Loose Hops vs Hop Spider

Nosybear

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My hop spider will clog so bad I stopped using it, I would recommend only using whole hops with it otherwise you'll loose hop flavor
 
My hop spider will clog so bad I stopped using it, I would recommend only using whole hops with it otherwise you'll loose hop flavor
That was the point of the experiment. The tester used pellet hops and a lot of them. The end result was neither he nor the tasters could reliably tell the difference. Hop spider clogging is a different issue, one I haven't faced. Mine doesn't seem to clog.
 
My hop spider will clog so bad I stopped using it, I would recommend only using whole hops with it otherwise you'll loose hop flavor

I felt the same way, it was a pain in the ass to clean out, and when I pulled it out post boil it would drip for an hour. I use a nylon hop bag tied to a piece of angle iron now. Not because i care about hops in the wort but because it lets me reclaim more liquid when packaging.
 
I think the results of that experiment are skewed. The amount of hops took the bitterness to well over 100 IBUs. This gave too much wiggle room above the maximum perceptible bitterness level for most people. I know I can tell the difference between just tossing and using my spider in my reasonably hopped APAs and IPAs.
I can't understand why they'd use a recipe like that for this comparison. Most of their experiments use recipes that don't obscure the variable.
 
I think the results of that experiment are skewed. The amount of hops took the bitterness to well over 100 IBUs. This gave too much wiggle room above the maximum perceptible bitterness level for most people. I know I can tell the difference between just tossing and using my spider in my reasonably hopped APAs and IPAs.
I can't understand why they'd use a recipe like that for this comparison. Most of their experiments use recipes that don't obscure the variable.
Didn't look at that part.... What I've noticed with the new system is that I get more bitterness than I used to. I'm having to adjust the recipe downward to get the right level of bitterness. I attribute it to 1) whirlpooling with actual motion of the liquid and 2) using the hop spider. Not sure if any of those are accurate....
 
I got better utilization when I started recirculating on my old setup. I was using a paint strainer bag in a home made spider. When I started using my EMIAB system. I began using a 300 micron stainless spider with a 1 gallon capacity. I scaled my recipes to the new system and got my losses dialed in after a couple of batches and found the beers to be very similar to the same recipes on the old system. I quit using the stainless spider because it was a pain to use the IC because of the spider size.

I started just tossing in up to 3 ounces of pellets and bagging the rest. I noticed that my beers were more bitter than before. When I started harvesting yeast, I started bagging all of the hops in bags my wife made out of an old brewing bag. The beers were still more bitter.

That's my experience with the stainless spider, so I doubt your spider is contributing to any increase in bitterness, unless yours is a coarser mesh than the 300 micron. I figure my new system gets better utilization and the spider cancelled it out.
 
I use an SS hop spider now. At first I felt there was less bitterness/flavor/aroma than going commando. But now I keep my long SS spoon in the spider during the entire boil, stirring as necessary, and draining into the BK occasionally. No difference now. That’s with pellets. I don’t have a filter on my BK outlet, thus the SS spider. It does seem like recirculation whirlpooling helps with hop utilization but can’t say for sure.
 
I'm a loose goody gander here never have bagged them up so can't say none to comparrisons. Yep Bob I'd like to have less hops in me yeast samples though just for looks don't know if it's harming anything though. I'll have to go have a look over there at the brulosophy site.
 
I've always used a Hop Bag almost always with Pellets. For the last 5 years I've used a large Nylon Hop Bag suspended in a Ring with legs. I found the large bag interfered with the Whirlpool action. So, I switch to small bags for the Steep & Whirlpool. I try to keep the hop crumbs in the Kettle while I cool the beer. Since I do both in a boil I can't say either way. The Late Hop Addition seems to make more difference than whether I use a Hop Spider or not. It's just easier to clean up.
 

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