Dry Hopping with magnets

[Doublehoppy]

I read today on an English board adjusting the position of a hop bag inside a keg or fermenter using magnets. Sounds like a great idea. I recently dry hopped an NZ IPA with 110gm (5.5gm/lt) in two muslin bags. Despite weighing down with glass weights they still floated half in half out. I can see that the magnets will take the guess work out of the weights, i.e. too little and they'll float, too much and they'll sink to the bottom and get covered in trub. Would also solve the problem about dry hopping in a fermenter. Dry hop for a week or two then just slide the bag up into the ulage space before it starts leeching tannins.

The writer recommended neodymium magnets which can be small, but extremely powerful. I understand that they are nickel coated, so should be OK to immerse. However they are so powerful that they can apparently chip or shatter if you accidentally let them clash together...maybe another type would be more suitable?

Has anyone tried doing something like this?

[Haish]

How about using something like a stirbar that is plastic coated? You could then use a rare earth magnet on the outside of the fermenter to reposition the hop bag.

[vdog]

Like the idea - something I may try on the next brew. As far as being concerned about taint etc, why not just put the one that's in the beer into a sanitised snaplock bag or something? That'd keep it away from the beer, without affecting it's magnetic properties.

Those neodymium ones are definitely good and strong - as far as breaking, it won't happen if they're separated by the wall of the fermenter.

[Doublehoppy]

Thanks guys. Good idea about the snaplock bag. So pardon my ignorance but who sells rare earth or neodymium magnets? Are they common and sold by a hardware store?

[Dale]

Thanks to JamesP I got my rare earth's from http://www.dealextreme.com

[Haish]

In Auckland you can pick them up from Jaycar or Surplustronics. Or you can salvage them from a dead hard drive from a computer shop...

[James P]

Has haisd and Dale said, many places to get them depending on your budget and time frame.

I was ghetto (and had 12 old PCs in the garage) when I started, so ripped them out of the HDDs, however have since upgraded to ones from Jaycar (thanks to HerrSchnapps). Had I found DealExtreme earlier I would have bought from there!

[David Wood]

Just chuck the hops in without a bag and filter the beer through a stocking when you rack ;-)

[Doublehoppy]

Yeah, that's an option of course, or just don't filter and drink with a toothpick handy haha.

I occasional keg a pale ale in a rotokeg, so the magnets will allow me to dryhop in the keg for a couple of weeks

I've picked up some described as Neo Rare Earth magnets from Surplustronics. Cheers guys

[Reviled]

"or just don't filter and drink with a toothpick handy haha"

How else are ya supposed to get your 5+ a day? lolz