hops in a teaball?

[skx]

Any thoughts on containing hops inside of a mesh tea ball(stainless steel) when boiling them?

 

[HalfPint]

Perhaps for dryhopping, but not for boiling. Unless you have a ball that would give the hops enough room for them to move around a lot, I wouldn't do it. You see, if your tea ball isn't big enough, the hops will swell inside, clump the holes, and lead to under extraction of the beautiful hop goodness.

 

[Bopper]

They do make bigger ones for just this purpose but I don't use them because I worry about under extraction. Some people do use them and report good results. You could make a hop strainer out of pvc and a paint strainer bag. There are a few project threads out there that discuss this in more detail.

Here's one: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/simple-hop-strainer-assembly-153372/

 

[beerocd]

I just dry hopped with an ounce; it swelled to take up the whole tea ball. About tennis ball sized. Even wrapped in cheese cloth, some pellet dust made it into the beer.

 

[skx]

i am growing my own hops, so not using pellets.
Also the tea ball i found is about 4 inches across, so pretty big.