Using a muslin bag. Any tips?

[dexter_craig]

When I brew I put EVERYTHING in the muslin bag. Steeping grains, hops, moss, etc. at appropriate times of course! Is this a good thing or ?
I use hop pellets so I don't like the stuff floating around. Same for the moss.
Does this interfere with the hop flovors that one wants?
Should I use plug hops and let them float in the boil?

 

[McKBrew]

It's all up to you. Personally, I think some of the issues I had with my Imperial Stout came from having a large amount of specialty grains in a bag, so that when they swelled up the grains in the center had minimal extraction. (Not much you can do for the grains, unless you go AG, partial mash, or smaller amounts of grain in multiple bags).

I also feel that hop extraction might be affected by bags as well which is why I only use whole hops now, and just throw them in the boil. The true muslin bags are really only good for about one use, so it can get spendy, and the mesh bags can be a PITA to clean out hop residue.

I have no scientific evdidence to say my methods are better, just my opinions dexter, and you have to work with what you have and judge the end product to see if it's where you want it to be. If I were working with pellet hops, I'd probably still bag them too.

 

[Beertk]

When I brew I put EVERYTHING in the muslin bag. Steeping grains, hops, moss, etc. at appropriate times of course! Is this a good thing or ?
I use hop pellets so I don't like the stuff floating around. Same for the moss.
Does this interfere with the hop flovors that one wants?
Should I use plug hops and let them float in the boil?

I will go with the assumption that you are an extract + grains brewer.

Dump these bags. The Nylon bags are reusable and work much better. I have several. Then efficiency of the hops is not as effected by the bags. Also, if you have 4 bags then you can easily add in hop additions without pulling out and opening the bag. That practic is a bit hard because of the hot bags. These small nylon bags are not expensive. Get em' as soon as possible.

As for what you have now. You do not put everything in for the whole time. This will lead to off flavors and astringancy. Rather, you put in the steeping grains and pull them out in the first 30 minutes at 152 degrees then you extract the grain bag. Then you add your hops on a schedule a common schedule is 60minutes from end time add Bittering hops 20 minutes from end is Flavoring hops and 5 minutes is Aroma hops. So in reality you should probably use 4 bags. 1 - grain and 3 - Hops. The same rule appies with muslim bags as well.

The other option is to go all grain and not needing a grain bag but I still use hop bags as it makes life easy on me.

Cheers

 

[LimerickBrewCo]

I'm by no means an experienced brewer but I always use muslin bags and have never had a problem. I make sure to tie them in a way that keeps them as loose as possible so that the grains or hops have room to expand and get good flow going though. The muslin bags are cheap so it's no big deal to throw them away and not worry about cleaning them too.

 

[Frankiesurf]

I steep my grains in a 5 gallon paint strainer. When done, I save them in a plastic bag for a co-workers chickens, then just throw my pellet hops into the kettle.

When it is time to pour the wort into my fermenting bucket I pour it through a clean paint strainer to pick up any trub.

I haven't had a problem with excessive trub when siphoning to my bottling bucket after I started using this method.

 

[Pezman1]

I'm by no means an experienced brewer but I always use muslin bags and have never had a problem. I make sure to tie them in a way that keeps them as loose as possible so that the grains or hops have room to expand and get good flow going though. The muslin bags are cheap so it's no big deal to throw them away and not worry about cleaning them too.

This.

Don't dump your grains in the muslin bag and tie it off near the grain to form a "grain ball". Tie the bag off at the very opening leaving a lot of room for the grains to float around in. Unless you have three pounds of steeping grains, you will have plenty of room.

Now, for hops, nylon bags would be the way to go I would think. Not sure what an hour long rolling boil would do to a musling bag- never tried it.
Plus, you can get finer mesh with the nylon to keep out hop particles.

Pez.

 

[Brulosopher]

How's your beer? There's your answer

 

[DCNeck]

How's your beer? There's your answer

LOL! Exactly!

I like the paint strainer idea. Hadn't thought of that one.

 

[unionrdr]

I use muslin bags for grains & hops of the appropriet size. I also pour the chilled wort & top off water through a fine mesh strainer. I don't get a lot of particulate matter when using bags.
And they're easy to clean white as new. I not them all the way at the end of the bag for max room as well. Anyway, I empty the bags in a blue bag (hops) & having turned them inside out doing so,can rinse the grainy stuff off the bag under the faucet stream. I then place them in a small sauce pan about 2/3's full of water. I give them a slightly rolling simmer for 1 hour. Then put them in a small tupperware container,& cover with PBW. Put the lid on,& soak for a week or so till white again. Then rinse,wring out,& hang up to dry. Easy & cheaper than always buying new ones. My hop/grain sacks have some 10/11 uses on them,& still come out looking new.

 

[nymtber]

I use muslin bags for hops right now, but will eventually buy a few nylon bags. Definitely give them plenty of room, they expand! (pellet hops do).

 

[Rerun]

Also, don't put the irish moss in a bag. Just throw it in the boil with 15-20 minutes left.

 

[C-Rider]

I use this type of paint strainer it fits exactly right on a 5-7 gallon plastic fermenter.

 

[TOWEYWACKER]

I use a "hop spider" for my hop additions. Love it. Lets the hops travel and disperse like they should during the boil. Then you can pull them right out. Just make sure you make a decent hop spider (completely metal, no plastics). As for clarity, I use whirfloc tablets instead of irish moss. Just toss a tablet in the boil and your done. For steeping, I agree with the previous posts as for leaving the bag loose during the steep, then possibly pouring additional water over the grains towards the end.

 

[zeg]

I used pellet hops with a muslin bag on my last batch and it was a waste of a muslin bag. It was nowhere near fine enough, so at least half of the hops found their way out.

 

[Schwabizzle]

I've been wondering about adding whirfloc to my hop spider. Would this cause all the proteins to gather within the hop spider,or would this not work as I'm thinking?

 

[tri_clamp_ninja]

I've been wondering about adding whirfloc to my hop spider. Would this cause all the proteins to gather within the hop spider,or would this not work as I'm thinking?

You shouldn't have any trouble as kettle coagulants (such as whirlfloc) act by using oppositely charged ions to bind with proteins on a molecular level which is much smaller then the holes in a bag like that. If you want to feel safe about it you can always toss your floc into the kettle outside of the bag but again, it won't hurt if you put it right in. If you use whirlfloc, are able to chill your wort quickly, and stir post boil to mimic a whirlpool then you really shouldn't even need the spider. Even if your kettle doesn't have a valve and you fill your fv by dumping your wort in you still can leave behind most of the trub by dumping carefully and watching the bottom of the kettle.

Also, just a friendly tip: The thread you replied to is very old. Typically we try not to rehash such old threads and you actually may get more responses by starting a new one.

Hope this helps!

 

[Zimm9]

Edit: Didn't realize how old the thread was! My response was to the OP. I'm blaming cold meds.