Tea Ball Infuser for dry hopping

[chromesphere]

Hey guys, its me again

I bottled my first brew the other day, the one i have been asking so many questions about. I made a noob mistake, to filter out the hop leaves from the directly dumped dry hop pellets, I put a muslin bag over the bottling wand. In hind sight I should have just cut a piece out and wedged it between the tube of the bottling wand and the end valve piece.

Anyway, in a bid to improve i was reading about other methods of dry hopping and came across what I thought was a good idea, but wanted to see if you guys had any experience with it. Someone suggested using a Tea Ball Infuser for dry hopping or hop boiling. The problem most people reported with this method was the pellets expand and hops don't integrate with the brew/wort properly. So to me, it would seem that using a bigger tea ball would fix this problem! Has anyone tried this method? I just figured using the tea ball might be less messy when it comes to bottling day.

Here's a tea ball for ~$2 on ebay, its 9cm in diameter which is pretty huge!

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/3size-Steel-Sphere-Stainless-Locking-Spice-Tea-Ball-Strainer-Mesh-Infuser-Filter-/351147526703?pt=AU_Utensils&var=&hash=item51c2060a2f

 

[indica86]

I commando dry hop and never get hop material in my bottles.
Cold conditioning is a great way to prevent unwanted shit turning up in bottles.

 

[chromesphere]

I CC'ed mine and look to be honest, I just checked each bottle this morning and its pretty dam clear...I think I can see a few floats in a couple, and lots in the last 2 bottles which is expected, but the rest are pretty much floaty free. So maybe its an unnecessary step I guess!

 

[Ross]

Avoid Tea Balls - We used to sell them but discovered the locking pin is not stainless, they will eventually corrode & dissolve into your beer. If anyone finds a genuine all stainless steel one,. please let me know.


Cheers Ross

 

[Bridges]

hopsock with stainless object in it works for me.

 

[manticle]

Also avoid filtering your beer at bottling unless you are using a proper beer filter. You run a great risk of oxidising the beer. Hops settle out. Staleness does not.

 

[chromesphere]

Interesting...so tea balls look like more trouble then their worth. Might use a hopsock like bridges next time

I ended up removing the muslin bag and just filling without filtering, as it turned into a bit of a mess. I did also tip the bottles around a few times to mix the sugar (the next day) which again was probably unnecessary. Starting to worry I have oxygenated the beer by doing this...

 

[Bribie G]

I have a big teaball from Vietnam that Fourstar gave me a few years ago. It's all SS and I have used it in kegs... drop the teaball in and it sinks to the bottom next to the pickup tube.

They are a brilliant method of dry hopping but I've never been able to find anything similar in Aussie kitchen stores or even Asian supermarkets. I rather like the look of the other one on the same Ebay page, the "acorn" shaped one.

 

[manticle]

If you upend gently rather than vigorously shake, you should be ok. Hopsock, minimash grain bag or boiled, new stocking are all things I've successfully used to contain hop flowers and other particulates (oak chips, etc). Pellets go in loose - flowers and plugs block taps.

A worthy note - if bottling, particulate matter will cause gushing. Especially really hoppy beers may do this. When I bottled, I marked the last 3-4 caps with an x and used as carb testers. The rest were usually fine as the matter drops to the bottom during conditioning. Saves you embarassment when you give a boy away as a gift or place it in a comp.

 

[droid]

as a first time cold crasher the result was great!

80gms dry hopped pellets in the fermenter was a big ask (I thought) as the top of the beer was completely covered in hops

put into the fridge and it settled down on the bottom and did not make its way into the glass at bottling

good stuff

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

You could use an old stocking

 

[chromesphere]

Me too Droid. To be honest I was sceptical as to what the resulting clarity of the beer would be. Theres not way all that crap would stay out of the beer, and was expecting to see lots and lots of floats. To my surprise, Id say roughly...70% of the bottles didn't show any floaties at all. And you know...im a nub and have no idea what im doing!

 

[Feldon]

I did also tip the bottles around a few times to mix the sugar (the next day) which again was probably unnecessary. Starting to worry I have oxygenated the beer by doing this...

The yeast in the bottle should scavenge the oxygen pretty quickly.

 

[Bribie G]

As posted in another thread I'm dry hopping a batch right now so why not, why indeed not :

20g of Dr Rudi about a third fills the ball.

 

[barls]

i use the nylon bags from t2.
work perfectly.

 

[DU99]

i use teabags from T2 .also have a couple of these strainers.just found these ones

 

[chromesphere]

Some great ideas! I particularly like the T2 Mesh Bags. They look sizeable, how much can you fit in one? (approx) Couldnt help but notice one of their other products, the T2 mesh tea balls? Anyone tried them, do they corrode?

http://www.t2tea.com/shop/teaware-2/accessories/general/t2-total-tool/

 

[barls]

i normally fir about 35 grams in one bag

 

[chromesphere]

Reasonable amount, obviously you can use more then 1 bag, might have to get some!

 

[Rod]

I use bags made from Swiss Voile

or muslin

make them a reasonable size to allow for the hops to expand

they float and I add at racking and when I want to dry hop

they can be cleaned and sanitized with PSR