Hop Ball

[rcd]

Is it okay to use those screen mesh hop balls that some HBS's sell? I've been using them but I'm worried about utilization. They dont get a lot of play inside those hop balls by the time they've expanded with fluid, it seems like. Dry, they take up about half the space in there.

 

[Chairman Cheyco]

You're right, your utilization goes waaay down when you use those things. It's best to figure out a way to handle the hops loose and go with that. The hopstopper is a dream when it comes to that.

 

[rcd]

way way down? uh oh. well i just brewed a fat tire clone using them. do you think it's gonna suck now?

 

[Chairman Cheyco]

Nah, it won't suck. I bet the next one will be much better though. A big part of utilizing hops comes from them banging around in the wort.

 

[rcd]

Does it help that i kept swishing the ball around in the wort with my spoon? i tried to beat it up pretty good. think it makes much difference?

 

[Chairman Cheyco]

Well, that's better than if you didn't knock it about, but I don't think it's any substitution for loose hops. Relax, fix it next time.

 

[Wheat King]

why is such a product available if the concensus is quite clearly oposed to using it?

 

[rcd]

good question...

 

[Chairman Cheyco]

$$$$$$$$$$ Someone, somewhere gets that when you buy a hop ball...

 

[rcd]

Hey... speakin of the hop utilization... anyone know if i shoul dry hop in the secondary to compensate for using hop balls on bittering and aroma hops in my recent brew?

it's a Fat Tire clone, and had 1oz Brewer's Gold bittering hops and 1oz Saaz aroma hops.

 

[jar]

Dry hopping won't give you bitterness and flavor, only aroma. If you taste the beer in secondary, and it's lacking one of these, you can fix it with hop tea. Boil hops in a small amount of water for the time you would have boiled them in the wort, and add this to your secondary.

 

[EvilTOJ]

I used to use hop bags, but now I use a new method. I don't know what thread it was in, but someone had taken a 4" plastic plumbing sleeve and attached at grainbag over the top, then attached the sleeve to the top of the boiler. The bags are huge, and you get the looseness and utilization of the hops 'going commando' but with the cleanup of hop bags