BxBrewer

Recipes 

After a couple of uses i soak mine in Oxy free. Im using a 300 micron. Once the hops sink it starts to churn in the basket. When i stir the wort you can see in the basket that wort is flowing though it. I leave mine in the wort when chilling. I lift it up and place it in the middle. Mine take all of 30 seconds to completely drain. Most hops ive used in it is 4oz "mines a small one for 5 gal".

Even if you think its cleaned from spraying out. There is still some stuff left over "hence the oxy clean soak.

ScubaSteve

Recipes 

For you guys using an IC, why not free float the hops for the whole boil....chill...whirlpool...and let settle. Then just drain into one of these before the fermenter? As long as you have a diptube offset towards the vessel wall, I wouldn't think you'd pick up enough trub to clog a filter this size.....

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UNIBREW 5500 SINGLE VESSEL BREWERY
WOODEN SINGLE TIER

jammin

Recipes 

Sounds great on paper! I can almost guarantee it would clog and you would have a situation on your hands.

I have heard of people using a paint strainer bag in their fermenting bucket in that fashion. I guess you line the fermenter much like you would a garbage can with a garbage bag. Just pull the strainer out with all the gunk leaving clear wort in the fermenter. I really like that idea!

jammin

Recipes 

Here is a shot during knockout of my 3 gallon IPA earlier this week(half drained through CFC to fermenter). The filter had 39 grams of pellets in it going into 0 minutes.

I added my 0 minute addition directly to the kettle as I felt the utilization would be severely hindered in the filter.

marcb

Recipes 

For my setup, I rinse it out to clean and then set it in my bucket of starsan (not to sterilize - just because its there and nothing else goes into it after I have prepped my conical) once I clean the brew kettle and start heating water to recirc 160 degree pbw theoughthe plate chiller I place the filter back in the kettle next to the whirlpool fitting so it gets a nice long cleaning cycle with the plate chillers. Not really necessary but I'm doing it anyways so what the heck.

FATC1TY

Recipes 

I get the same thing. Look how much wort is still in the filter, versus the kettle.

I might just take it as a loss, and just add pellets loose, and the leaf to the strainer. The leaf won't clog it up, and I guess I'd have to see if the pellets in the boil would stick to the filter and clog it up, but I would venture to say it would be okay.

Then, do my normal chill, whirlpool, add any additions, settle it out while I clean up, and then take my funnel, set the filter on it, and drain into it and into the funnel into the carboy. You would get pretty clean wort from the whirlpool and settle, and then would be able to get greedy at the end and get as much wort as possible.

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Bubba's Backyard Brewery

ScubaSteve

Recipes 

It seems that NOTHING can stop the hop pellet sludge from clogging filters. I wonder what the brewing industry uses?

I've been toying with the idea of some sort of centrifuge....drain the wort into a central spinning cylinder made of mesh, and centrifugal force will pull the wort through the screen and into an outer chamber shaped like a conical fermenter....the wort is slung against the sides (aerated) and drained down the funnel. Kinda like the spin-dry cycle on a washing machine.

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UNIBREW 5500 SINGLE VESSEL BREWERY
WOODEN SINGLE TIER

br1dge

Recipes 

I think part of the problem is these threads don't have a good baseline as to what the specs are for their setup and the results are correlated back to a spec. Size of spider (diameter and length) matters, as does the size of mesh. Most threads using a 400 micron mesh are reporting excellent results, with the issue being how many hops it will hold, which could resolved by getting a larger hop spider! 200 micron screens readily clog, and couldn't be expected to do otherwise. Thanks to everyone for blazing the trail though for those of us slower folks. With all that said, I think people might buying these undersized. A 6 x 18 cylinder has roughly 500 cu inches of volume, going to a 8" diameter almost doubles your volume with the same 18" length, (900 cu inches, ) and a 12 x 18 has a volume of over 2,000 cubic inches. Something to consider if you can "only" get x ounces in it, and need more volume.

We are looking to get a 12 x 24 / 400 micron spider made, for. 1bbl system, and feel confident it will satisfy a) a large capacity of hops (36 oz) and b) achieve a good balance of flow and filtration... We will certainly report back our results. We are moving to a plate chiller and are expecting a lot of this next purchase.

br1dge

Recipes 

You could always pick up one of these... http://www.westfalia-separator.com/products/product-finder/product-finder-detail/product/separator-profi-300i-profi-400i.html

bottlebomber

Recipes 

That's perfect! My kieselguhr has REALLY been pissing me of lately!