Hop pellets in mesh bags?

I have been placing hop pellets in nylon mesh brewing bags during the boil so I would have less to strain out when the boil is finished.  Does using the nylon mesh brew bags impact the potency of the hops and lessen their effect?

Thanks

It reduces utilization some. I've heard 10% bandied about but I don't know if that's accurate. best way is to brew the same recipe twice once with bagged hops and once without. then decide for yourself.

or just keep adding more hops till you get where you want it to be.

I started doing the same thing and have had  no real issues (so far) but not too sure it will change a whole lot of flavor. if you notice a difference let me know please!

But as on my end, so far so good.

I was using mesh bags for my hops, both just tying the bag and tossing it in...as well as using a paint strainer bag with a hop spider.  In all cases I never had an issue under utilization.

Now I just toss the hops in, whirlpool after cooling, and my dip tube on my boil kettle draws from the side of the pot.  I get a little bit of hops, along with some break, into the fermenter, but it is very little and it all settles out.

-Dan

If I am doing just a boil, extract or PM.  I just toss the hops in.  When I am doing all grain I use a Stainless Hop Filter.  An easy option is to use a kettle screen

haerbob3 said:

If I am doing just a boil, extract or PM.  I just toss the hops in.  When I am doing all grain I use a Stainless Hop Filter.  An easy option is to use a kettle screen

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Why the difference? by the time you are adding hops it doesn't really matter if it's all grain or extract. it's just wort.

Sorry the difference is in the fact that I am recirculating the wort in order to whirlpool.  The hop particles clogs the kettle screen.

I don't bag my hops. I'm too cheap and lazy.

haerbob3 said:

Sorry the difference is in the fact that I am recirculating the wort in order to whirlpool.  The hop particles clogs the kettle screen.

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gotcha.

Maine Homebrewer said:

I don't bag my hops. I'm too cheap and lazy.

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Love the honesty

The common understanding is that hop bags affect the utilization. There are several factors that determine how much such as how large the sacks are and how free the hops are in the sack.  The impact is something each brewer needs to determine on their own system.

Each system is different and  each process is different.  Yours are unique to you and for you to determine the impacts of these on your beers.  I always use hop sack and I know the what a recipe IBU means on my system.  that is, a 50 IBU calculated recipe value is more like 45 on my system.  On my system, it is non-linear and the higher the calculated IBU, the larger the adjustment is. 

So, on all systems, recipes are adjusted to match the system and process variants to achieve a target beer.

jomebrew said:

So, on all systems, recipes are adjusted to match the system and process variants to achieve a target beer.

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This is a great quote!. My advice is to handle your hop bags consistently in the same manner. Don't squeeze them, just let them drain for 20-30 seconds. I have tasted the bagged hops  and they are basically spent. The only thing you get by squeezing them is grassiness. Whole leaf hops absorb a substantial amount of water which you have to compensate for in the PBV.

I never used pellet hops (except for early on in my extract days) because 1) they would clog my filtering mechanism in my keggle, and 2) I was not ambitious enough to bag everything. I only used leaf hops, which significantly limits the varieties you can use. Once I got back into brewing, I got one of these: 6" x 14" Brew Filter 300 Micron Stainless Steel mesh. Now I can use pellet hops with reckless abandon and utmost laziness. I suspect I get better utilization than if the hops were bagged, though maybe not quite as much if they were free floating in the wort--but that's based on no science whatsoever.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: it was the best brewing investment I've ever made.

cmbrougham said:

I got one of these: 6" x 14" Brew Filter 300 Micron Stainless Steel mesh. Now I can use pellet hops with reckless abandon and utmost laziness. I suspect I get better utilization than if the hops were bagged, though maybe not quite as much if they were free floating in the wort--but that's based on no science whatsoever.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: it was the best brewing investment I've ever made.

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Thanks for the advice cmb
I harvest about 10 lbs. of dried hops a year. I went on the Arborfab site and found a 6" x 19" which is perfect for my 30 gallon BoilerMaker.
This should be a great brewing aid!

I have been looking for a way to do a recirculating whirlpool with whole hops.

Glad to hear, and you're welcome! I used mine yesterday with an ounce of pellet hops, an ounce of leaf hops, four ounces of grapefruit peel, and four pounds/cups (!!!) of grapefruit "meat." It held back everything with aplomb (I should have taken a picture of the muck that was left behind!). This was the first time I changed from my home-rolled bazooka T and used a straight pick-up tube (1/2" copper pieces fashioned into an L). I don't have a way to whirlpool currently (I sort of can, but I use an immersion chiller and with the hop filter in the way it's sort of pointless), but I still had pretty clear wort going into the fermenter. Of course, that's sort of relative, as there was a large proportion of wheat in the wort and the grapefruit juice/pulp left a pleasant haze, which is what I want in the finished beer. It takes a minute or two to clean out, but the amount of time it saves everywhere else is well worth it.

I also use it as a pre-boil filter now, where I direct the runoff from my MLT through the filter--it catches a lot of crud! In fact, I'll usually pull it out before coming to boil and rinse it out. It's very versatile.

Our local 1BBL nanobrewery had Arbor Fab make a custom filter for their kettle--they love it! Hope it works for you too!