Stainless Steel Scrubby Under Boil Kettle Dip Tube

I usually brew with pellets and a hop spider. I was thinking of switching it up tomorrow and using leaf hops without the spider. Most of my research suggests that the leaf hops will actually create a good filter bed around my dip tube. But I am paranoid about loosing the hop spider and not doing something to help filter. I have this stainless steel scrubby that I could place under my dip tube.

http://www.amazon.com/Stainless-Ste...7355188&sr=8-4&keywords=stainless+steel+scrub

Anybody have any experience using one of these under your dip tube to block proteins and hop particles? Should I only use it if I want to use pellets in the boil kettle without using my hop spider and / or muslin hop bags? Is it unnecessary when using leaf hops? Will using it with leaf hops create any potential problems? I'd rather ask now than risk having transfer problems from the boil kettle to my hop back and chiller tomorrow thanks!



Am

 

That's what a hop spider uses. In part, I theorize that using a paint strainer bag cuts down a bit on contact between the hops and the wort. So I've always been itching to try to add hops to the boil kettle without a bag. Oh and it should be mentioned that I use a plate chiller so its important that I don't gunk it up with hop debris (hence why I always used the bag) but I also always use pellet hops too. I've decided I want to use my hop back on this batch (which only takes leaf hops) and I have lots of leaf hops that I want to use so I made a last minute decision to go all leaf hop this batch. I'm brewing an ipa with lots of late hop additions and am also worried that if I put all of those leaf hops in the hop spider, they would swell up so much (getting dense in the bag) that perhaps they would have even worse contact with the wort.


Not sure if the original link is working...try this one

http://www.amazon.com/Fuller-Brush-...7357071&sr=8-2&keywords=stainless+steel+scrub

 

Well since I was lacking confidence and didn't receive any "instant" feedback, I decided to bag the leaf hops and skip the scrubby pad. One thing I did that was probably a good thing was put my different leaf hop additions in different muslin bags instead of putting every addition in the hop spider. That gave the leaf hops more room to expand as well as giving more hop contact with the wort. I did my 60 minute addition in 1 bag, 25 minute addition in another, and the 5 minute addition in the hop spider. Then I did a 25 minute hop stand and next ran the wort through my hop rocket which had 3 more oz of leaf hops in it. Finally I passed it through my plate chiller to lock in all of those oils from the hop rocket pass on the way to the fermenters. Damn the hydrometer sample tasted hoppy!