Muslin or commando ?

[ChristinaS1]

4 hours ago, The Captain!! said:

Falconers Flight I’ve found goes really well with rye. 

Hmm, interesting. I have a brew with Falconer's Flight (have used before and like it) planned. Maybe I will add a bit of rye to the recipe. Thanks!

Tony, your process looks excellent, only I wonder if using boiling water to rinse the hops when you take them out is a good idea. I am concerned it might release some astringency / tannins. I don't think it is necessary to rinse them in any case, just a gentle squeeze. 

Cheers,

Christina.

[Hairy]

3 hours ago, ChristinaS1 said:

Tony, your process looks excellent, only I wonder if using boiling water to rinse the hops when you take them out is a good idea. I am concerned it might release some astringency / tannins. I don't think it is necessary to rinse them in any case, just a gentle squeeze. 

Cheers,

Christina.

I was thinking the same thing but then I'm not sure whether it would be enough to really affect the taste. I have also read that it is the plant matter (stems, leaves etc.) that contain the most tannins. T90 hops have a lot more of the plant matter removed compared to T45 hops so using T90 hops would be better for this process.

But if the process is being used with no noticeable astringency then I guess it really isn't a problem.

[tonyj3]

Sorry a bit of confusion.

my process is, muslin bag and 10 pie weights in a saucepan of water, boil for 10 mins, discard water, open bag mouth, insert predetermined amount of hops. Take entire lot to wort, carefully undo lid and remove water trap place bag into wort, string through water trap close.

jiggle hops morning and night, (tea bag) leave for 3 days.

reverse process to remove using colander that has had some boiling water rinsed through it, to strain the remainder of hoppy goodness into the wort.

Discard hops to worm farm, wash muslin bag, using soap, i have put them through the wash, and reuse.

Next time I use it, it gets a 10 min boil in water to sterilise it, and allows me to re-use until i determine its reached its use by date. 

I was going to use chux once but in a practice run thought there were to many thing to go wrong.  didn’t like anything about that process so never used it.

Hope this clarifies.  Thanks for all the replies.

TJ3

[Brettmo]

1 hour ago, tonyj3 said:

jiggle hops morning and night,

Am I reading this right that you open the fermenter twice a day to jiggle the hop bag?

That's just asking for an infection....

[tonyj3]

Bretton, the  string of the drawstring bag is threaded up through the hole where the water trap inserts. Replacing the water trap holds it from sinking to the bottom of the wort

So yes, I am opening the fermenter by removing the water trap to give the bag a jiggle. But I’m yet to have an infection.  

I also open the fermenter to put the hop bag in and out, I’m yet to have an infection in the 2 years of me doing this.  i do tend to be very cautions during the process.

Calculated risk?? Who knows, but it has worked for me over several dozen brews.

And it has to be said that since Ive started dry hopping my brews they have gone from not bad/pretty good to ferkin fantastic .

I just wonder when too much hops is too much, the most I’ve used in one hit is about 125gms. To put my brewing into perspective I have about 120 bottles in reserve (in the cellar, so to speak) and I haven’t bottled a brew in some 8 weeks, because of explained earlier, that I toiled with stopping the practice, but with the comments from my wife have seen the light again.

I guess the problem I have is that the brews around here tend to dissapear.

All the best.

[tonyj3]

For those interested in the hop tube that porchemad911 posted the URL to, they are out of stock until later next week.

[Otto Von Blotto]

I'd hazard a guess that jiggling the hop bag probably doesn't really do anything. 

[ChristinaS1]

8 hours ago, Otto Von Blotto said:

I'd hazard a guess that jiggling the hop bag probably doesn't really do anything. 

Yes, risk without reward. While I understand the temptation, fussing with your beer twice a day is not going to make it better.

Try to relax and let nature do its thing. Have a home brew....

Cheers,

Christina.

[tonyj3]

To be fair, there isn’t anything wrong with the brews I make.

Never had an infection, never had to discard a bottle.

OVB, You understand how teabags work?  Next time you use the tea room at the nursing home make two cups and have a comparison of the strength of the 2.

Thanks for the advice but it works just fine for me.

My original question regarded hops, which has been sufficiently answered.

[Otto Von Blotto]

Not advice, just an observation. It's probably a waste of time. I know how teabags work but they are only in the water for a few minutes, not a few days. 

I don't really care if you do it or not. I've done contained and commando dry hopping, theoretically the latter should give more aroma but I didn't notice any difference. 

[joolbag]

@tonyj3 the more appropriate experiment would be to brew a cup of tea, at room temperature, for 4 days using a teabag per cup.

 

Jiggle one twice a day, leave the other one undisturbed.  Report back if there is a noticeable flavour and strength difference in either of your cups of tea.

 

Legit experiment.  You might find a difference, in that case keep up the jiggling.  If you don't, then you have saved yourself a step and some time.  Great to hear dry hopping has improved your beers.  I found the same when I started playing with different hops at different times.

 

Jools

[tonyj3]

Thanks jool bag, ill take it on board, but as it seems to me I believe in what I’m doing, and with no infections in over 2 years of this process, ill just stick to what I’m doing.

Just for everyone’s benefit, and mentioned many times in my posts above, I have had no, zero, nada, zilch, zip infections whilst undertaking this process.

[Otto Von Blotto]

I've had no infections from opening the fermenter 2-3 times after fermentation to add dry hops and two doses of finings but it doesn't mean the risk isn't there. I suspect the risk from that practice is a fair bit higher than it is from removing the airlock to jiggle a string twice a day. 

My original comment wasn't about infection risk, more about whether or not the jiggling actually does anything more than simply putting the hops in and leaving them there. To me, it doesn't seem very likely that it does, is all.