How Is Your Hopsock Performing ?

[devo]

I got to use the jumbo size hop sock on my last big brew and found it to be a worthy addition to my brew day arsenal.

 

[Brad_G]

Ive used the hopsock for most of my brews and I do alot of really bitter ones at that. I find that there is no problem with the utilisation of the hops, but I did have a problem with the hot wort being caught up inside the sock. Whilst watching the great ross, I learned to shake the hops inside the sock a little to the left and right and within a couple of minutes most of the wort has been released. Pellets do make it harder though.

Brad

 

[Steve]

I jiggled and dunked throughout the 60 mins....the only drawback I noticed was that I couldnt add my immersion chiller at 15 mins to sterilise because the hop sock was in there. At 0 mins took sock out (VERY HOT HOPS)....and put in the chiller for another 15 mins.
Cheers
Steve

 

[Tony]

I made a SS mesh basket to hold hop flowers in the kettle and use it to support the hop sock when i use pellets. It sits up on the top of the imersion chiller and drains slowly by its self to help keep the work clear.

I dont like the idea od squeexing the hops out...... probably doesnt hurt but id rater slow drain them.

here are some pics of mine.

cheers

 

[Tony]

Oh...........

as said before, the idea for using these was born in my garage....... ross was already brewing with a hop sock of some other description that wasnt quite cutting the mustard i think. I was using a much finer micron (about 20 micron i think) hopsock to filter the cold break and hops form the kettle as i ran it to the firmenter. We used them at work and a couple fell into my work bag by mistake h34r:

This method was very effective but required stopping and starting several times to unblock the filter bag to keep the flow going.

Ross reconed they would be great to use as a hop sock so i gave him one to tru but he reconed it was to fine. I tracked down some courser filter bags at work and trialed them as well as sending some to ross to try. I got some details from work, emailed them through and they popped up on the craftbrewer site not long after.

Its amazing how the ideas of a few can combine into a fantastic timesaver for many.

Thats what i love about this site........ it rocks.

Now before i started ranting about history i was going to talk about the finer micron hopsocks for filtering out cold break.

I run mine out by gracity through the fine grade filter bag and it collects "most" of the break and deffinatly reduces clearing times on beers to be kegged. I haveny had to filter yet and get bright clarity.

I just steralise the hop sock in some iodophur with everything else as im coolong the brew in the kettle and riun it through. It it fills and blocks up i tip ir back abd forth a couple of times gently as the break "breaks" up into solution easily, umpty out the muddy stuff and hos the sock out and go again.

here is a pic of the break when i empty the kettle out.

cheers