schneemann
Well-Known Member
Is it possible to use a hop bag or a spice ball during the boil, or will negatively impact the utilization of the hops?
I tried the balls. They didn't work well in the boil. I'm keeping them for dry hopping in the keg. Next brew I'm going with the paint strainer bag from the orange big box store.
NEW LARGE MESH TEA INFUSER SPICE BALL POT KETTLE - 4" D - eBay (item 110282778837 end time Aug-29-08 14:09:30 PDT)
Get yourself 2 or 3 of those bad boys. They work GREAT! With the 8" chain, you can hang them right on the rim of the pot on a full 5 gallon boil for easy removal. With pellets, some does escape the holes, but it does an amazing job of keeping the bulk inside. And they're honestly very easy to clean... just dump them out and rinse!
The pellets expand and the wort doesn't get through them. My hop utilization was really bad with the ball.
Speaking from experience, I just tried adding .75oz Magnum pellet hops to a 2" diameter herb ball. The hops expanded in the wort, and the hops completely filled the inner compartment.
With that, I immediately removed the herb ball and added my hops to my nylon bag. Didn't want to risk it...
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