I confess to being an extreme hophead. My goal is to clone a Green Flash IPA.
The question is whether it's best to just dump hop pellets into the boil ... or to tie them into a muslin bag? I even go a step further by placing the bag into a stainless steel mesh ball ... similar to an oversize tea bag strainer. After the cooling process and transferring to a fermenter, it's fairly easy to retrieve my spent hop additions. Though some additives remain at the bottom of the boiling kettle. I usually do 90-minute boils. Do you think my efforts are costing me some IBU's? I'm thinking about preparing a batch without the hop bag(s), then do a cold break for a day or so to make sure everything gets to the bottom of the carboy before racking to a keg.
The question is whether it's best to just dump hop pellets into the boil ... or to tie them into a muslin bag? I even go a step further by placing the bag into a stainless steel mesh ball ... similar to an oversize tea bag strainer. After the cooling process and transferring to a fermenter, it's fairly easy to retrieve my spent hop additions. Though some additives remain at the bottom of the boiling kettle. I usually do 90-minute boils. Do you think my efforts are costing me some IBU's? I'm thinking about preparing a batch without the hop bag(s), then do a cold break for a day or so to make sure everything gets to the bottom of the carboy before racking to a keg.