating in the boil, but strain out the hops after cooling the wort. I take a 5 gallon paint strainer bag, and boil it for several minutes in water while my wort is boiling, then dump the bag into starsan solution and let it soak there. When my wort is cooled, I line my sanitized fermentor bucket with the sanitized bag, and pour the cooled wort through the bag. I use the mash paddle to help squeeze the wort out of the hop gunk in the bag. This method prevents me from losing a ton of wort like I would if I didn't transfer the trub from the bottom of the boil kettle, and keeps the hop gunk out of the fermentor for the most part. It isn't necessary, but it is a simple method to reduce the hop gunk that makes it into the fermentor, while maximizing the amount of good wort that is in the fermentor.
Click to expand...

I do this, too. Well, almost... I use muslin cloth over the fermenter (strapped on).
 
My thinking is similar to the OP. I use a spare BIAB bag for my late (post flameout) hop additions. Seems to work fine and I feel I get better aroma and flavor.
 
I built s hop spider for about $15 from HD. I do it to maximize the beer in the fermenter.

However go read the info on brulosophy about true in the fermenter. Dumping all the funk in has little effect on the final product according to his tests.
 
jgarretson said:
I built s hop spider for about $15 from HD. I do it to maximize the beer in the fermenter.

However go read the info on brulosophy about true in the fermenter. Dumping all the funk in has little effect on the final product according to his tests.
Click to expand...

I do if for two reasons
1)keeps as much hop debris from being in my harvested yeast, especially in very hoppy beers
2)I push my finshed beer with co2 from my speidel to my kegs with co2
If there is to much trub/yeast/hops, it covers the spigot and clogs.
 
So I had trouble with my first mag I got for my hop spider. It was to fine of a mesh and utilization sucked. Got another bag made by BSG and was of paint strainer consistency and it seemed like it was getting clogged with trub pretty badly. I feel like any bigger of a mesh won't contain the pellet hops as a good bit got through already. The beer is still fermenting so I'm not sure how well it went yet but I feel like it didn't maximize the utilization. I had just over a pound in it for reference.
Again, my hope in doing this is just to have a cleaner yeast cake for harvesting. I used my pump for the first time and did a true whirlpool while chilling. Seemed to help.
My other worry with throwing that much hops in is I only have about 1/8 inch clearance under my pickup tube, and to much hops would surely clog it.

Any opinions here?
Thanks.
 
Harvest from your starter. Cold crash to near freezing before transferring finished beer. And stop bagging those poor hops!
 
tagz said:
Harvest from your starter. Cold crash to near freezing before transferring finished beer. And stop bagging those poor hops!
Click to expand...

Yea, but I can get way more slurry from a 10g batch...
I do harvest from my starter, but that's to rebuild from, ideally. Don't want to do a multi step starter every time as life can/will screw that up.
And I do cold crash under pressure, but that has nothing to do with this...
But seriously, I don't think I can not filter because of the dip tube heigth or it will clog
It clogged 2gallons through 10g of porter with 4oz of cones.
 
Ahh you're using whole hops. That may be part of the issue. If you use pellets and cold crash they should drop into a nice compact cake.
 
wilserbrewer said:
I recently added a deluxe hop bag and hop sock with drawstring and cord lock to my site, bags are made of polyester voile materail, same as a BIAB bag.
http://biabbags.webs.com/

Click to expand...

Would love to acquire some of your wares wilser, but I'm debating internally about a hop bag and larger batches. My current hop bag is bigger than my ketttel (BSG 24x28 iirc) and is of the same material as big box paint strainers. I don't think a bag could be any more coarse of a material and still be effective. Now, this was in a 50%wheat beer so maybe that had something to do with it... the higher protein amount in general.
I may be asking Santa for a miab for my Coleman extreme though. ;)
 
Trying to find answers to my problem, I came across this thread.

I use a Wilser bag in a basket for BIAB and a hop spider using a paint strainer bag. I use the hop spider because I have a plate chiller and I'm trying to minimize the trub that goes thru it.

While cleaning the plate chiller, there was considerable **** matter that kept coming out. It got me thinking that the hop spider might be letting thru too much. I know that for sure because I always find hop debris in the kettle. And, while I say that, at the same time, the hop spider traps at least half a gallon of wort that is clogged in the bag.

So I got thinking of using the basket with the BIAB bag for the full boil instead of the hop spider.

Why use the basket? I have an electric set up, so it keeps the bag off the element and also makes it easier for me to lift after the mash.

Anyone had success doing this?
 
My approach to eBIAB is continuously recirculating mash, no sparge, and I found that my basket restricted the flow too much, so I replaced it with a DIY wide mesh false bottom. Bobby M offers a better version, but not in my kettle size. A pulley can solve the lifting problem.

I think the only guaranteed method of avoiding hop debris in the kettle is to stop using hops!
 
whovous said:
I think the only guaranteed method of avoiding hop debris in the kettle is to stop using hops!
Click to expand...

Yea. Or go whole cone
To fine a mesh with hops hurts utilization.
To wide and if doesn't catch enough
 
I do exactly what you describe with my biab bag and my basket and it works very well. The bag is big enough that utilization doesn't seem to be an issue and the basket keeps it off my heating elements.

When done, I hoist my bag up on my pulley like I do for my grains, let it drain, squeeze it and get all the liquid out. Then everything goes through the plate chiller and into my kettle in one pass. Never had a clogged chiller. the hop dust is too fine to clog it. And losses are minimal.

Give it a shot!:mug:


hio3791 said:
Trying to find answers to my problem, I came across this thread.

I use a Wilser bag in a basket for BIAB and a hop spider using a paint strainer bag. I use the hop spider because I have a plate chiller and I'm trying to minimize the trub that goes thru it.

While cleaning the plate chiller, there was considerable **** matter that kept coming out. It got me thinking that the hop spider might be letting thru too much. I know that for sure because I always find hop debris in the kettle. And, while I say that, at the same time, the hop spider traps at least half a gallon of wort that is clogged in the bag.

So I got thinking of using the basket with the BIAB bag for the full boil instead of the hop spider.

Why use the basket? I have an electric set up, so it keeps the bag off the element and also makes it easier for me to lift after the mash.

Anyone had success doing this?
Click to expand...
 
I have some of the hop bags @wilserbrewer posted. Even though I usually just toss in my hops, they still work very well. I place my brew spoon over the kettle and just hook the bags on to that. Makes hop additions easy.
 

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