hop spider affect extraction?

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

rockharrier

Member
Joined
Feb 23, 2013
Messages
24
Reaction score
1
Location
Fort Collins
I've started using a hop spider during my boil. Sure is convenient and makes cleanup much easier. But I was wondering if having the hops confined in the relatively small bag affects the hop extraction of bittering or flavor during the boil?
 
The only way to tell is to split a batch, A/B it and see for yourself. Everyone will have different answers regarding using a piece of equipment or method... Especially those who have yet to try it :cross:

I for one, am a fan of Hop Spiders.
 
I used to bag my hops and throw them in the boil. I struggled with getting great hop flavor/aroma in my early beers, but I can also chalk that up to using tap water high in bicarb and other minerals.

After reverting to RO water, my beers improved. I can tell you I observed a noticeable difference when I made an IPA where I didnt bag the hops, but threw everything in the kettle. I quit bagging after that. I have a SS spider now that allows the hops to move without confinement in the boil, and still get great results with the finished product.
 
It's long been shown that this WILL impact your hop utilization -especially if we're talking about the large stainless hop spiders that sit above the wort. -The stainless mesh acts like a heat sink and pulls heat out of the kettle, particularly inside the mesh where the hops are. The temperature inside of the stainless hop spider will be several degress below boiling which impacts the rate of conversion and you're ultimate hop utilization.

-I've found that when I use pellets if I just calculate IBUs for whole hops it's about right.


Adam
 
It's long been shown that this WILL impact your hop utilization -especially if we're talking about the large stainless hop spiders that sit above the wort. -The stainless mesh acts like a heat sink and pulls heat out of the kettle, particularly inside the mesh where the hops are. The temperature inside of the stainless hop spider will be several degress below boiling which impacts the rate of conversion and you're ultimate hop utilization.

-I've found that when I use pellets if I just calculate IBUs for whole hops it's about right.


Adam

I wondered about temp inside the SS spider, since the wort didnt seem disturbed. I took multiple temps checks my first time using it though, and each time came out to 210F (boiling point in my neck of the woods).
 
Thanks. Yeah, I noticed that the wort usually is not boiling inside the mesh bag attached to the spider... my IPA's have not had as much flavor as I'd hope but wasn't sure to blame the spider. Would it help if I attached a paint strainer bag (larger bag) instead of my normal (smaller) bag?

I'm using the spider and bag sold by MoreBeer, btw.
 
The trade off with the larger bag is that more hop matter will stick to the bag itself... while the increase size allows for better hop to wort contact.

I use a Blichmann Therminator plate chiller so a hop spider is a must for my hoppy beers. I started with the 1 gallon bags and then moved up to a manufactured stainless steel model.

I am quite happy with the amount of bitterness that I get... but I've never done a side by side. (at this point it's just a recipe issue since I will never go back to directly adding hops in the kettle)

But, I've brewed many recipes out of the book Brewing Classic Styles and I do not need to adjust the hop quantities.
 
Back
Top