Hop Sock - Who Uses One?

[Guysmiley54]

My last brew, I threw the whole lot into the fermenter! No bags, no strainers, no cloths and chilled as fast as I could to avoid no chill type bitterness increases.

I will CC before bulk priming. I have added dry hops "naked" previously and they settled out before bottling. I expect much the same with this batch.

It just seems easier and relatively risk free. Am I missing something which might be a problem for me later?

 

[Kodos]

I use a a large hop bag during the boil - some times several, I usually don't put more than 30-40g in one bag to avoid restricting them too much. Haven't noticed any loss of utilisation etc. I made them from BIAB-style voile. If I'm doing flameout hops I'll chuck 'em in loose and remove the hop bags before whirlpooling.

Makes draining the kettle so much easier.

As far as dry-hopping goes, they just go straight into the fermenter, they seem to settle out fine. I just did a beer with a ludicrous amount of dry hops (two separate addtions of 80g in a 23L batch! :icon_drool2: ) and didn't notice any hops into the keg, and only a small amount through to a couple of longnecks (which settled with the sediment fine).

 

[thesunsettree]

ok, i'll put the flamesuit on... my personal opinion of a hopsock is the same as an airlock. completely usuably and functions as designed however a brew can be well produced without it, use it if you wish but in the interests of simplification (in my opinion) not "necessary"

cheers
matt

 

[Acasta]

ok, i'll put the flamesuit on... my personal opinion of a hopsock is the same as an airlock. completely usuably and functions as designed however a brew can be well produced without it, use it if you wish but in the interests of simplification (in my opinion) not "necessary"

cheers
matt

I wouldn't bother with it for the boil, however, for dry hopping i would.

 

[thesunsettree]

I wouldn't bother with it for the boil, however, for dry hopping i would.

i regularly dry hop 'naked', have used a 'sock' on a number of occasions and would never bother to do it again. just chuck them in loose

matt

 

[Acasta]

i regularly dry hop 'naked', have used a 'sock' on a number of occasions and would never bother to do it again. just chuck them in loose

matt

I've been trying lately to get cleaner beers, and have found that even 1g/l is leaving with with hop floaties after 1 week CC and geletine.
Thats just my experience.

 

[thesunsettree]

I've been trying lately to get cleaner beers, and have found that even 1g/l is leaving with with hop floaties after 1 week CC and geletine.
Thats just my experience.

polyclar and 1 micron absolute filter, about as clean/clear as i can be bothered chasing. my experience and more than happy

matt

 

[Acasta]

polyclar and 1 micron absolute filter, about as clean/clear as i can be bothered chasing. my experience and more than happy

matt

I'm happy for you.

 

[bum]

I've been trying lately to get cleaner beers, and have found that even 1g/l is leaving with with hop floaties after 1 week CC and geletine.
Thats just my experience.

Not going to argue with your experience but I often dry hop with pellets at pretty high rates and have never once had a floatie in a single bottle with much the same routine as you describe. You wanna be careful if you're trying to suggest that this method will create floaties for everyone.

Does in your brewery with your methods, obviously, and there's no reason for you not to use a hop sock if it gets you results you're happier with.

 

[thesunsettree]

I'm happy for you.

thank **** for that, now i can sleep better at night

 

[Acasta]

Not going to argue with your experience but I often dry hop with pellets at pretty high rates and have never once had a floatie in a single bottle with much the same routine as you describe. You wanna be careful if you're trying to suggest that this method will create floaties for everyone.

Does in your brewery with your methods, obviously, and there's no reason for you not to use a hop sock if it gets you results you're happier with.

I did say "Thats just my experience." but people do love to jump on a fight here. So many variables, maybe after all the recent changes i've made the hop sock isn't helping so much. I might risk it for my next brew.

thank **** for that, now i can sleep better at night

Don't have to get aggressive. This forum can be about beer too.

 

[bum]

I did say "Thats just my experience." but people do love to jump on a fight here.

And I did, a couple of times, suggest that I wasn't saying this didn't happen for you but your previous posts could easily be seen as advice rather than a simple observation of a very specific experience. Just putting forward another perspective for brewers even less experienced than you and I who might be weighing up their dry hopping options for the first time.

 

[thesunsettree]

I did say "Thats just my experience." but people do love to jump on a fight here. So many variables, maybe after all the recent changes i've made the hop sock isn't helping so much. I might risk it for my next brew.



Don't have to get aggressive. This forum can be about beer too.

you'll be right sweetheart, "i'm happy for you" with your recent changes regarding your hopsock

 

[Acasta]

And I did, a couple of times, suggest that I wasn't saying this didn't happen for you but your previous posts could easily be seen as advice rather than a simple observation of a very specific experience. Just putting forward another perspective for brewers even less experienced than you and I who might be weighing up their dry hopping options for the first time.

Fair enough.

 

[Kieren]

I have used a sock for the boil once only to stop the 800g or so of hops completely clogging my hop screen - worked well. I recently had a brew day where I tried recirculating with a pump during chilling and clogged my hop screen with a beer with only 340g of hops in the boil. So I am going to give the sock another crack.

I only use a hop bag for dry hopping if adding to a secondary vessel and at rates above 5g/L or so. Or if I only want them on the dry hops for a short time (pellets will drop out over time) such as a couple of days then I may use a bag. If adding to the primary then I free ball - no bag.

 

[MattC]

I'm pretty sure,after 3 years, I get an extra 5 IBU just from putting the sock in the boil

Has anyone else experienced an increase in hop utilisation from a hop sock? I used one two days ago and i have a feeling that i will observe a decrease due simply to the fact the hops appear restricted in the sock and not at the full mercy of the rolling boil.

Cheers

 

[MHB]

Have one (somewhere) used it once or twice then gave it away as a bad joke. You simply don't need one.
They do reduce the utilisation of your hops; have seen various figures but generally in the order of 10-15%.
Hop fragments aren't the part of the trub you need to be concerned about, it's the hot break material we really need to leave in the kettle; hop socks do nothing to help there, possibly the opposite. Based on personal observation I found it harder to get a good trub cone with just the break material and harder to keep it intact when the kettle was being drained (tended to collapse and flow) I suspect the hop fragments help to reinforce the mound.

A well designed kettle and a good whirlpool are I believe much better solutions.

MHB

 

[brettprevans]

Unless ur doing very large hop additions and then it just clogs the bottom, or if u just suck the wort out of the kettle straight into the fermentor because u dint have a good pickup tube/hop filter (which goes to ur point about kettle design I guess).

If ur system isn't perfect they are useful IMO, although as I've pointed out it's probably even more useful as a grain bag for k&k/extract brewers.

 

[staggalee]

Used hop bags for years, now just put pellets loose in boil and use a double strainer into fermenter.....clear beer and clean yeast slurry for reuse.

 

[beerbog]

I'm about to start dry hopping in the keg so I think I'll use a bag for that. Already had one blocked pickup tube with about 1/4 of keg left. :beerbang: