Straining Hops, Hop Bags, etc

[Moonpile]

I'm sure this topic comes up a lot, so I'm sorry if I'm retreading old ground.

So our first brew came ended up with maybe 3.75 gal from a 5 gal recipe. I think a lot of this was lost from wort absorbed into the hops and from straining them out.

In my previous brewing experience (as I've mentioned ~10 years ago), I had started getting fastidious about removing hops and I seem to remember it paying off in clearer beer, but also having the problem of simply loosing volume as a result.

I'm going to solve the volume problem by simply brewing bigger batches, maybe based on 6 gal. My primary is a 6.5 gal carboy, but I think we'll also use plastic too. I'm expecting to yield about 5 gal from a 6 gallon recipe.

Straining the hops out is a pain. I bought a long (maybe 3' by 6") nylon grain bag which I intended to use to help filter. This worked but was slow, pouring into the bag which was on top of the funnel leading into the primary. I have two things I want to try, and I'm looking for comments or advice:

Possible straining method #1: Brew with hops loose in kettle. Sanitize a plastic bucket with spigot. Pour the wort into the long bag allowing more surface area to strain. Wort will drain out the spigot into primary. Basically the bucket will be a giant funnel.

Possible straining method #1: Nylon hop bags during brew. I've used this before and recall it helping with detritus in the wort, but I'm concerned about getting the full benefit of the hops. How big a difference does everyone think it makes having the hops "roaming free" vs "cooped up in a bag"?

Up until now I've only used pellet hops. It seems to me that using whole hops will make any other kind of straining we do a lot easier. Is that going to be true or do they just break up in the boil?

Say I have hops either in a "strainer bag" or in a hop bag that was in the boil. Is it a good idea to squeeze out most of the wort? My gut says "No". Comments?


Moon

 

[homebrewer_99]

I just use a nylon net that fits over my bucket.

I also use 6 clothes pins to keep it in place. The weight of the water and hops does cause the elastic to give and it'll all fall in if not clipped into place.

This way I can sparge (rinse) the wort off the hops with iced water.

 

[david_42]

As long as the bags are not packed full, the difference in hopping is minor. You do have to worry about the bags melting and burning onto the bottom of the kettle.

I use a large colander on my bucket. It's a conical unit, so I suspect a carboy user could place one inside a funnel. [note the stand-off ribs on the outside] Has a hook on one side and a long handle, so straining is a one person job. And it holds a lot of hops. Picked it up at a restaurant supply place.

 

[Two Dog's Brewing]

Well as Im sure you are aware that if you are making a 5 gallon batch you must start with more than 6 gallons for a full boil. If not you must top pff up to 5 gallons in the carboy. I start with a little under 6 gallons of water. You are loosing WAY too much volume straining the way u do. I use the exact same collander above. I put it in a funnel works perfect. I use pellet hops and it never clogs. the minute amount of stuff you get by the collander I call charecter and dont worry a bit about it!!

 

[Willsellout]

I use a bazooka screen and ball valve. No hops get into my fermenter with this setup. OH I use whole leaf hops BTW. Pellet are a different story.


Dan

 

[chthonik]

Just to update, the last batch we brewed with Moonpile, we filtered through a straining funnel first, then through the hopping bag, with little loss of volume. It went much faster and the wort looked good. Can't wait to give it the taste test!

 

[Moonpile]

Just to update, the last batch we brewed with Moonpile, we filtered through a straining funnel first, then through the hopping bag, with little loss of volume. It went much faster and the wort looked good. Can't wait to give it the taste test!

Just a report to everyone, we've gone with method #1 from my original post.

Possible straining method #1: Brew with hops loose in kettle. Sanitize a plastic bucket with spigot. Pour the wort into the long bag allowing more surface area to strain. Wort will drain out the spigot into primary. Basically the bucket will be a giant funnel.

We actually leave the spigot off and fill the bucket with wort. After we pull the bag out and let it drain a bit, we open the spigot and let it drain into the primary. We went straight into a bucket with our second batch and into a strainer funnel and into the 6.5 gal carboy for our third batch. Both times we felt like we'd gotten very good aeration by this method.

On our second batch we pitched dry yeast on the foamy wort and it was in full ferment 8 hours later (probably much earlier). I haven't gotten a report on the the latest batch, since we brewed last night, but we pitched a White Labs vial. The wort looked nice and foamy.

Yay beer!

 

[dougbo]

I use a strainer that you put over a frying pan to keep (bacon) from splattering. Sits right on top of a 5 gal bucket and works great.