I’m going to use up some home grown hops in an experimental recipe. I’ve only used whole hops for dry hopping. This time I’m going to use them in the boil. Can I boil them in paint strainer bags?
Yeah, I always bag whole hops because they clog my diptube.
Are you going to dry them, or use them wet?
I was think dry them first. Throw a paint strainer bag with hops in at 60 min and then at intervals through the boil. Wondering if the bag could be stretched over the pot opening and then toss them in and pull the bag when done. Will the bag hold up for the entire boil. Worried about clogging the valve. Of course I guess I could just dump the wort out of the pot into a strainer lined bucket. I’ll shoot for six gallons in the bucket to account for absorption.
I use paint strainer bags for hops in every batch because I pump through a plate chiller. The bags work great. I use them for multiple boils with no issues. For IPAs or batches that get lots of hops I use the 5 gallon bags so they can billow out and let the wort flow through.
Danny, do you use a separate bag for each addition?
No, I just clip the top of the bag to the side of the kettle and open it to drop in each addition. Some people claim you should add 10% when you use a bag. I never have and it works out fine for me. YMMV
Danny I agree with your statement about 10%. I can see that if you are overloading your hop bag but that’s hard to do with a 5gal bag!
Brewcat, search hop spider. It might be something you’re interested in. I use one for my numerous additions for APA/IPA.
Brewed it today added the hops in the bag and then pulled it at the end of the boil. I wasn’t sure about squeezing the bag so I didn’t, what do you all do. If I squeezed it I would have reached my target fermenter volume. Was looking for 5 1/2 or 5 1/4 got about 5.It smelled awesome. It seemed to darken the wort more than pellets. I also did a full volume biab I added an extra pound of grain to make up for the extra volume due to the hop absorption. I ended .054 had calculated .056. But that could have been because of the full volume mash. This one relied on a lot of guess work. It will be a surprise beer.
