Whirlpool hops in grain bag?

[TheMerkle]

I'm interested in adding whirlpool hops to my ipa recipe but my ebiab system makes this difficult as I prefer to recirculate with a pump while cooling. I wonder if anyone has ever tried cleaning the grain bag during the boil, and returning it to the pot for the "whirlpool" hops?

 

[m00ps]

I usually use an absurd amount of hops in my whirlpool and have an recirculating ebiab system like you. For heavily hopped beers, I use a fine mesh (or paint strainer) bag clipped to the side of my kettle and regularly stir it. The bag is big enough to have about half the cross section area of my kettle.

I'd look into getting cheap paint strainer bags from Lowe's or hit up wilserbrewer for some custom made ones

 

[TheMerkle]

I have a wilserbrewer grain bag that I love. Is there any reason I shouldn't just clean the grain out during the boil and use it for hops at the end? Will it stain?

 

[m00ps]

I have a wilserbrewer grain bag that I love. Is there any reason I shouldn't just clean the grain out during the boil and use it for hops at the end? Will it stain?

I have one I use just for hops and its totally stained, but doesnt really impact the beer unless you dont wash it enough. I've never tried bleaching it or anything though

 

[hobomoto]

I have a recirculating ebiab setup and just burned my pump out by recirculating my wort through the grain bag containing all my whirlpool hops. It worked well for a bit, but all the pellet hops eventually clogged up every possible inch of the grain bag until the bag could no longer drain fast enough to keep up with the pump... so I ran the pump dry for who knows how long since I was drinking and chatting with friends.

I liked the idea of it because it meant all my wort was passing through my hops, but in practice its a PITA.

I'm not sure if you actually intended to recirculate through the bag containing the hops or not. It would work just fine I imagine if you had the bag tied or clipped to the side of the kettle and recirculated outside of the bag or used whole hops.

Hope that helps!

 

[TheMerkle]

I was planning on recirculating through the grain bag full of hops, so I could hold my "whirlpool" temp from dropping too dramatically. I'm very glad you chimed in with this to save me the pump.

I guess my question now is how much heat loss during the whirlpool phase is acceptable.

 

[hobomoto]

I should mention that I did also successfully recirculate through the grain bag of hops on the previous batch. You have to watch it though and probably throttle back the pump and stir the hops every now and then to keep from clogging the bag solid.

 

[hobomoto]

Just decide if you want to monitor it for the 30 to 60 min I suppose!