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**eastoak** · 09-16-2012, 03:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dhempy

Just to be clear .. I really like the hop spider ... and would like it better with a bit tighter filtering!

OK ... I just looked at a hop bag ... the mesh isn't square ... and my eyes aren't good enough to do an _EXACT_ count but my best guess is that it is something like 30x60 ... when you look at the bag itself, there are real fine threads in the mesh squares ... they kind of run triangularly but more so in one direction than the other ... I counted 1/8" each way and multiplied and did a smidge of rounding to get to 30x60. I've done some quick searching and there are SOME rectangular SS meshs available ... but I have yet to find a 30 x 60.

Dan

are you talking about the mesh on the stainlessbrewing hop spider or a nylon hop bag?

dhempy · 09-16-2012, 04:37 AM

Hop bag.

Baddaddy · 09-19-2012, 10:00 PM

I have a sabco brew magic with a hop stopper. After 12 brews with the hop stopper, I'm just about fed up. I brew IPAs and IIPAs - always leaves at least a gallon behind with plugged screen. My question is this: after seeing the dialogue on the screen mesh, would I be best served to buy the 8-5/8, with legs and keep my hop stopper also? I'm sort of confused as to how much clearance I would have with the legs. With the hop stopper in the bottom of my brew magic kettle (basically a keggle), I would need at least 4 inches clearance below the hop strainer. In looking at the ordering area on the stainless.com web site, it seems like I have 2 inches clearance? If that's the case, I would probably be better off getting the spider and using the nylon bag and keeping the hop stopper installed and between the two, I would expect a considerable improvement. Alternatively, is the finer mesh coming out anytime soon?

mattyb85 · 09-19-2012, 10:14 PM

I think the reason that electric brewery has good luck with their hop stopper is because they are using the blichmann boilermakers. The diptube in the boilermakers is almost touching the pot which gives it one small point to draw from. If you're just using the hop stopper with the mpt fitting on the end it's a very large opening to drain through?

**eastoak** · 09-19-2012, 11:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Baddaddy

I have a sabco brew magic with a hop stopper. After 12 brews with the hop stopper, I'm just about fed up. I brew IPAs and IIPAs - always leaves at least a gallon behind with plugged screen. My question is this: after seeing the dialogue on the screen mesh, would I be best served to buy the 8-5/8, with legs and keep my hop stopper also? I'm sort of confused as to how much clearance I would have with the legs. With the hop stopper in the bottom of my brew magic kettle (basically a keggle), I would need at least 4 inches clearance below the hop strainer. In looking at the ordering area on the stainless.com web site, it seems like I have 2 inches clearance? If that's the case, I would probably be better off getting the spider and using the nylon bag and keeping the hop stopper installed and between the two, I would expect a considerable improvement. Alternatively, is the finer mesh coming out anytime soon?

i'm using both the stainless spider and the hopStopper with excellent results. i have the 6.5 inch spider and use it in a keggle, it sits about 3 1/2 - 4 inches above the bottom. you can have the spider made in whatever size you want and it's easy to cut to length since the bottom is just a big worm clamp around a stainless ring.

**StainlessBrewing** · 09-20-2012, 02:45 PM

When trimming to the desired height I highly recommend trimming from the top section. The bottom can be a major pain to put back together because of the bottom screen. Just loosen the top clamp, remove the ring with sleeves, cut to desired length with a good pair of papaer scissors and reassemble.

I will be ordering a 40 mesh next week and will find a local to test it out for me being I'm still quite not ready to brew yet because of the move. Thanks for everyone's patience with these. I'm hoping to crank out quite a few this weekend to get completely caught up.

Proud to be apart of Mesa, AZ's first Microbrewery. Here is a strainer on a larger scale almost complete.

]

dhempy · 09-20-2012, 02:57 PM

I've been thinking a lot about the whys for my Houdini Hops (the ones that escaped the spider) and I am beginning to think that because the spider sits in a turbulent environment (boiling wort) that the pellets were simply ground down against the mesh to small enough particles that they escaped into the free wort.

The next time I brew I will use hop bags in my spider to see how it goes.

I am very interested to see how the 40 mesh works out!

Dan

jtejedor · 09-24-2012, 06:39 PM

Ok so got to brew this weekend and got some pics and impressions. They are cell phone pics so maybe not the best but hopefully you get the idea from them. The brew was 10 gallons of zombie dust clone, used about 9 ounces of pellet hops in the boil. First of all here is a shot of it in the brew kettle, I use a morebeer 15 gallon heavy duty pot with their big immersion chiller.

I am using the 8 inch spider and it sits nicely in the middle of my immersion chiller, does not need any kind of support in my setup. Of course everyone's setup is different. As was stated earlier some hop material does make it into the boil, only seems to be the very fine particles the screen still catches a lot of the hops. After the boil here is what was left in the screen.

Here is a shot of the brew kettle after draining into my fermenters.

I really need to work on my whilpool technique I never seem to get a nice cone of hops in the middle like other people do. Anyhow as I stated yes a good deal of hop matter does get through the screen. But it only seems to be the finest particles, my pump ran just fine and seemed to flush out just fine at cleaning time. If you are looking for something that will not let a single bit of hop matter through then yes this is probably not for you. I would say it lets about as much hop matter through as some of the more porous nylon hop bags. I wish I had a lab and could say as far as IBUs are concerned how much better it is then a hop bag. But as far as I am concerned with the noticeable improvement in wort flowing in and out of the thing I would say utilization should improve over most hop bags. When it came time to start cooling with the lid on there was very little wort caught in the basket. Just a bit that was caught in the hop matter and a few quick shakes got that back into the boil kettle no problem. The reason I bought one was because I was jamming my hop bags to the brim and didn't feel that was probably getting me the best utilization. My last brew I used a pound of hops and even with three hops bags they were pretty darn stuffed. And trying to drain the last bit of wort out of a boiling hot bag is not fun. All in all I am happy with the performance. Its a great looking product, cleanup was a breeze just used the sprayer on my sink and brushed some of the screen a bit. Too soon to tell but man the aroma coming from the beer after cooling and now that its fermenting is awesome. We will see how it turns out.

Rbeckett · 09-24-2012, 07:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by StainlessBrewing

I'll let you know as soon as possible. Still waiting on my welder to give me a quote for bigger quantities and then I'll get them going. These were freebies because of just being a prototype.

Too bad I am so far away. I would love to whip up a couple hundred of those in my little home shop. That would be perfect for someone like me who is medically retired and has all of the required capabilities. Oh well, jope your welder gets back with a quote pretty soon and you can get production started and start shipping. Good luck with the great idea!!!!
Bob

**StainlessBrewing** · 09-24-2012, 07:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rbeckett

Too bad I am so far away. I would love to whip up a couple hundred of those in my little home shop. That would be perfect for someone like me who is medically retired and has all of the required capabilities. Oh well, jope your welder gets back with a quote pretty soon and you can get production started and start shipping. Good luck with the great idea!!!!
Bob

These are available and have been for quite some time now.