19 replies to this topic

[Noontime]

When removing the hops from either the boil or dry hopping, are there tannins or other substances that you don't want? Is there any reason not to squeeze the hop bag to retrieve everything that's in there?Thanks.

[earthtone]

post boil the big thing is sanitation..... i would be worried about what's on my hands squeezing said bag to get anything out - it just seems a little sketchy to be over a big pot of (theoretically) sterile wort.

[chuck_d]

I've never bothered to remove hops from the boil. Why are you doing that? I'm curious what it does to help the beer.

[MakeMeHoppy]

When I use hop bags, which I recently started to do, I remove them when I take out the chiller so that I can whirlpool. I don't think it really matters, but I've been using the auto-siphon to drain my wort into the carboy and I've been trying to get it as clear as possible. So hop bags to eliminate most of the pellet hop debris and whirlpool to leave the break behind.I squeeze the wort out of the hops with a sanitized spoon that I use to retrieve the bag with.

[Noontime]

I've never bothered to remove hops from the boil. Why are you doing that? I'm curious what it does to help the beer.

Keep in mind this is only my second beer I've made, so these little nuances are what I'm learning. I guess when you transfer from the boil pot to your primary you just leave all the hops in? I guess what I originally meant to say was "AFTER the boil or dry hopping". But eventually the beer soaked hops must be seperated from the beer, and I'm wondering if squeezing all that goodness out of the hops is a good idea. In winemaking you have to be careful sometimes to not squeeze all that stuff out because you can add more negative stuff than positive.

[chuck_d]

Makes more sense. I was thinking you were doing something like boiling them for the 60-30 and removing them. I have pretty much standardized on leaf hops, but there are some varieties that I cannot find except for in pellet form. I just leave all my hops behind in the kettle. Before I had a ball valve in my boiler I would rack off the hops using, oh man, it has a name, siphon starter? It's this little thing with a screen. It would often get clogged with pellet hops if I didn't bag them. Now I have a ball valve with a bazooka on it. I still don't pull my hops out. Leaf hops just get tossed in free like always, pellet hops will have to be bagged I assume, I've read about bad clogging of bazooka with pellets but I haven't used pellets on this new system yet. I've got a brew in the works that I'm planning with some hops from down under that are pelletized so I guess I'll be experiencing this soon.

[Noontime]

It's the pellet hops in a bag I'm wondering about. To squeeze or not to squeeze, that is the question (please excuse my iambic pentameter).So just to clarify...you do just leave all the hops in the entire time? Remove them before bottling? because what I was dong is taking them out after cooling before pouring into the primary (why I don't know).

[MakeMeHoppy]

This really just comes down the personal preference. For my first 2 years I just dumped everything from the kettle to the fermenter with no ill effects. The pellet hops and trub settle quite well during the fermentation process. If you are using hop bags then it just makes sense to take them out when you transfer to the fermenter. Squeezing the wort out will not result in any significant difference in bittering and will only serve to gain you maybe the oz or so of wort you squeezed out. At this point in your brewing it is good to see you concerned about small points like this, but it really is insignificant. Worry more about sanitation and maintaining fermentation temperatures...

[Gumbo Leviathan]

Hops are not like grains with tannins. You can squeeze them. FWIW, I keep two of those big plastic stirring spoons with my brew equipment. They hang out in my bucket of sanitizer during the brew session. When it comes time for cooling, I fish the hop bags out with a spoon and squeeze it with the other. This way I never touch it...

[DubbelEntendre]

Makes more sense. I was thinking you were doing something like boiling them for the 60-30 and removing them. I have pretty much standardized on leaf hops, but there are some varieties that I cannot find except for in pellet form. I just leave all my hops behind in the kettle. Before I had a ball valve in my boiler I would rack off the hops using, oh man, it has a name, siphon starter? It's this little thing with a screen. It would often get clogged with pellet hops if I didn't bag them. Now I have a ball valve with a bazooka on it. I still don't pull my hops out. Leaf hops just get tossed in free like always, pellet hops will have to be bagged I assume, I've read about bad clogging of bazooka with pellets but I haven't used pellets on this new system yet. I've got a brew in the works that I'm planning with some hops from down under that are pelletized so I guess I'll be experiencing this soon.

I just did an American Blonde with 2 oz of pellet hops for the first run on bazooka screen and it was up to the challenge. I had the hose running to another screen just to be sure, but no pellet sludge made it to the second screen and I got all 5.5 gallons out without issue. It might be worse with 6-7 oz, but as far as I can tell it holds up to pellets pretty well. I have a hop burst IPA planned that I will test this theory on in the coming months.

[Noontime]

Fantastic information guys...thank you.

[ncbeerbrewer]

Another thing I will suggest and I did this back in the extract days when I was steeping speciality grains in the boiler. Instead of squeezing the bag why don't you dunk it a few times like a tea bag and then take it out. Maybe I am confuser with a comment earlier but definitely remove the hop bag before you put it all in your fermenter. I do all pellets and I toss them in for all additions by the time my immersion chiller is done cooling they are all in the bottom of the kettle. I transfer with the auto siphon and it goes a good job leaving a lot of the ho debris behind until the very end at least.

[jammer]

Whole Hops - I squeeze the hell out of the hopsack using elbow high rubber gloves that came with my Showtime Rotisserie Oven [set it and forget it], i spray sanitizer on the outside of the gloves first, then retrieve the hopsack and firmly squeeze.Pellets - I dont squeeze, but rarely use these.

[NomNomHopzinator]

Another thing I will suggest and I did this back in the extract days when I was steeping speciality grains in the boiler. Instead of squeezing the bag why don't you dunk it a few times like a tea bag and then take it out. Maybe I am confuser with a comment earlier but definitely remove the hop bag before you put it all in your fermenter. I do all pellets and I toss them in for all additions by the time my immersion chiller is done cooling they are all in the bottom of the kettle. I transfer with the auto siphon and it goes a good job leaving a lot of the ho debris behind until the very end at least.

I do a mix of tea bagging and squeezing throughout the boil but once the boil is done, I tea bag the sack a few times then leave it at that so I am not contaminating anything. At the end of a vigorous 60 min boil I figure the wort has well circulated through the sacks to where there isn't going to be a larger amount of isomerized alphas sticking in the middle. To squeeze the hop sacks, I take my boiling spoon that should be nice and sterile and press the sacks up against the side of the pot to get the wort out in case there isn't a lot of liquid circulating through the center of the bags. In doing so, I haven't noticed any harsh off flavors. For dry hopping, if you are using a sack, I think tea bagging would be even more important since you have them sitting in stagnant liquid and you want to knock those oils and yummy lupulin powders loose from the hops. The draw back to leaving hops in for too long is the development of grassy/vegetative flavors.

[NWPines]

I do a mix of tea bagging and squeezing throughout the boil

Uhhmm.............. never mind. Slowly backing away now.

[Noontime]

Uhhmm.............. never mind. Slowly backing away now.

That's hilaroius! Thank you for the persprective I had missed...and the disturbing visual that accompanied it.

[NomNomHopzinator]

Gotta make sure to get that full mouthfeel from the tea bagging

[AGrandDesign]

It's the pellet hops in a bag I'm wondering about. To squeeze or not to squeeze, that is the question (please excuse my iambic pentameter)...

indeed, shouldn't that be lambic pentameter? I too am a new brewer and one of my (thus far) biggest bugaboos is figuring volumes for my system. Am getting dialed in on loss /lb of grain, bottom of mash tun, during boil, but, until this latch batch of pretty heavily hopped red ale, haven't even considered wort sucked up by hop leaf. Is there a rule of thumb or is all this CrazyTalk (my Indian name)?Apologies for the tangential subtopic in this thread....

[chuck_d]

indeed, shouldn't that be lambic pentameter?

Puns only *used* to be the highest form of humor. :smilielol:As for hop absorption, I believe that most people use about 11.25 ounces per ounce of leaf hops. I'm not exactly sure how much more/less pellets absorb, but that should get you in the ballpark.

[AGrandDesign]

Puns only *used* to be the highest form of humor. :smilielol:As for hop absorption, I believe that most people use about 11.25 ounces per ounce of leaf hops. I'm not exactly sure how much more/less pellets absorb, but that should get you in the ballpark.

I've often been told I set new highs in low-humor.thanks for the info - will plug that in on next brewday!