Hop Bags???

[Blove30]

So what are your thoughts on hops steeping bags? My first batch has loose hops, other than the mess what is the difference and what are your preferences?

 

[LakewoodBrew]

hop bags, besides having a marginal effect on utilization, are just one more thing to clean or an additional expense to the batch. No point unless your system/process can't handle the loose hops.

 

[PHillBrewCo]

hop bags, besides having a marginal effect on utilization, are just one more thing to clean or an additional expense to the batch. No point unless your system/process can't handle the loose hops.

+1 No bag!

 

[unionrdr]

I like hop sacks. It makes the wort cleaner off the bat. And it's easy to clean the sacks. I just empty/rinse well. Then boil in a small saucepan till the water turns green. Squeeze'em out,& soak in PBW for a day or two,then rinse again. Clean as new!
I know they're only some 39c,but I'm cheap & hate to be wasteful.

 

[weirdboy]

I LOVE using hop bags. I use them every single time I brew.

Keeps the majority of the crud in the bag and not at the bottom of my BK where it will end up

a) clogging my plate chiller
b) getting into my fermenter
c) potentially making my beer more cloudy

As to LakewoodBrew's comments:

1. If you don't buy them from your LHBS, who will jack up the prices a bunch, hop bags cost very little and you can reuse them many, many times.
2. I think it's easier to clean the hop bag full of crud than a layer of baked-on hop crud at the bottom of my BK. I can just turn the bag inside out and dump it in the garbage. Rinse a bit, and then throw it in with my laundry to clean it.

 

[Scruff_McGee]

+ 1 to the hop bag. Cleaning them is just as easy as scrubbing the sides of your boil kettle. Additionally you don't have to freak out about sanitation as it's being boiled with your wort. (Note you should still clean it )

 

[pdxkale]

+1 to hop bags helping to prevent clogging. I had a hell of a time with the my dip tube in my BK getting clogged by both whole leaf and pellet hops. Now I don't have that problem, just a bunch of other minor disasters.

Plus, I use my largest hop bag as a filter on my autosiphon, as well. Well worth the money invested in reusable bags.

 

[Whut]

Don't use them and just toss the hops in.

 

[bniesen]

I use one only because I am paranoid about the hop pellets clogging my 3/8 CFC, especially when I brew an IPA.
Cleaning the bag is easy, turn it inside out and hose 'er off.

 

[impur]

No bags during boil, but do use them to dry hop in the keg.

 

[ozzy1038]

Sterilized knee high pantyhose. They are cheap. Just throw away. For dry hopping.

 

[Golddiggie]

I use hop bags while brewing the wort, to keep get cleaner wort into the fermenter. For dry hopping, I'm using whole hops, and I just pour them in loose. I'd rather do that than need to wring out the hop bag to get the rest of the wort that would be trapped along with them (sloooow to drain)... Plus, fermenting in sanke kegs, I don't want to struggle with getting the bags out the opening.

I plan to continue using the bags for the boil (pellet hops) and not bag for dry hopping...

 

[logan3825]

I don't use hop bags. I pour through a 5 gallon paint strainer bag in my fermenter to catch most of the hops.

 

[Golddiggie]

I don't use hop bags. I pour through a 5 gallon paint strainer bag in my fermenter to catch most of the hops.

Doesn't work when you use a plate chiller and ferment in sanke kegs... :rockin:

 

[Kaz]

Hops bags are for sissies. I toss the pellets in the kettle, never had a pellet clog my dip tube. I toss whole leaf hops right in the carboy to dry hop. If I was doing a batch that had whole leaf hops going in the kettle, they would go in the bag, the whole leaf will clog my dip tube and at that point I would cry like a sissy and thus the bag

 

[bniesen]

Hops bags are for sissies. If I was doing a batch that had whole leaf hops going in the kettle, they would go in the bag, the whole leaf will clog my dip tube and at that point I would cry like a sissy and thus the bag

ha ha sissy

rock on :rockin: