Using Hop Bags in Brew

[PieOPah]

Does anybody use Hop Bags in their brew rather than letting the boil freely?

The reason I ask is what happens to all the crud (protien, trub etc) that the hops filter out? If you have your hops in a bag there is nothing to act as a filter. Is it a case of just letting it in and it settling out during fermenting?

[bitter_dave]

I've used hop bags once. I found the crud kind of attached itself to the bags, but a fair bit got into the fermenting bin. Having said this, it didn't seem to have an adverse effect on the beer, and it was clear when it was barrelled.

[PieOPah]

Just read about whirpooling the beer to help stop the collection of the trub. This may be the way forward for me. Will try some other options first though

[Matt]

I use a bag. After chilling with an immersion coil it has mostly settled to the bottom, and the layer is shallow and stable enough to be away from the tap on my boiler (Electrim).

My understanding is that the Irish moss addition 15 mins before the end helps the cold break clump together.

That's my experience so far anyway. Yeast cake after primary looks reasonably clean of gunk too.

Matt

[Frothy]

I use hop bags. Massive amount of cold break on my first all grain (using a whirlfloc tablet) unfortunately this all went into the fermentor - would this taste funky then?

Matt

[bitter_dave]

I use hop bags. Massive amount of cold break on my first all grain (using a whirlfloc tablet) unfortunately this all went into the fermentor - would this taste funky then?

Matt

All I can say is that on the brew that I used hop bags for (a bitter and twisted clone) a fair bit of gunk went into the fermenter but it turned out to be a nice beer with no apparent off tastes.

[tribs]

I've used hop bags loads of times and I'm considering going back to them.

Bloody hop filter gets clogged no matter how many slits I cut into it.

Don't worry about the stuff in the fermenter or the utilisation. I'm sure my utilisation dropped after I stopped using the bags and the beer was always great. I don't think I get much less gunk in the ferementer with the hop filter anyway.

[PieOPah]

I might give that a go then. I can't remember where I bought my filter from (probably H&G) but they are all the same. I always open my tap full on the boiler straight away so this might be the cause of some of my problems.

I'll open up slowly next time and let a couple of litres run through before opening up the valve all the way.

I have also decided that I should try and brew 35 pints instead of 40. This will give me more room in the boiler as it can only just about manage 27 litres which I don't think is enough for a 40 pint brew.

[tribs]

I would rather have drilled holes but I couldn't figure out a way of doing it without a drill press that would not have taken many hours and lots of swearing.

I was thinking of getting a couple of cheap SS splatter guards and making one of these but I've been unable to find any

[bitter_dave]

I was thinking of getting a couple of cheap SS splatter guards and making one of these but I've been unable to find any

Tribs, I found a splatter guard for a pound a while ago from wilkinsons I believe it was, but I'm sure you can find them elsewhere from cheapy shops

[tribs]

I tried wilkos. No joy.

I'll have a look at PoundStretcher/Slicer next time I'm at the shops.

[PieOPah]

I am sure I have seen splatterguards in most of the £1/99p stores. You could also try Robert Dias or Wollies but you will pay too much from these places....

[PieOPah]

Or there is always Ebay

[eskimobob]

Try holes rather than slits tribs, my filter never blocks although I do get the odd escapee hop seed.
John from Hop and Grape was saying the other day the secret of using their filter (with slits) was to start the run off slowly so the hops form a filer and don't compact, it makes sense but i've never tried it as I dont have the need to change my existing filter.

This is exactly what I have been doing Daab. I found that if I open the tap fully straight way then it takes forever to run through but if I open it a tiny amount and then a bit more and a bit more over a couple of minutes, by the time I have it fully open it is running as fast as my 8mm microbore CFC will allow it under gravity.

[tribs]

Cheers DaaB I'll check out Morrisons @ the weekend. If I don't build it before the next brew I'll try starting off slowly and increasing the flow if my tap will let me.