New way to control Pellet Hop gunk!
 

I've seen lots of hop spider builds but also lots of complaints. I ran across a vendor on ebay that focuses on stainless filters for things like biodiesel etc and I asked a lot of questions and he was very responsive and interested in these being utilized for beer brewing so he built me a prototype of a 200 micron filter!

I will be testing it out this weekend but the objective was to eliminate hop bags and still be able to keep the gunk out of my plate chillers. I do 20 gallon batches so I had this custom built, it is 6" in diameter and 14" long. The idea is that I will just be throwing hops into this strainer at the proper time of the boil and then just clean this out at the end of the brew day! I will report back on it's effectiveness both in straining out the hop gunk as well as it's effect on hop utilization.

Looks promising. Will be interested in your results.

I have been looking for something like this. In fact I posted something half a year back with a commercial coffee/tea filter: http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/hop-spider-end-all-hop-spiders-308754/, but the size of the item didn't quite work out in a balanced fashion with the cost. Would love to find a simple "off the shelf" solution, else I have been looking at purchasing the mesh myself and creating something like this.

Good luck!

That's very cool too, the strainer from SB. The dimensions are certainly right, I just wish there was some better imagery of the basket itself.

That is cool.


Here is the original ebay seller and a relatively low cost version http://www.ebay.com/itm/BEER-WORT-SCOOP-CUP-STAINLESS-STEEL-HOMEBREW-BEER-MAKING-WINE-MAKING-/170829657526?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item27c63d b5b6

Seller here: http://myworld.ebay.com/chads454?_trksid=p2047675.l2559

What I liked most about dealing with this guy is that I bought the one at the first link (found him originally through bucket strainer search) and then after a couple of emails we worked out exactly what I wanted (with whatever micron filter you want) for an extremely reasonable cost with shipping.

Note: I am not affiliated with the seller, just wanted to share what I'm working on to simplify my brew day....

A big plus, "Stainless Brewing" is on our vendor list check em out.

Lol, I am not slinging product on this thread.... Just wanted to keep you guys up to date with my weekly experiments : )

Tested it out today. It worked well, I think the 200 micron filter might be a little too fine as the other break material stuck to the outside. Hop utilization was excellent though. It was also not too bad to clean.

I ordered mine from the eBay seller for $42 with shipping. I loved the Stainless Steel Brewing one but with a wife and two kids, I just couldn't justify the price of it. When I saw the one on eBay, I had to pull the trigger on it.