Brewing in Daegu, South Korea

[Philthor]

Picked up the hobby a few months ago. Mainly doing extract recipes, but we (three coworkers and myself) have done a few partial mashes.

Korea just opened up to home brewing pretty much recently (as far as I can tell) because of local laws changing. There's quite a nice craft beer scene emerging which has opened up the market for home brewing.

Not sure if I should pose this question here in the intro section, but of course I am going to :

Instead of using hop bags, has anyone ever tried tea infusion containers? I saw some fairly large stainless steel ones in a store here (as you can imagine, tea is pretty popular in Asia). Seems to me they'd be easier to clean and they can be hooked to the side of my kettle making them easier to "fish" out than hop bags. However, I wonder if they'll bang up against the kettle and cause any issues that way.

Thanks,

Phil

 

[Devilsnight]

Welcome! I have a few stainless hops "balls" as there called here I think there usually sold for making tea, so same thing probly. If your using a stainless kettle I don't see any problem. I'd personaly recommend using the biggest you can find as the hops swell up to incredible proportions once they hit the boil.

 

[NCarolinaN8]

Sounds like ol Philthor may be in the military.

 

[BeerLoverHere]

I'd personaly recommend using the biggest you can find as the hops swell up to incredible proportions once they hit the boil.

+1 on that. hop pellets expand incredibly and you want to maximize the surface area of your hops to the wort during the boil.

 

[ghohn]

Hey Phil,

Welcome. I'm in Daejeon to your west. Homebrewing hasn't exactly just landed on the shores here. I've been in the 6 years I've been here and I know a fella in Seoul that's been at it since the late 90s. That said, the available of supplies has risen exponentially in the last year or two.

As far as your tea infuser is concerned, I'd be reluctant to do so because, as mentioned, they tend to balloon out during the boil and I'd fear you wouldn't get full extraction if they were contained in an undersized infuser. Alternatively, a well executed 'whirlpool' after chill can pile them up in the center if it's carry-over to the fermenter that you're concerned about. Here is something I use in my setup both to transfer from kettle to fermenters and then from fermenters to kegs.

It's just a Daiso tea ball with a notch cut out that's slightly smaller than the O.D of my high temperature hosing. The 'spring' from the hose keeps the infuser safely latched.

 

[Philthor]

Gjohn, thanks for the info and advice. Yeah, my bad regarding the home brewing community here (that's why I hedged my comment with the "as far as I can tell").

Not military. I work at the international school (private school and not DoDEA) in Daegu.

Attached is a picture of the infusers I found:

 

[mhurst111]

Gjohn, thanks for the info and advice. Yeah, my bad regarding the home brewing community here (that's why I hedged my comment with the "as far as I can tell").



Not military. I work at the international school (private school and not DoDEA) in Daegu.



Attached is a picture of the infusers I found:

Those are similar to a stainless steel hop spider. See here as an example - https://utahbiodieselsupply.com/brewingfilters.php#6x14hopspider

The HUGE difference being the hole size (microns vs mm). The ones you show might work at containing whole or leaf hops, but pellets would likely pass right through. If you have whole hops, I'd consider giving it a try.

 

[Cyclman]

The holes in those look pretty big if you're talking pellet hops, leaf hops they'd probably be great.

I like the nylon bags because they do a great job of keeping hop particles in, but are large, so the hops get good exposure.

 

[OleBrewing]

I have used herb balls from midwest. Yes the hops expand in them. I split 1/2 oz per ball then when they float to the top I grab them with a good set of tongs and squeeze the juicy goodness out of them. Now I use te fine mesh nylon bag with some ss balls in it.
The herb mesh balls worked for me only reason I usede them was because of my plate chiller.

 

[Philthor]

This is why seeking multiple minds is best! Thanks, Cyclman and mhurst111! Since all of the hops I've found in Korea have been in pellet form (emphasis on "that I've found"), I'll have to look at those hop spiders.

 

[MindenMan]

If you can't find fine nylon mesh bags, a pair of Ladies' stockings would work too. If you can't get what you want, use what you can.

 

[rus]

I love Korea!

I visited there in 2001 and also around 8 months ago and look forward to visiting again. Last time I was there the beer was delicious, icy cold and went down so easy. I just couldn't tell if the beer was really great or if it was just my good mood from catching up with friends after many years. My Korean friends don't talk highly of their own beer, what do you think of it?

 

[ghohn]

Rus,

I love Korea for many reasons but the beer is not one of them: domestic, light and cold sums it up. That said, 2014 was a big year with imports gaining traction and laws changing allowing small brewpubs to pop up. The future is looking bright.

Beer aside, the food here is awesome. Love it.

Philthor, you can save yourself a grip of money by have hops shipped over in bulk from nikobrew.com. No worries with customs as it's looked at similar to tea. Last I checked, 4lbs delivered was about 22 bucks. Takes about 10 days.

 

[rus]

Haha, I must have just been happy to be catching up with old friends.

Agree about the food!

 

[Philthor]

Russ,

Yeah the food is awesome here, but the beer is not too impressive to me. There is a vastly improved variety compared to when I did my first go around in Korea nearly twenty years ago.

I've always wanted to do home brewing, but was slightly intimidated. A pal here said he was looking to do it for a hobby, so I jumped in. Feeling rather confident about it now. Have a crew of guys joining in with me, and it's rather fun.

 

[petey_c]

I use 5 gal paint strainer bags from HD/Lowes. After chillin', I pour the wort into the bag which is in the primary. Then strain the liquid out.

 

[JayDogg]

Accidently posted in the wrong thread. Oops! Where is the delete button?