James Lao Posted October 18, 2019 Share Posted October 18, 2019 Hi all, I am wondering if anyone is using anything to weigh down there hop socks for dry hopping? I used to have the stainless type tea balls but they would float also, and they started rusting so I binned them. I had gone away from trying to weigh down the hop sock, but recently I am dry hopping with 100g and half of them don’t even contact the beer until I cold crash and the hop bag sinks. Was thinking about larger stainless ball bearings to weigh the bag down but was wondering what size/ weight would be best to get the bag beneath the beer ..? Any thoughts / experiences appreciated. Cheers James Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Captain!! Posted October 18, 2019 Share Posted October 18, 2019 I just bag em up and dunk them, then just let em do their work, could use marbles........ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RDT2 Posted October 18, 2019 Share Posted October 18, 2019 (edited) I use marine grade stainless steel rings from Bunnings work well as all smooth. Tried marbles but had some shatter due to temperature swing so decided on ball bearings but were Chinese crap and rusted so went for marine grade stainless after that as they don’t rust, don’t shatter and easy to sanitise Edited October 18, 2019 by RDT2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Lao Posted October 18, 2019 Author Share Posted October 18, 2019 Cheers for the replies fellas, Hey RD, what size rings do you use ? Cheers James Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RDT2 Posted October 18, 2019 Share Posted October 18, 2019 40 minutes ago, James Lao said: Cheers for the replies fellas, Hey RD, what size rings do you use ? Cheers James About 5cm diameter approximately Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shamus O'Sean Posted October 18, 2019 Share Posted October 18, 2019 Hi @James Lao, I use a shot glass in each Chux cloth I dunk. They sink to start with, but always end up floating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Lao Posted October 18, 2019 Author Share Posted October 18, 2019 Cheers for the replies. I used to use a shot glass as well but found the same thing that they would eventually float again. Think I will give the 5cm stainless ball bearing a go. Should be able to get some off eBay. I haven’t been bothered about this issue for ages but noticed my last 2 brews that half the hops didn’t even seem to be making contact with the the beer until cold crash. Just wanting to maximize the hop aroma at the glass and think this is where it is falling down somewhat. 100g dry hop should be giving me more I reckon especially Citra and Mosaic Cheers James Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RDT2 Posted October 18, 2019 Share Posted October 18, 2019 15 minutes ago, James Lao said: Cheers for the replies. I used to use a shot glass as well but found the same thing that they would eventually float again. Think I will give the 5cm stainless ball bearing a go. Should be able to get some off eBay. I haven’t been bothered about this issue for ages but noticed my last 2 brews that half the hops didn’t even seem to be making contact with the the beer until cold crash. Just wanting to maximize the hop aroma at the glass and think this is where it is falling down somewhat. 100g dry hop should be giving me more I reckon especially Citra and Mosaic Cheers James Don’t use ball bearings from eBay unless you can be sure they are definitely stainless (Chinese pretend stainless) as I tried that and they rusted luckily mine was an experiment with a Woolworths beer tin I threw it out not a huge deal. That’s when I did some research and went to Bunnings and bought Marine grade stainless steel rings which are smooth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Lao Posted October 19, 2019 Author Share Posted October 19, 2019 Thanks mate, Trip to Bunnings is on the cards then. What section did you find them? Cheers James Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RDT2 Posted October 19, 2019 Share Posted October 19, 2019 44 minutes ago, James Lao said: Thanks mate, Trip to Bunnings is on the cards then. What section did you find them? Cheers James Nuts and bolts area I think Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Lao Posted October 19, 2019 Author Share Posted October 19, 2019 Cheers mate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otto Von Blotto Posted October 19, 2019 Share Posted October 19, 2019 You can actually clean rust off and essentially make it into stainless steel again by giving it an acid bath. After all, it's only stainless due to it having a chromium oxide layer covering the bare steel underneath, and that's basically how they make it, acid bath and air dry; the oxygen in the air reacts with the chromium in the steel to form the layer. Probably why my urn never rusts despite scouring it every batch with stainless steel wool, because it's done with acid. The main reason is cleaning but I guess that's an additional benefit. But it's probably easier to simply buy decent quality stainless to begin with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Journeyman Posted October 19, 2019 Share Posted October 19, 2019 (edited) I'm new to all this - figured to begin with Coopers cans and then start hopping a lager can to experiment. I was looking at the hops balls from Kegland, says stainless and they're Aussie so hopefully should be decent steel? They also have a hop tube that I thought would be good. Edit: Page says... "Specifications: Made from: 304 Grade Stainless Steel (for both bomb and tube) But I don't want to lose brews to rust flavouring. What do you put the hops in? About all else I have seen are nylon or polyester bags. Edited October 19, 2019 by Journeyman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RDT2 Posted October 19, 2019 Share Posted October 19, 2019 11 minutes ago, Journeyman said: I'm new to all this - figured to begin with Coopers cans and then start hopping a lager can to experiment. I was looking at the hops balls from Kegland, says stainless and they're Aussie so hopefully should be decent steel? They also have a hop tube that I thought would be good. Edit: Page says... "Specifications: Made from: 304 Grade Stainless Steel (for both bomb and tube) But I don't want to lose brews to rust flavouring. What do you put the hops in? About all else I have seen are nylon or polyester bags. For dry hopping I put mine in the bags you described with my stainless rings to weigh it down I boil the bag with the rings inside for 15 minutes (without hops) prior to use others use chux wrapped up with a zip tie or tied with a strip of chux I haven’t tried that and some go commando. If you use the bag or tea balls make sure they are big enough so the hops can expand. I used the tea ball the first time without issue but use more hops now so it wasn’t big enough 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RDT2 Posted October 19, 2019 Share Posted October 19, 2019 2 hours ago, Otto Von Blotto said: You can actually clean rust off and essentially make it into stainless steel again by giving it an acid bath. After all, it's only stainless due to it having a chromium oxide layer covering the bare steel underneath, and that's basically how they make it, acid bath and air dry; the oxygen in the air reacts with the chromium in the steel to form the layer. Probably why my urn never rusts despite scouring it every batch with stainless steel wool, because it's done with acid. The main reason is cleaning but I guess that's an additional benefit. But it's probably easier to simply buy decent quality stainless to begin with. Yeah I agree but when I initially used the bearings I thought stainless was stainless but i did some research and there is different grades and these ones were just rusty after 4 days I doubt they were stainless they stained the bag so beware eBay ball bearings. So I went marine grade after that 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Journeyman Posted October 19, 2019 Share Posted October 19, 2019 1 minute ago, RDT2 said: I used the tea ball the first time without issue but use more hops now so it wasn’t big enough I have a plan for the hops. My favourite beer is Fixation so I plan to play around with Mosaic, Citra, Simcoe & Amarillo, which is what that uses. So I figured to get 4 of the hop bombs or just the larger tube which is 150gm so I could put (say) 100gm hops in and still have free space. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Journeyman Posted October 19, 2019 Share Posted October 19, 2019 (edited) 3 minutes ago, RDT2 said: I thought stainless was stainless... 304 is decent stainless - I think 316 is the marine grade but would need to look it up. Edit: Marine grade 316 stainless steel is similar to Grade 304 with one notable exception. As well as chromium and nickel, Marine grade 316 also contains 2% to 3% of molybdenum, a hard, silver white metallic element used to toughen steels and increase corrosion-resistance in nickel alloys. Edited October 19, 2019 by Journeyman 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RDT2 Posted October 19, 2019 Share Posted October 19, 2019 (edited) 8 minutes ago, Journeyman said: I have a plan for the hops. My favourite beer is Fixation so I plan to play around with Mosaic, Citra, Simcoe & Amarillo, which is what that uses. So I figured to get 4 of the hop bombs or just the larger tube which is 150gm so I could put (say) 100gm hops in and still have free space. I have never used the tube you couldn’t squeeze it if take your hops out at the end unless you open it I spose and push out last bit of beer with a sanitized spoon but be careful not to oxygenate by splashing I use the bags and have been happy so far. Edited October 19, 2019 by RDT2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Lao Posted November 19, 2019 Author Share Posted November 19, 2019 First time using the 316 stainless rings from Bunnings today. Gave them a wash with normal dish washing detergent, boiled them for a bit and sprayed them with starsan. Each ring weighed 33g (packet of 4), so as I was doing 50g dry hop I put 3 rings in the bag, thinking this would ensure the hops would stay submerged. I use a long hop sock which I tie a know in either end, I made sure the length of the sock was short enough, so knot to knot would be less than the height of the beer in FV. In the hops went and sank to the bottom - for 2 hours. Had a quick look just now and the hops are floating! Maybe next time will put the 4 rings in! Buoyant little buggers! At least they don’t seem to be floating as much as before and are slightly submerged. Cheers James 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ben 10 Posted November 19, 2019 Share Posted November 19, 2019 hops float. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlackSands Posted November 19, 2019 Share Posted November 19, 2019 Odd. The hop sock/bag I use is always submerged once the pellets become fully saturated and have subsequently turned to pulp. These days I've been using a mesh tube which also seems drop below below the surface. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Lao Posted November 19, 2019 Author Share Posted November 19, 2019 2 hours ago, Ben 10 said: hops float. Very profound, thanks for the insight! Seriously though, thought 99g of stainless steel would have been enough to weigh down 50g of hops.. Unless I estimated the length of the hop sock incorrectly and it was too long..? Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaddyBrew2 Posted November 19, 2019 Share Posted November 19, 2019 3 hours ago, James Lao said: First time using the 316 stainless rings from Bunnings today. Gave them a wash with normal dish washing detergent, boiled them for a bit and sprayed them with starsan. Each ring weighed 33g (packet of 4), so as I was doing 50g dry hop I put 3 rings in the bag, thinking this would ensure the hops would stay submerged. I use a long hop sock which I tie a know in either end, I made sure the length of the sock was short enough, so knot to knot would be less than the height of the beer in FV. In the hops went and sank to the bottom - for 2 hours. Had a quick look just now and the hops are floating! Maybe next time will put the 4 rings in! Buoyant little buggers! At least they don’t seem to be floating as much as before and are slightly submerged. Cheers James I spent $20 in Bunnings for stainless steel nuts and bolts only for the sock to still float after a few hours. With my recent NEIPA I bought two packs of marbles from Target for $6. I put them in a seperate sock inside the hop sock and it worked a treat (everything sanitised first of course) 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Lao Posted November 19, 2019 Author Share Posted November 19, 2019 How much does the bag of marbles weigh? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaddyBrew2 Posted November 19, 2019 Share Posted November 19, 2019 Dunno but they sink like a stone And stay sunk 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now