What is my odds for success if I tie/fashion a muslin bag into my funnel in such a way that I can pour wort through it to strain leaf hops?
Can’t easily attach a bazooka screen etc since my polarware is antique, the kind that has a 3/8 male pipe fused into the kettle, and you just screw the valve onto that.
No internal threads or anything like that on the inside.
And I kinda prefer the quick and dirty method of pouring anyway,so I was wondering if anybody does this/has tried this.
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Depends on how much hops. You may want to have a few sanitized bags ready in case you clog the first one mid pour.
Maybe have someone hold a sanitized spoon at the edge of the kettle to try to keep some of the hops at bay as an added precaution?
Shoot. I had thought about volume of hops being one of the limiting factors.
Thinking about it more now, the funnel will probably max out at 2-3 oz of rehydrated hops.
I found a 1/2" hose barb fitting that looks like I could friction fit(coax w/hammer) it into the pipe on my BK,
And clamp a length of stainless braid to that. Think that might work ??
I do have like a dozen of those muslin bags too.
So as a last resort, and obviously the easiest solution to all of this, I could just sack up each hop addition. But I’m keen on the idea of having free floating hops if I can get them back out of the wort.
I think I do what you are trying to do. I have a boil kettle (20 gallon) that does not have a valve. My old kettle (7 gallon) had a valve. So I use a rectangular metal strainer with extendable arms that I get from a kitchen store. Surface area of the metal grid is probably 8" x 12 or 13". Again the arms extend out to rest on two sides of my 7 gallon pot. But, I wrap a paint strainer bag around the whole strainer. Then I take a gallon pitcher and take the hot wort and pour it onto the strainer a gallon at a time until the pot gets light enough to pour. So basically the wort gets strained by the bag strainer, then the metal mesh, then the bag strainer again before entering the pot to go to CFC.
With hoppy beers, using pellet hops, this does get somewhat clogged at times and I have to take my spoon and move things around to allow it to continue to drain. It might actually be easier with leaf hops as you could just scoop them out as they collect.
I will try to post some photos next time I brew.
I’ve tried to do something similar in the funnel to catch the pellet hops. It works, but it fills up almost immediately. A semi-coarse sieve/strainer works a little bit better but still gets backed up. That might be all you need for leaf hops.
I have the same Polarware as you - kind of lame that there are no interior pipe threads!
Anyway, what I’ve been doing is sanitizing a paint strainer bag, then lining my fermenting bucket with it. I rack everything in and then pull the bag. It’s kind of a pain because then you’re trying to get the wort to drain from the bag full of schmoo. I use my brewing spoon, still sanitary from the boil.
How about a “hop spider” to allow your hops to basically float freely? That’s what I do. I built the pvc version, something like this:
Still, I wonder if I’d be better off with freely swimming hops distributing their lupulin glands all through the wort, rather than being pent-up in the bag?
For years I used a funnel and strainer method, the limiting factor on your set up will probably be break material clogging the muslin. If you use a sanitized fine mesh strainer you can stop and knock out the gunk into a spare pot and start straining again. I once tried muslin in the strainer just to experiment with clearer wort, but it clogged very fast and is impractical to clean out.
I considered making a hop spider, they look like they work pretty slick.
I don’t really brew that many hoppy beers anymore, but I am excited to get a feel for my hops now that they’re finally mature enough to get a decent harvest.
I ended up using 6oz of hops, which I decided there was no way they would all fit in that funnel on the way to the carboy.
So after chilling, I used a handheld strainer to quickly and cleanly(as possible) scoop as much cones out as I could.
Then I poured through the funnel/bag to catch the last oz or two that I couldnt scoop out.
I lost 1/2 gallon of beer, which is a little more that I anticipated.
With a better approach, loss could be minimized.
I like that idea of pouring it through the paint strainer lining the fermenting bucket.
Maybe I’ll give that try, sounds cheap enough for my tastes. Pull and drain/squish the bag, then pour into the carboy.
Yep - just sanitize the strainer bag first, since you’re pouring fresh, cool wort through it.
