Brewing tonight!

[dabber]

Well I'm gonna try to brew for the first time tonight. I'll be brewing a Wheat beer and I have a couple questions. I watched the dvd from Midwest Supplies last night and noticed after the guy steeped his grains and started the boil he put the hops in a grain bag. Since only one bag comes in the kit, do I empty the grains after steeping them? Then reuse the bag for the hops? Or do I just throw the hops in the brew pot without a bag?

thanks,
dabber

 

[Orfy]

You can throw them in the pot but you'll then have to strain it afterwards, which is no biggy because it'll help aerate the wort.
If you try to reuse the hop bag it'll be messy to clean out the grain. You don't want to boil any grain.
The other thing to think about is that if you are making multiple hop additions it means fishing the bag out undoing putting the hops in and repeating a couple of times.

 

[Tophe]

My homebrew supplier gives them to you for free...you can just throw them right in or get another bag.

 

[butler1850]

Even if you don't strain them, they'll drop to the bottom of the fermenter with the rest of the trub.

Since you're brewing a wheat beer, it'll be cloudy anyway, so don't worry about them.

Toss them in the boil, and watch for boilover after the additions. (Keep a squirt bottle with CLEAN water in it to fight the rising foam, & watch your heat)

 

[mountainrev]

You can throw them in the pot but you'll then have to strain it afterwards, which is no biggy because it'll help aerate the wort.
If you try to reuse the hop bag it'll be messy to clean out the grain. You don't want to boil any grain.
The other thing to think about is that if you are making multiple hop additions it means fishing the bag out undoing putting the hops in and repeating a couple of times.

Yeah, you probably don't want to reuse the grain bag for hops. I use a separate nylon bag for hops. It's really no problem to fish it out of the boiling brew pot to add aroma hops toward the end of the boil. I don't knot mine--just loosely tie it off, and hook the end under one of the handles on the pot. I put a few marbles in the bottom to make sure it sinks a little, but the top is always out of the water. Adding hops to it is simple and mess-free. And you can re-use the nylon bag many times. It will be stained green after one use, but you can dump the spent hops, turn it inside-out, and thoroughly rinse. Ready to go the next time!

 

[AGBrewer]

My LHBS owner says that the best way is to not use a steeping bag at all because they limit the amount of water that is able to get around the grains and hops. I use a large nylon to pour my water through after steeping and then throw the hops right into the water. I use the same nylon bag wrapped around my auto siphon to filter the hops and leave them in the brewpot. I'm sure that it is easier to put everything into bags but to each their own i guess.

 

[dabber]

Well I didn't get to brew yet! It's a good thing though. My buddy is coming over Sat afternoon to help me. He's also bringing some homebrew! Thanks for the info. I'm just gonna chuck em right in the pot! I'll be sure to post the outcome of my first brew day.


Thanks
dabber