To hop bag or not?

[aboantopick]

I brewed an all grain lagunitas IPA clone almost 6 weeks ago. It was my 5th brew, my second all grain and the first time I used hop bags. I have been real happy with all of my attempts so far but his one didnt have near the hoppy taste it should. It may be a bit young too but does anyone find that the hop flavor fills the wort better without the bags? I have had no problem siphoning off the wort and leaving the junk behind, just thought I would try the bags.

 

[unionrdr]

They worked fine for me in the boil. But when I started tossing the hops in the boil loose,I felt the hop flavors had more edge to them.

 

[kenmcchord]

Did you dryhop? If yes did you bag the dryhop?

I've been using a hopspider with a large course bag for the boils, it keeps a significant amount of crud out of the fermenter (and my plate chiller now that I'm using one of those). I've never bagged dryhops, and never had issues with the hop flavor being absent.

 

[jekeane]

Most of the guys I know have been using some amalgamation of this of late.

https://byo.com/build-it-yourself/item/2427-build-a-hop-spider-projects

 

[grahamfw]

At 6 weeks, you may have had a lot of the initial hop flavor subside. If you want to get more fresh hop aroma, I'd dry hop it. I would imagine a Lagunitas IPA would have a dry hop regimen, yes?

Also, post the recipe and we can see where maybe there should be more hops or if something else is at play.

 

[AnOldUR]

I brewed an all grain lagunitas IPA clone almost 6 weeks ago. It may be a bit young . . .

At six weeks your IPA is on the down side of its prime. Hop aroma and flavor are starting to fade.

Personally, I say no to the bag. It's not a matter of if you'll lose hop efficiency, it's how much you'll lose. It all depends on technique.

 

[kh54s10]

I bag my hops every time. I may be losing some but not that I notice. I have never done a side by side test though. If you do use a bag make sure the hops are very loose inside so the beer gets full contact to all the hops.

 

[Yooper]

At six weeks your IPA is on the down side of its prime. Hop aroma and flavor are starting to fade.

Personally, I say no to the bag. It's not a matter of if you'll lose hop efficiency, it's how much you'll lose. It all depends on technique.

That's what I was going to say. The beer isn't young- it's actually old by this point and will lose aroma and flavor more and more as time goes on.

If you must bag, you can, but make sure the hops are loose in the bag so that the wort is fully in contact with all of the hops. You can use more than 1 or 2 bags so that can happen. In some of my most-hoppy beers (Pliny clone), I had a ton of leaf (whole) hops and I had to bag them to keep them out of my pump- but I used like 5 bags so they were free flowing, as well as a hops spider for the bittering hops.

I think there was something like 17 ounces of hops in a 10 gallon batch- that would have clogged my pump in an instant.

 

[unionrdr]

I use no more than 1oz hops per bag,but I also use a few bags worth for dry hopping. Less mess later.

 

[MedicMang]

Mine go naked. No bags in the boil and no bags dryhopping. I use all pellets too. After I cool the wort, I whirlpool and then let it sit for 20 min. I get mostly clear wort since most of the particles drop to the bottom of the kettle.

I have had problems in the past with getting less than stellar hop flavor and aroma from using bags. May have been user error from adding too much to the same bag.


Sent from Cheese Doodle Land.

 

[patthebrewer]

Toss that stuff in there au-natural....things are always better in the liquid without clothes

 

[fearwig]

I have had good experience with hop bags, but you do need to use about one per ounce of leaf. Pellet is so compressed I don't think it matters.

Keeping them submerged strikes me as important, though, and I sometimes find it hard to find enough metal to keep it down. I used clean silverware last time, since I was about to run a load anyway.

If you squeeze the bags a bit I think you get a net improvement in both potency and volume, but you do add tannins you'll have to fight later.

 

[aidan]

My preference is no bag. In fact I seem to get most out of my hops when I let all the hop trub into the fermenter as well. It all settles out in the end so only slight downside is it takes up a small additional volume in the fermenter but no problem for me since I use a 30L fermenter for 23L batches.

 

[aboantopick]

Wow!
Thanks for all the great replies. Some very good points.
I had my second bottle tonight and it was not good, so I went over my recipe and brew day notes. I forgot the recipe called for pellets and I ordered leaf hops for the first time: mistake 1
per recipe 3.15 ounces of cascade at 0 minutes then let stand for 15 min before cooling....I used 1 bag for all 3 plus ounces and could not get them to sink: mistake 2 and 3
When I received the hops by mail they were all leafy, no whole buds and did not seam fresh: mistake 4
As far as an IPA being more flavorful at a young age I will remember that, this recipe called for 1, 2, 3 weeks. Did not call for dry hops.
I bottled another IPA two days after this one. It was a mini mash kit with dry hops (all pellets no bags) also from more beer called a budget IPA. I tried a bottle after 11 days in the bottle....WOW! Beers good again!

 

[fearwig]

Leaf and pellets are basically interchangeable. Dry hopping isn't be-all-end-all but it's typical in modern IPAs. Hops freshness or storage could be a factor. I usually get mine at the store by the pound and the keep in the freezer for up to a year with no problem (I might up the late addition if they don't seem as potent), but if yours were kept hot for a prolonged time, or something like that, they could degrade pretty quickly.

Or it could be something related to fermentation or carbonation, hard to say without a taste.