Hop Sack Question

[Droog]

I took a ride down to my homebrew supply shop in Jersey and forgot to pick up a few muslin hop sacks. Has anyone ever used a substitution for this?

[HogieWan]

Originally posted by Droog
I took a ride down to my homebrew supply shop in Jersey and forgot to pick up a few muslin hop sacks. Has anyone ever used a substitution for this?

yes - nothing

I never use anything to contain the hops. Don't worry about them getting into the primary

[Droog]

Even with hops pellets? I'm new to homebrewing I should add.

[larin1477]

Yes either pellets or whole...just toss em in...with pellets you'll get a little mud at the bottom of your boiler ...but a bag would stop that from happening anyway.

Have fun...and dont stop asking questions

[Droog]

Great, thank you guys!

[Uncle Joe]

if you're looking elsewhere, I have seen pantyhose (sp) suggested for this usage. I DO NOT reccomend this. To test, I grabbed my prized sunday pantyhose that I wear to church and brunch(;)) and tossed them in some pure water and boiled them.

The concoction had no smell, and, for the sake of science I tasted it, with no taste. However, the water turned the color that the pantyhose were... the other brewers that used this method might have never noticed in the wort, due to no taste/smell.

Be warned of the hose.

[Droog]

HAHAHAAAA... yeah I read a few other places to ditch the hop sack... but I never saw the pantyhose trick... thanks for the warning.

[HogieWan]

Originally posted by Droog
Even with hops pellets? I'm new to homebrewing I should add.

just toss em in.

You'll get better extraction from them (esp. late additions) since they have space to spread out and touch a lot of the wort

[MichaelM]

Agreed I never bagged my hops even when dryhopping pellets and have not had a problem

[BathroomBrew]

I've just thrown mine right in, and when i transfer the wort to the primary, i use a straining bag to catch everything before it goes into the primary

[Droog]

Ahhh.. good call.

[BikeNBrew]

Originally posted by Droog
I took a ride down to my homebrew supply shop in Jersey and forgot to pick up a few muslin hop sacks. Has anyone ever used a substitution for this?
I usually use the the cheesecloth-like hop sacks for specialty grains, and one evening as I was getting ready to brew I realized I didn't have any. So I went to the local Meijers (a big grocery / department store, open 24 hrs) and checked through the large kitchen area they had. Found the identical material in a larger size being sold as - Stuffing Bags. Stuffing turkeys, etc. Worked just fine- would be ideal for large quantities of grain, say a pound or two. In the past I have used two of the smaller bags for this. Anyway, I was happy to find another resource for a "back up plan" when needed.

[Uncle Joe]

how did the price compare?

[BikeNBrew]

Originally posted by Uncle Joe
how did the price compare? A little more- $1.25, I think. At that point I was just glad to find them.