Using Tea Filters as Hop/Spice Sacks

[lindseywinstead]

Having grown frustrated with the unwieldy muslin sacks that are most commonly used to hold hops and/or spices, particularly when brewing a 2.5 gallon batch, I decided to try tea filters. If you are not familiar with these, it is just as it sounds. They are merely empty tea bags, but come in a wide variety of sizes. I purchased a box of 100 for around 10 bucks. Including the flap, they are approximately 7 inches by 3 inches. My first attempt was a bit disastrous, as I knew not how best to close the flap. A simple fold or two certainly does not do the trick. Result: hops floating around the perimeter of a now empty tea filter. Attempt two involved stapling the flap closed. I was none too keen on metal staples floating in my brew, but I had to know if it would work. Result: hops floating around the perimeter of a now empty tea filter with three dangling (but hopefully not oxidizing) staples. Tonight was attempt three. I always use my Food Saver Vacuum Sealer to reseal bags of hops if I am only using a partial package. Hopeful that the sealing heat would not be enough to set the tea filter aflame, I tried sealing the hop-filled filter. Result: It worked! It seems to have made a complete seal across the flap of the tea filter. Stay tuned for my report in two weeks when I bottle, to find out if the seal held throughout the process. Fingers crossed! Cheers!

[Bluejaye]

Good luck, hope it works out for you this time.

[swenocha]

Several in our local hombrew group use these, though we find them cheaper at the LAFS...

Extra-Large Jumbo-Size 5 inch, Twist-Lock Spice Ball Tea Infuser Herb Infuser

[lindseywinstead]

I have used (and had success with) tea-balls previously. I was merely searching for an alternative. The tea filters are disposable, cheap, and easy to use.

[monsteroyd]

Having grown frustrated with the unwieldy muslin sacks that are most commonly used to hold hops and/or spices, particularly when brewing a 2.5 gallon batch, I decided to try tea filters. If you are not familiar with these, it is just as it sounds. They are merely empty tea bags, but come in a wide variety of sizes. I purchased a box of 100 for around 10 bucks. Including the flap, they are approximately 7 inches by 3 inches. My first attempt was a bit disastrous, as I knew not how best to close the flap. A simple fold or two certainly does not do the trick. Result: hops floating around the perimeter of a now empty tea filter. Attempt two involved stapling the flap closed. I was none too keen on metal staples floating in my brew, but I had to know if it would work. Result: hops floating around the perimeter of a now empty tea filter with three dangling (but hopefully not oxidizing) staples. Tonight was attempt three. I always use my Food Saver Vacuum Sealer to reseal bags of hops if I am only using a partial package. Hopeful that the sealing heat would not be enough to set the tea filter aflame, I tried sealing the hop-filled filter. Result: It worked! It seems to have made a complete seal across the flap of the tea filter. Stay tuned for my report in two weeks when I bottle, to find out if the seal held throughout the process. Fingers crossed! Cheers!

Hey Cool. Be sure to post back your results.

Monty

[FedoraDave]

This may not be practical for 2.5 gallon batches (in fact, I prefer using hop sacks for my smaller batches), but for my fivers, I rely on my home-made hop spider.

http://byo.com/build-it-yourself/item/2 ... r-projects

Real inexpensive, and only takes a few minutes to put it together.

One word of advice: put something inside the sack to weight it down, so the hops is always submerged.

[John Sand]

Do be careful about the size of the tea ball though. I used a small one, the hops swelled with water, stopping flow. The middle hops were not effective, the brew was seriously underhopped. Now I go commando and filter into the fermenter with a paint strainer.

[Brewbirds]

Do be careful about the size of the tea ball though. I used a small one, the hops swelled with water, stopping flow. The middle hops were not effective, the brew was seriously underhopped. Now I go commando and filter into the fermenter with a paint strainer.

I've got the small one and the big ones as I weigh out the hops I'll split between two of the small ones or use a big one and I use a big for hop stands.
I have had (old?) hops completely disintegrate and pulled out an empty tea ball on several batches though.

[Crazy Climber]

This might be an appropriate thread in which to ask the following question --

I bought a few mesh hop/grain bags with drawstrings...not nylon, but cloth. They could probably hold a pound of grain, tops, to give an idea of size. I bought them on Ebay and can't find any pictures online that are an exact match, but you probably get the idea.

Ever since I started using them, it seems that my hop utilization is not what it used to be.

Has anyone else tried something similar, and noticed a reduction in the effectiveness of their boils?

I'm thinking it's because the weave on these is fairly tight. For example, when I pull a sack out of the boil, a couple of ounces of wort will stay in the bag and very slowly drip out. The mesh is sufficiently tight that if wort can't get out easily, it's probably not flowing through as much as it should.

Does nylon work well enough, while still keeping the hop matter from seeping into the kettle?

I don't have as much of an issue with them for steeping small amounts of specialty grain, but I'm thinking about giving up on using them for hops. I hate the idea of tossing out muslin sacks for a half-ounce of hops here and there. Who was it that made a hop spider out of coat hangers? Very creative, that was...

[Brewbirds]

Well the tea balls take a while to drain wort as well. I'm not sure if it is the bag or the hops soaking up wort that is your problem since the tea balls probably aren't as fine as your bags are.
I was surprised at how heavy the tea balls were after the pellet hops soaked up wort the first time I used them. I even asked BB2 why BeerSmith does grain absorption but not hop absorption.

[Crazy Climber]

The bags I bought were cotton, I found out. The seller isn't active on Ebay anymore, so I can't find pics of the exact product, but this is very similar: http://www.ebay.com/itm/ECOBAGS-Lightwe ... 564bb65a18

The issue with these cotton bags is definitely liquid retention, not the hops soaking up the wort (although that happens, too). When I pull it out of the wort, in addition to the pellets, there's a few ounces of wort "floating" in the bag, practically not draining, or draining very slowly. Think of a goldfish in a Ziploc bag w/ some pinholes in it -- it retains liquid that much.

I thought they were a deal ($5 for 5 reusable bags, compared to throwing away a 50 cent muslin sack w/ every hop addition), but maybe I ought to stick with muslin, or try nylon. Better to spend a little more than to be disappointed with my beers' hop character!

Good point about BeerSmith and hop absorption. Maybe it's not enough to impact several gallons of beer, but with some of these modern hop bombs, there's no question that a lot of liquid is getting eaten by the hop monsters!

[lindseywinstead]

UPDATE: I bottled my toasted coconut porter today. The experimental tea filter, sealed with the vacuum sealer, was still completely intact after two weeks in the fermenter. A promising result! I have another batch (a foreign extra stout) in which I used the sealed tea filters again, this time in a 20 minute boil. If it holds up in a boil as well as it did for a dry hop, then this just might be a viable option for my future brew needs. Cheers!

[John Sand]

Thanks for the update.

[Bluejaye]

UPDATE: I bottled my toasted coconut porter today. The experimental tea filter, sealed with the vacuum sealer, was still completely intact after two weeks in the fermenter. A promising result! I have another batch (a foreign extra stout) in which I used the sealed tea filters again, this time in a 20 minute boil. If it holds up in a boil as well as it did for a dry hop, then this just might be a viable option for my future brew needs. Cheers!

Thanks for the update. I have a FoodSaver, so I might be interested in trying this. I'm just unclear where one finds these empty tea filters, but I've never looked in the store for one, either.

[lindseywinstead]

Thanks for the update. I have a FoodSaver, so I might be interested in trying this. I'm just unclear where one finds these empty tea filters, but I've never looked in the store for one, either.

I purchased mine through Amazon.com, but I have also seen them in the local tea shops.