I'm new to home brewing, only brewed 4 batches now, and been meaning to ask about this.... Is there any negative effects of squeezing the hop bag to get as much of the hop breakup into the wort as possible? Or do you just remove the bag, and hold it over the wort for a while to let it drain as much as possible? I've noticed that if you just hold it over the wort and let it drip drain, there is a lot of stuff that gets caught in the bag, and will not make it into the wort. As always, any advice is much appreciated and thanks.
I don't think it would be a problem to squeeze the hop bag. I've heard you shouldn't squeeze the grain bag because it will release tannins. However, if you're worried about stuff getting caught in the bag, you could just throw the hops directly in the boil.
kettle hop bag squished with sanitized spoon - yes I do. dry hop bag squeezed in any way? - no I do not.
I squeeze both kettle and dry hop bags. I use a spoon for the kettle and sanitized rubber gloves for the keg.
I don't bag the kettle, but I do squeeze my dry hop bag in the keg just a little. I use leaf only, so it expands pretty well and has to squeeze to get out of the keg anyways. Squeeze away in any instance, as long you are sanitary about it.
I always squeeze the hop bag carefully avoiding drops splashing into wort, I just let wort slips gently around fermentor walls.
If your worried about it going into the wort, you could always squeeze the hop bag into a glass for a sample...
Squeeze, squeeze, if you please, No harm, no foul, and no disease. Squeeze and all will be quite merry, Provided that you're sanitary.
I do a double dry hop in the keg - and I try to avoid letting the bag get squeezed while pulling it out of the keg opening (meaning I have to limit the hops to about 3-4 ozs of pellets). I have gotten vegetal/grassy off flavors from that in the past - especially from hops that were in there for about 2 weeks. I use a hop bag in the boil for a 10 min addition of whole cones and I don't mind squeezing those as that grassy hoppiness is what I am going for with that addition anyway. YMMV
