Just Brewed - And hit a snag

[Hops-4-Life]

I had my 1st oops! 2 hop sacks broke out of 4 in the wort - whole leaf hops everywhere, it clogged my brew kettle, I had to use the auto syphon to go on top of my yeast cake and I finished at 1.078 SG at 75 degrees. I kept telling myself, relax and have another homebrew

Well, all in all it was cool, but I need to improve on the hop sacks - or not use them for more than 3 brews.

My son and I still had a blast and I had a few HG homebrews... :rockin:

Damn, what a great night! I'm calling it Split Sack Ale (My Son named it) - And it will probably be our best brew yet!

 

[Brewsmith]

How do you normally transfer out of the kettle?

 

[Hops-4-Life]

The spigot on the boil kettle - it was plugged up with hop leaves - I just checked and the batch is fermenting like crazy.

 

[McCall St. Brewer]

Where do you get your hop bags? Don't they normally last forever? My LHBS guy showed me his once that he's been using for over 10 years. I had one spring a leak that I was using to steep grains, but that one I had been stressing by pushing on it with a wooden spoon to get wort out of it.

You may want to try a different source for your bags. Or, you could also use a strainer to fish out your hops and not even use bags at all.

 

[Brewiz]

**Hops-4-Life posting from The BackYard Brewery**

Mine were not "store bought". They were nylon paint strainers - They worked perfect for 3 brews - it was the 4th one that did them in. :cross:

Before I used them I boiled them for an hour and they passed my stress test. I guess I should test them after each brew.

 

[raceskier]

After encountering the same problem with a massively hopped IPA, I looked for a fix. A hop stopper type strainer on the pot spigot is a good one. There are some commercial ones, I think someone on the forum is selling them, or you can make your own. I made one with stainless steel wire mesh from McMaster-Carr and a couple copper fittings. It obviously totally blocks out leaf hops and will take out probably 95% plus of pellet hops. I love the thing. If you make your own, make it big. Lots of surface area is the trick.

 

[Schlenkerla]

I normally use a $0.50 muslin hop sack. I can usually cut into thirds for the additions throughout the boil. Never had issues with it at all. As cheap as they are out they go to the trash with the steeping grains. Which also go into a hop sack for the boil.