When to remove hops??

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Phunhog

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Okay I have a couple of batches under my belt now and am trying to perfect my technique. Should I remove the hops, which I put in muslin bags, before I cool the wort or after? In other words should they sit in the brew kettle while I am giving my brew kettle and wort an ice bath? Thanks.
 
I haven't used bags for my hops. I just throw them in there. With one of my fermentors the opening is small enough (though still big) that I have a strainer that will fit it and strain out the hops when pouring from the kettle to the fermentor. My other fermentor is just a normal bucket and my strainer doesn't fit so I just dump the kettle, hops and all, into that fermentor. I figure for that one that odds are the wort has sucked all it can out of the hops so it probably doesn't matter.
 
I've always taken them out (I use bags) before cooling, but this last batch I made called for a hops addition at flameout and I started wondering if I should have been leaving them in while cooling...because of course it would be pointless to put them in and remove them right away. So I removed the 60 minute bag and left the 5 minutes and 0 minutes bags in while cooling. I'll probably start leaving at least the late aroma/flavor additions while cooling from here on out. It never really crossed my mind before this last recipe.
 
I don't use bags any more, but when I did, I left them in while the wort was cooling. I do many late additions (some at 0 minutes) so they should be in there as the wort cools. If it was a beer with just bittering hops, it wouldn't matter either way.
 
If I use hop bags that I throw in, I'll leave them in the wort and squeeze the hell out them once they've cooled. If I'm using a 5 gallon paint strainer (like for IPAs and such) I'll pin it up above the cooling wort to drip dry.
 
I never use bags. But I do use a strainer when going into the carboy. The hops make a great filter bed. If the strainer slows I use a sanitized spoon to get things going again.
 
I'll let mine sit in the pot while its cooling, and then drain the bag when i'm reaching the end (if i'm pouring my wort instead of draining it out the spigot)

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