Cleaning Hopsock

[Tom909]

Hey guys,

I did my first extract brew on the weelend, and now i have hopsock that is full of tiny little hop particles that broke down over the boil and lodged themselves within the holes of the hopsock. I rinsed it thoroughly with hot water when i was finished but it is still quite dirty. What do people do to clean their hopsocks and ensure there are no leftovers that will possibly infect my beer next time I use it? I am planning on using this same hopsock to dry hop a lager in a few days.

Thanks.

 

[under]

It gets boiled so it shouldnt be a problem. I generally wash them thoroughly inside out and then back to normal. Then they sit in a bucket of hot nappisan overnight, then washed and hung out to dry.

 

[Wolfy]

A soak in sodium percarbonate (Nappisan) for 24 hours, washed and rinsed (washing machine or by hand), hung outside on the clothesline should clean the bag of any/all remaining debris.
Before use you can boil or sanitise it in another way.

 

[Tom909]

Thanks guys.

Another question - how do you normally sanitise them if you're using them for dry hopping? Is giving them a dunk in some starsan good enough?

 

[warra48]

Thanks guys.

Another question - how do you normally sanitise them if you're using them for dry hopping? Is giving them a dunk in some starsan good enough?

I dunk mine in an iodophor solution. Seems to work fine for me.

 

[stm]

Full-on garden hose to clean - doesn't take long. For dry hopping, you can just chuck the hops in, you don't need a bag.

 

[Hatchy]

Chuck them in nude for dry hopping.

 

[Guysmiley54]

Chuck them in nude?

Do they sink straight to the trub or do they get in the way when you're bottling?

Cheers :beer:

 

[user 11560]

At the end of brew day, after rinsing, my hop sock, along with grain bag and whatever towels have been used to mop up spills immediately get the washing machine treatment. On hand-washables mode though to help protect it (also seems to help with the towel fluff)

 

[bradsbrew]

Chuck them in nude?

Do they sink straight to the trub or do they get in the way when you're bottling?

Cheers :beer:

I crash chill my fermenter for a day or two at the end of ferment and the hops end up under the yeast on the bottom. Thats pellets.

Cheers

 

[Tom909]

Cheers guys. I prefer to put them inside something as i've had some small chucks end up in my bottles a few times - admittedly those are the times i didnt crash chill though...

 

[Acasta]

How much are you dry hopping? Also, how long are you fermenting?
I remember (when doing kits) that the dry hops would just fall out, bottling clear after 7 days.

 

[leiothrix]

I don't like dry hopping 'nude'.

For bottling - bits of the flowers/plugs get caught in either your tap or bottling wand.

For pellets you always get a bunch of hop debris in the last few bottles, which can make a mess when you open them. Or with tallies means that the second glass is full of crap as it has frothed up in the bottle whilst drinking the first glass.

Racking would fix the pellets issue, but I couldn't be arsed doing it.

Hop tea is the easiest and cleanest way of getting hop aroma into a brew. Just add it after a few days so that the ferment is mostly done so it doesn't strip out the flavour.

Rob.


edit: Added missing words. Sentences that make sense are great

 

[Sunshine_Brewer]

Hey guys,

I did my first extract brew on the weelend, and now i have hopsock that is full of tiny little hop particles that broke down over the boil and lodged themselves within the holes of the hopsock. I rinsed it thoroughly with hot water when i was finished but it is still quite dirty. What do people do to clean their hopsocks and ensure there are no leftovers that will possibly infect my beer next time I use it? I am planning on using this same hopsock to dry hop a lager in a few days.

Thanks.

I Rub both sides of the hop sock together, like your scrubbing, this seems to clear most junk out. Then hose/rinse and or soak in PBW or napisan if you want them even cleaner.

 

[Phoney]

I don't like dry hopping 'nude'.

For bottling - bits of the flowers/plugs get caught in either your tap or bottling wand.

For pellets you always get a bunch of hop debris in the last few bottles, which can make a mess when you open them. Or with tallies means that the second glass is full of crap as it has frothed up in the bottle whilst drinking the first glass.

Racking would fix the pellets issue, but I couldn't be arsed doing it.

Hop tea is the easiest and cleanest way of getting hop aroma into a brew. Just add it after a few days so that the ferment is mostly done so it doesn't strip out the flavour.

Rob.


edit: Added missing words. Sentences that make sense are great

For flowers hop socks are essential, but I dry hop with pellets all the time and never end up with bits in my bottles. Do you crash chill?


As for cleaning the hop sock, I soak mine in PBW once every few months, comes up looking much brighter.

 

[leiothrix]

I've tried it. Perhaps I'm being too greedy in collecting beer out of the bottom of the fermenter. Without losing several litres of beer I can't see how you'd dry hop with pellets without CCing, racking, and CCing again.

I'm way too lazy to do that, and hop tea does the same thing without the risk of infection, without the added cleaning and without the (few) gunky bottles.

As far as cleaning the hop-sock goes, which was the question of the OP afterall, it just gets a rub under the sink. Mine is stained dark brown and probably has bits in it, but it all gets boiled to buggery, so it doesn't matter really what it looks like.