Emergency brewing question!

[Kellenm]

I'm brewing my second batch, and it's my first with multiple hops. The first hops was to be added at the beginning of the boil, and the second 40 minutes into the boil.

Do I take out the first hops when I add the second, or leave it in?

I should mention, they are steeping.

Thank you for responding!!!

 

[tonyolympia]

Leave the hops in. If you're doing a 60 minute boil, and your bittering addition goes in at 60 minutes, that means it's in for the whole boil.

 

[Kellenm]

Great, thank you so much!

 

[tonyolympia]

My pleasure! I would point out that that's the first time I was able to help someone with their question on this forum. I'm a noob, too, with only five batches under my belt.

Welcome to brewing!

 

[Kellenm]

I finished my second brew last night, and I am now in love with the process. Nice to know that I have people I can count on at a moments notice to help me out.

Thank you so much!

 

[Maxkling]

As stated above, leave them. Also after my first batch I never used muslin again.

 

[Fish826]

As stated above, leave them. Also after my first batch I never used muslin again.

Yeah I'm starting to think that's the way to go, also. I've done a couple brews now that have hop additions at different intervals. The muslin bag tends to flip and turn during the boil twisting the strings all up. Makes it hard, and hot, trying to untwist the strings to add the other hops.

 

[Brandonovich]

You use a new bag for each hop addition. Get cheapo hops socks for .39 each and throw them away when you are done.

 

[unionrdr]

I can get them clean as new with very little effort on my part. Patience here is good too. I dont use strings or any of that. Just bag'em & toss'em in. They float around anyway. I see no need in a home size BK to tie them down like a commercial brewer does.

 

[tonyolympia]

I quickly grew tired of hop socks. I bought a few nylon mesh drawstring bags from my LHBS to replace them. They're higher quality and reusable, but I still don't want to use them.

So long as I'm not saving the yeast, I think I prefer to keep the hops loose, to let them really permeate the boil. I have a superstitious feeling that I get better utilization, plus it's just plain easier.

My current thinking is that I'll bag my hops on the first batch I make with a new Wyeast smack pack to keep hops out of the trub, then I'll harvest that yeast to make a batch with second-generation yeast. I'll also bag the hops in that batch. Then I'll wash the yeast from the second batch, and brew up to six or so batches from the high-quality third generation washed yeast, keeping the hops loose in most or all of them. (At that point, I'd only bag the hops if I wanted to wash the yeast again.)

I suppose I should qualify the above by saying that it still seems like a good idea to bag whole hop cones. They do like to clog my tubes, and straining the wort is a pain.