Anyone have any experience with using tea infusers with hops and beer? I was thinking of it as part of a gift. Does it work well? Tips? ect. Thanks.
If you’re talking about using it on a glass-by-glass basis, i’ve heard of it working to get fresh hop character. It will make beer look cloudy, though. If you were wanting to use it to make an infusion to add to a keg or carboy, it doesn’t end up adding much to 5 gallons. In that case, you’re better off dry hopping.
You could use it to toss a small amount of hops into a keg and leave it in the duration of the keg.
I typically dry hop sorry for the lack of info. I give my brother homebrew often and he likes hops. I was thinking this way he could do pitchers with the infuser in the bottom and try different types of hops.
I’m curious about this and would love to do it because dry hopping in a carboy is a PITA. But am concerned I would not be able to burn through the keg fast enough to avoid bringing out vegetal, grassy flavors. I just started kegging, but I think it will take me a couple months to kick a keg.
Maybe bag the hops and pull them out after a week or two.
Use a hopbag & tie it with neutral dental floss. You can close the floss in the corny lid without losing pressure. If you suspend the bag about halfway down in the keg you won’t have the problems of too long (provided you drink it down to the bag within a couple weeks, you can always leave it higher) and it’ll also keep your hopbag from clogging the diptube.
I tried closing a piece of fishing line in the corny lid and it leaked like crazy around the line every time I tried to change position. I just said F it and dropped it all in. A week later it was still floating and I pulled it out; there was wood chips in it also though. I always thought a ping pong ball would be a good way to go. Just sanitize it and throw it in the mesh bag.
The floss won’t leak as much as fishing line as it’s softer & flatter. Also once you’ve got it in position, don’t try to move it unless you’re willing to risk opening the lid again.
Don’t use dental floss. Use teflon tape as your string. It is made to seal. It is dirt cheap. And did I mention it is design to seal things.
Just my though but teflon tape doesn’t seem to be strong enough to hold a nylon footie or other of wet hops half way down a keg??
i’ve been using teflon tape for about 6 years for this purpose and never have had it rip.
to the OP - one interesting thing I’ve seen rather than a tea infuser is a french press for coffee - again the idea here would be more for experimentation rather than every day drinking.
1/4 pound of hops and a shot glass to weigh it down has never given me any problems.
We are talking about hanging the bag right. Not letting is sit on the keg floor?
yes - leaving enough slack of tape so the bag pulls off the hops mid keg
