Hop bag query

[GaSh65]

Hi folks,
I'm going to attempt my second A.G. tomorrow. For my first attempt I put the Malt in the pot and then strained it through a sieve, which took a few goes as it filled up very quickly and then when I used the sieve later with the hops, it took forever. They clogged the sieve up and I had to sanitise a spoon to force the liquid through with. The sieve was too small to fit on the fermentation bucket, so it became a two person job and my wife had to help.
So I bought a large muslin straining bag from Wilko for the Malt, which I'll fold the top over the top of the pot. I'd ordered a larger metal sieve online from eBay and when it turned up, it had a wider mesh than the usual household metal sieve I'd used before.
As I'm not sure if the sieve will be any good for the hops, I decided to get a smaller muslin bag with drawstrings for the Hops. I now don't have time to order online and my local Wilkos only has the large muslin bags. I looked in Sainsburys and they don't have anything even similar in their homeware department. But I did notice they do meshed bags for buying loose fruit and veg. This was only 30p, so nothing ventured nothing gained, but after purchase I did notice two things: a) they're meshed plastic and b) their washing instructions say a maximum of 30 degrees.
So, would plastic be a wrong thing to boil Hops in? If so, would a wider meshed sieve be any good to strain the Hops from the Wort?
The Sainsburys bag is currently sitting in a bowl of boiling water to see if it melts.
I suppose the other option is to order a smaller muslin bag online and wait until it arrives before brewing, but I'd sort of got my heart set on brewing tomorrow, and actually have the time to do it.
Thanks in advance.

 

[crowcrow]

Go as big as you can for hop bags! I have one that sits over the whole of my boiler held in place with bull dog clips, and then weighed down with spoons. I throw the hops in there and they get plenty of room to move around and do their goodness.

As for malt 'bits' getting through, I just let the go through. I used to filter but now don't bother, and just let them in the fermentation vessel. They drop out with a cold crash and don't cause me any issues.

Note that I throw my dry hop hops in loose - bagging them just stops them getting as wet and transferring the flavours you want. I've opened hop bags in the past and even when only put a little in I've found some of the hops basically dry.

Cold crashing gets these out too.

My fermenting beer is always full of bits, and I get a nice clear(ish) pour in the end with a very drinkable beer.

 

[GaSh65]

Go as big as you can for hop bags! I have one that sits over the whole of my boiler held in place with bull dog clips, and then weighed down with spoons. I throw the hops in there and they get plenty of room to move around and do their goodness.

As for malt 'bits' getting through, I just let the go through. I used to filter but now don't bother, and just let them in the fermentation vessel. They drop out with a cold crash and don't cause me any issues.

Note that I throw my dry hop hops in loose - bagging them just stops them getting as wet and transferring the flavours you want. I've opened hop bags in the past and even when only put a little in I've found some of the hops basically dry.

Cold crashing gets these out too. View attachment 54230
My fermenting beer is always full of bits, and I get a nice clear(ish) pour in the end with a very drinkable beer.

Thanks for all that. Much appreciated.
So should I buy another big bag or is it safe to use the bag the Malt was in, if I give it a rinse first?

 

[Nottsbeer]

Hi, you could use an old pair to tights for the hops - just give them a boil before use. I haven't done this myself, but someone else recommended it in the past.

 

[GaSh65]

Hi, you could use an old pair to tights for the hops - just give them a boil before use. I haven't done this myself, but someone else recommended it in the past.

Now that's an idea!
Just checked with the wife and she's an old pair with a decent denier (I believe that's the correct terminology) that could work.
I've given up on the plastic mesh bag, it seems OK with the hot water, but melts on contact with the hot pan. Every day's a school day!

 

[Nottsbeer]

Now that's an idea!
Just checked with the wife and she's an old pair with a decent denier (I believe that's the correct terminology) that could work.
I've given up on the plastic mesh bag, it seems OK with the hot water, but melts on contact with the hot pan. Every day's a school day!

If you search "tights" you'll find the advice I was given a while ago regarding using them (I'm not sure how to link the info into this thread,). You may need to book then a few times to get any colour out first. I ended up buying a hop spider and never used tights in the end.

Keep the food bags, it's what I use for dry hopping. Excellent for holding the pellets. As suggested earlier, put a steralizer spoon or a weight to get it to sink slightly.

I've learnt so much, and gained lots of simple, cheap and effective tips from this site. Good luck

 

[crowcrow]

Yeah, if you're mashing your malt in a bag, you can reuse that I'm sure.

Thanks for all that. Much appreciated.
So should I buy another big bag or is it safe to use the bag the Malt was in, if I give it a rinse first?

 

[labrewski]

Never worry about bits floating around hops or whatever else
It helps to give some freedom
A cold crash will drop most if not all to the bottom
Cold crash is when u stick fv in a fridge and drop temp to lowest without freezing
Everything falls down u drain clear beer
If not jus sanitize some mesh or sieve and away u go

 

[GaSh65]

Thanks everyone. In the end I just rinsed out the bag after clearing the grains from it and then used it again for the hops. But the tips to weight it down with spoons and to pin it to the pot with bulldog clips were very useful.
I now have 10 litres of Pale Ale fermenting away.

 

[crowcrow]

Nice one! Looking forward to hearing how it tastes!
If I could I'd just throw my hops in loose to the boil, but they clog up the tap for me.

 

[user 4749]

I use Sainsbury veg bags for my hops and turn them inside out they wash and clean great after a rinse i just throw them in the washing machine .

 

[GaSh65]

I use Sainsbury veg bags for my hops and turn them inside out they wash and clean great after a rinse i just throw them in the washing machine .

That's interesting.
Do you throw them into the pot?
As I found if I draped the bag over the top of the pot (I gave this a trial run before making the beer), that the bag melts on contact to the pot, because the bag is made of plastic.

 

[user 4749]

Never had any melt on me I use the string to tie it to the side and let it sink .
I am using a Grainfather might not be as hot at the top as yours

 

[user 4749]

I also use CML hop bags that are reusable that are smaller, they are very good not sure what they are made from.
Got them with one of their recipe kits

 

[stripeyjoe]

Get yourself a proper BIAB bag from a home brew shop for doing the mash, sounds like you’re making things difficult using a sieve.

 

[GaSh65]

Get yourself a proper BIAB bag from a home brew shop for doing the mash, sounds like you’re making things difficult using a sieve.

I bought a BIAB bag, as mentioned in the original post. I did find things difficult using a sieve, which was also part of the original post.
As mentioned in my post above that begins "Thanks everyone", in the end I used the bag for the Grains, then emptied it, rinsed it and used it again for the Hops. It worked fine.

 

[stripeyjoe]

Ahh, I misunderstood when you said ‘I put the malt in the pot then strained through a sieve’ - sounded like you just put the grains in directly and then tried to use a sieve to get them out before boiling.
I‘ve used bags for hops and also just chucked them in to the pot, just chucking them in is easier though does leave more trub. I’m thinking of getting a hop spider and recirculating through it to make sure I’m still getting good extraction.

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

I also use CML hop bags that are reusable that are smaller, they are very good not sure what they are made from.
Got them with one of their recipe kits

I got one of those from them too - when I used pellets (first and hopefully ONLY time) I tied it over the end of the pipe draining into the FV and it was almost full by the end

 

[stripeyjoe]

Well, I just had a nightmare end to my brew day… was doing a 75C whirlpool addition (120g of pellet hops) so had my new (to me) chugger pump doing the whirl pool action. When the whirlpool had finished I kept the pump running to help the immersion cooler be a bit more efficient. Unfortunately the extended time resulted in all the trub being sucked over my twin bazooka filters and, when it came to pouring out into the FV, nothing was coming out.
so, a quick sanitise of my spoon and I tried to poke the filter to unblock it.
no joy, still stuck.
Luckily I’ve an old auto-siphon so I dug it out, whacked some sanitiser through it and siphoned it all out.
Hopefully I’ve not contaminated the batch, this was my first attempt using a chiller, not sure I’ll bother again and will just no chill instead!

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Well, I just had a nightmare end to my brew day… was doing a 75C whirlpool addition (120g of pellet hops) so had my new (to me) chugger pump doing the whirl pool action. When the whirlpool had finished I kept the pump running to help the immersion cooler be a bit more efficient. Unfortunately the extended time resulted in all the trub being sucked over my twin bazooka filters and, when it came to pouring out into the FV, nothing was coming out.
so, a quick sanitise of my spoon and I tried to poke the filter to unblock it.
no joy, still stuck.
Luckily I’ve an old auto-siphon so I dug it out, whacked some sanitiser through it and siphoned it all out.
Hopefully I’ve not contaminated the batch, this was my first attempt using a chiller, not sure I’ll bother again and will just no chill instead!
View attachment 54341

Ewwwww YUK. If you can, give whole hops a go instead of pellets - much less mess in my opinion