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I'm looking for a stainless steel hoop about 10" in diameter to act as a ballast in a brew bag. I want to try using a BIAB bag for hop additions on beers with a large hop bill.
Figured someone here can make a hoop and/or has tried something similar.

I'll talk to you on a bit, on the run niw

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great, Thanks X.

How heavy? Banding doesn't have much weight.

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not sure really, I was thinking 1/4" rod or something

I have some of the stainless banding from Rob if you'd like it..but it's too light to provide any type of weight to the bag.

It could still hold the bag open I suppose, might not need that much weight.

My biggest concern would be the sharp edges of the hoop. I'm thinking something rolled would be better - like the rod you had mentioned above.

I could hoop some 1/4" tubing easy enough.

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I think the mesh on some BIAB bags is too fine for them to be used as hop bags during the boil. They can clog up with hop debris and not drain well. You'd have to try it and see.

That would work, it's not too much trouble?

GuingesRock wrote:I think the mesh on some BIAB bags is too fine for them to be used as hop bags during the boil. They can clog up with hop debris and not drain well. You'd have to try it and see.

Yup. I tried it with one of our bags and it was shit, the material is just too fine for filtering hops. You might be able to find a coarser material that would be more suitable for hops.

Jimmy wrote:

GuingesRock wrote:I think the mesh on some BIAB bags is too fine for them to be used as hop bags during the boil. They can clog up with hop debris and not drain well. You'd have to try it and see.

Yup. I tried it with one of our bags and it was shit, the material is just too fine for filtering hops. You might be able to find a coarser material that would be more suitable for hops.

Would be a really good setup for leaf hops though. I noticed Dave has been quietly getting in some leaf hops. He has Amarillo and Cascade

Jimmy wrote:

GuingesRock wrote:I think the mesh on some BIAB bags is too fine for them to be used as hop bags during the boil. They can clog up with hop debris and not drain well. You'd have to try it and see.

Yup. I tried it with one of our bags and it was shit, the material is just too fine for filtering hops. You might be able to find a coarser material that would be more suitable for hops.

I'm willing to give it a shot, I have a pulley system so I can raise and squeeze the bag at the end of the boil, or turn it inside out and go back to the drawing board.
Thanks for the offer on the tubing X, I think I'll try the bare bag first and see how the draining works out.

The Noble Grape mesh bags are pretty coarse and sometimes I use one for leaf hops in the boil. I do prefer hops floating openly though and I find bagged hops in my case kind of simulate late hopping more.

Edit: I should qualify that with "the bag I got years ago at NG".

would a SS ball bearing add enough ballast to keep the bag under the wort? Or maybe some glass marbles?

I'm trying to find a way to improve how I add hops too

If the concern is just keeping the bag off the bottom of the pot while heating, what we do is use clamps at the top of the pot to hold the bag off the bottom. It's worked beautifully for any time we want to adjust mash temps, etc. and you could likely do that for your hop additions as well...

-Keely.

I think the idea is to give the hops full room to swim in the wort and do their magic, not confining them to a small hop bag, with the ability to get them out at the end, perhaps when the wort has been cooled to pitching temp?

I have a raised grille in the bottom of my kettle to keep the bag off the bottom.
I'm trying to figure out how to hold the bag open so 95% of the wort and hops can float about freely inside. A glass pot lid or a dinner plate might do the trick. the weight of the plate combined with clamps around the lip of the kettle should keep the bag from closing up.

Maritimer wrote:I have a raised grille in the bottom of my kettle to keep the bag off the bottom.
I'm trying to figure out how to hold the bag open so 95% of the wort and hops can float about freely inside. A glass pot lid or a dinner plate might do the trick. the weight of the plate combined with clamps around the lip of the kettle should keep the bag from closing up.

What about a round stainless cooling rack or something similar - should be plenty of weight.

Iirc, shop and save has stainless wok trays that might be ideal. Cheap.

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I'm going to try using a spring form cake pan today, doing a version of Nash's IRA from the barrel thread, 6oz at flame out should be a good test. As I write this I'm second guessing myself, the outside of the cake pan is just what I need but I'm not sure about the non stick coating, I might go with a SS pan lid instead.

Well it was a success and a failure, I tried using a pyrex pie plate in the bottom of the bag, quickly after putting it in the kettle I realized it was a horrible idea.
I ditched the pie plate and tossed the hops directly into the bag. After a 10 minute steep I pulled the bag. It was very slow to drain. I wasn't really satisfied that I had gotten all I could from the hops so I emptied the bag into a jar and poured them directly into the carboy.It will be interesting to see how they come through. The pic shows what came out of the bag, 6oz of hops. I mixed this with the cooled wort from my chiller and poured it in the carboy.
At least I didn't clog my chiller.

Copper?

Sandy

GAM wrote:Copper?

Sandy

I think an immersion chiller is the solution.