Beer Forum

Have a bunch of whole hops i need to use up. Have been using them in my kettle but they always clog things up when i go to transfer to my fermenter. If i put them in a muslin bag during the boil and tie them up do i use 10% more? Are there other negatives to this approach?

smcluskey wrote:Have a bunch of whole hops i need to use up. Have been using them in my kettle but they always clog things up when i go to transfer to my fermenter. If i put them in a muslin bag during the boil and tie them up do i use 10% more? Are there other negatives to this approach?

It depends on how tightly they are packed in there. I like using a big ass nylon bag so that they kind of float around inside it without bunching up very much. I've never had a problem losing hop extraction that way.

A stretchy muslin bag will ball them up a lot more, so if you are packing in a lot of hops, it gets harder and harder for the wort to interact with the hops in the middle of that ball, affecting your extraction.

Bottom line- the looser the better.

HTH-

Make sure you use the biggest sack you can and maybe a good whirlpool will let you free-ball the whole time.

That sounds like a conversation between Jamil and Tasty....

But seriously, Hop utilization will be affected in this case mostly by the 'agitation' and access parts of the equation. The more the hops roll around in the boil, the better the extraction. Maybe look into the largest nylon or muslin bag you can find and search out the 'Hop Spider' thread on the forum here for some discussion on the use of different hop isolation methods and tools.

smcluskey wrote: they always clog things up when i go to transfer to my fermenter.

How are you transferring? Is it necessary to use a bag, or can an adjustment in process remedy this?