Trub/Hop Filter from BrewersHardware

Hello,

Did anyone buy this new Trub filter from brewershardware? The link is below. I know he didn't sell that many at first and he currently has a long lead time on them. I would like to hear some feedback on it..

It's a very nice setup.

http://www.brewershardware.com/HOP1.html

That's pretty slick. It leaves me thinking of a DIY project. An in-line filter ...

While I don't have a pump yet, it may not be that far around the corner.

Thats cool. Considering the fact that a single sock gasket is like $53, it's a good deal too.

Would be great if you could choose from a few different mesh size options. That doesn't seem to be a one size fits all kinda thing. Also, that is perfect for a hop-back with a different screen perhaps.

I was looking into making a home made hop back out of an SS food storage container and a bunch of TC fittings. I was pricing out all of the necessary fittings when I came across this rig. I also considered the hop rocket, but figured that not many of my beers need late addition hops, and I don't know how well it would work without hops. I decided to give the hop/trub filter a shot and it just showed up in the mail today. Without having used it in practice, it seems like it will be relatively easy to use. I was a little timid about the pore size on the fixed filter, but it seems like they will be small enough to filter out the majority of pellet hop material. I'm going to rig it BK>Filter>Pump>plate chiller. On the first go I will use it as is to filter BK hops. After I am satisfied with its ability to filter break material and hops I'm going to pack it with whole leaf hops and test it out as a hop back. When I'm done with these trials I will report back. The only other concern I have regarding this settup is what its contribution to HSA will be. I'm going to try to mount it at an angle so the wort can run down the inside wall of the cylinder rather than just dropping into the chamber.

I just got mine in on this past monday. Did you look inside the filter? Did it look pretty dirty? Mine was. I wonder what the best way is to clean it.

I like your idea, i would really like to know how it works out. please report back.

I did look inside, and aside from a few small spots it didn't look excessively dirty. I will most likely let it sit in a PBW solution for a little while before I use it for the first time. This should get rid of anything that is in there. Does the dirt look organic or does it look more like welding by product?

It would have to be organic, some type of oil, or whatever. It's not located by the seem of where it's welded. I soaked it in pbw last night and cleaned it so I am good to go.

I got mine this week as well and am stoked to brew with it this Saturday. Mine had a few spots that came right out with a PWB soak, which is a good practice for anything new anyway.
I am positive this will remove any possibility of anything getting into my plate chiller that is too big to pass.

It looks "real purty" too!

If/when anyone gives this a run on an actual batch (10 gal ideally), I would love to hear how it well it works and if it clogs. I read through the test on brewershardware, but it seemed like it was only used on water and hops, so the gooey coagulated protein trubby goodness was not a factor. I am very close to pulling the trigger on this, but want to make sure it is functional before doing so. Thanks!

I'm doing a oatmeal stout sunday, i will post the results.

Bull, thats one hell of a chiller you got. Do you have a build thread or more pictures?

So the people that own these filters, are you guys still going to whirlpool, wait, and then use the filter or just go straight to the filter after the boil? I'm hoping i don't have to whirlpool. I think that would take away from what it's suppose to be.

pola0502ds said:

I'm doing a oatmeal stout sunday, i will post the results.

Bull, thats one hell of a chiller you got. Do you have a build thread or more pictures?

So the people that own these filters, are you guys still going to whirlpool, wait, and then use the filter or just go straight to the filter after the boil? I'm hoping i don't have to whirlpool. I think that would take away from what it's suppose to be.

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I am doing a sweet stout Saturday, so between both of us, we should have some sort of results to post.
The chiller is only for fermentation in the summer and chilling my cooling water if the ground temp gets high enough to necessitate ice. Sorry, but no build thread on my rig, but plenty of pics. One of these days I will put together a thread when I feel like I have time to follow it and answer questions. I know there could be a few.
Oh, and no whirlpool. I pump it all out into the fermenter if it makes it into the pickup tube.

Well, I brewed with the new trub filter Saturday and I will have to admit, it did one heck of a job filtering. I only used 1-1/2 oz of Cascade in this recipe, and I think every bit of it ended up in the filter instead of the fermenter.
The flow did slow to a near dead-stop right at the end of the discharge into the fermenter. For my use, I am contemplating opening the holes a bit to somewhere between 0.75 mm - 1.0 mm. I am only interested in keeping the grain particles that slip through the false bottom in my MLT from entering my plate-type heat exchanger. I really don't need this level of filtering personally.
All in all though, I am very happy with it. Derrin did another fine job with this piece of equipment, right in line with what I have come to expect from him.

I brewed a 10 gallon batch of a oatmeal stout this weekend and had 5 onces of hops in it. I didn't take any pictures but it looks exactly like the above picture. I know I had some left in the kettle as well. I can't tell exactly how much if any went into the fermentor so I can't speak for it on that end but it seemed to work pretty well. I had the opposite problem as what is mentioned above. It took FOREVER to get all the air of the filter and to get a good flow going but once it got a good flow it never stopped.

I'm pretty pleased with this unit.

Thanks for the post guys. I've seen this and was wondering how well it worked. Keep us updated from time to time. I would like to know how it holds up to an IPA.

I'd say an ipa would be just fine as well. The 3" dia. outer tubing can hold a lot of hops. I'm not sure how much but I'm sure it would work on a huge IPA on a 10 gallon batch.

If anyone uses this filter as a hop back, please post results. I'm really interested in doing that. Is it even possible with this unit to work as a hop back efficiently?

I think a hop back was Derrin's original idea when he came up with this. Apparently, it didn't work out like he anticipated or wanted. For that reason, it became a filter instead.
Regardless, it wasn't a waste of money for sure. It does a superb job as a trub filter.

Wonder if you could hook up an o2 stone and oxyigenate at the same time.

milldoggy said:

Wonder if you could hook up an o2 stone and oxyigenate at the same time.

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No way to do that without modding the filter housing. If I were putting a stone inline, I wouldn't put it in the filter anyway. You would be better off to keep them separate in my opinion.

Of you that have used it, did you also use a hop spider as well? I love big IPA's and would be concerned about either clogging the filter or slowing it down too much. However, I do use a hop spider, so that may keep the majority out of the filter and let it deal with the break material.

zymurgy101 said:

Of you that have used it, did you also use a hop spider as well? I love big IPA's and would be concerned about either clogging the filter or slowing it down too much. However, I do use a hop spider, so that may keep the majority out of the filter and let it deal with the break material.

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I did not use my hop spider this time just to see. But if you are planning on using one, especially for an IPA, I can't imagine you would experience any issues plugging the filter.
If you do that, you could also give the finer screens a try and see how they perform on the break material. I still got a fair amount of break into the fermenter, BUT I don't recirculate during chilling and my pick up tube pulls off of the very bottom. Having the break in there doesn't really bother me since it settles out anyway along with the rest of the trub.

zymurgy101 said:

Of you that have used it, did you also use a hop spider as well? I love big IPA's and would be concerned about either clogging the filter or slowing it down too much. However, I do use a hop spider, so that may keep the majority out of the filter and let it deal with the break material.

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Never heard of a hop spider before, what is it.

Like i said in a previous post, the wort going into the chiller is very slow at first but after a few minutes of pulling it through the filter it goes back to a normal flow... I don't think you would have any problems.

Regarding the screens, I have both sizes he offers and to be honest, I don't know why he offers 2 different sizes. Side by side you cannot tell which one is which. There is a .2 and a .3. If i were to only buy one I would get the .3.

bull8042 said:

I think a hop back was Derrin's original idea when he came up with this. Apparently, it didn't work out like he anticipated or wanted. For that reason, it became a filter instead.
Regardless, it wasn't a waste of money for sure. It does a superb job as a trub filter.

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Yeah, he told me the same thing. He mentioned to me that he is still planning on creating one using the same outter tubing but modifing it some how. I don't know why it wouldn't work, with the filter inside it does limit how much you can use but I know you can buy tri-clamp gaskets that are screens. What if you used one of those on the out of the filter housing and packed the 3" tubing full of hops?

pola0502ds said:

Never heard of a hop spider before, what is it.

Like i said in a previous post, the wort going into the chiller is very slow at first but after a few minutes of pulling it through the filter it goes back to a normal flow... I don't think you would have any problems.

Regarding the screens, I have both sizes he offers and to be honest, I don't know why he offers 2 different sizes. Side by side you cannot tell which one is which. There is a .2 and a .3. If i were to only buy one I would get the .3.

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A hop-spider is a 4-6" pipe fitting that has a paint strainer / hop bag clamped to it that hangs into the BK. There are rods or long bolts that extend out the sides to hold it on the top of the kettle.
Here is a fancy one. But it will give you an idea of what I mean.
As for the screens, I agree with you. 0.3 mm I would think would be sufficient.

pola0502ds said:

Never heard of a hop spider before, what is it.

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They work fantastic! I like the paint bags because they are easy to clean and\or replace. It keeps the majority of pellet material from getting into the plate chiller. However, using the hop filter in conjunction might help even more...then again it could be overkill.

I used four pieces of threaded rod, a 4" PVC coupling (schedule 40), worm clamp, 5 gallon paint strainer, washers and nuts for the project. The cost was $10-$15 at most.

Here's the link that got me started:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/lil-sparky-tha-man-40738/

Regarding the slow flow and air inside the unit, what if you put the filter after the pump?

zymurgy101 said:

Regarding the slow flow and air inside the unit, what if you put the filter after the pump?

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I don't know? It seems like that would work that way you are push it through the filter instead of pulling it. I guess it would work, I can't think of any reason why it wouldn't. I know for sure though that I would NOT connect this filter directly to the pump without having something else support it. It doesn't weigh a lot but to the pump head it would feel like it weighs a ton and I would be afraid of snapping the threads off. I already did that once tightening to hard on them. That would be my only concern.

bull8042 said:

A hop-spider is a 4-6" pipe fitting that has a paint strainer / hop bag clamped to it that hangs into the BK. There are rods or long bolts that extend out the sides to hold it on the top of the kettle.
Here is a fancy one. But it will give you an idea of what I mean.
As for the screens, I agree with you. 0.3 mm I would think would be sufficient.

Click to expand...

Wow, you were not kidding! That sure is a fancy one compared to the other ones I just looked up. That is really nice.

I could use something like this. I hate when you get a boil over or if you get to much foam during the boil, the hops stick to the underside of the rim on my keg (keggle). So after i have a boil over or close to one i need to take a spoon and kinda push the hops back into the boil.

Now that i am thinking about this, since i have both of derrins mesh filters that are suppose to slip over the main filter, I wonder if I can take one of them, add hops to the inside and figure a way to close it up but able to open it back up. Then just through it in the kettle. This is a nice idea but it may be to much work.

Just out of curiosity, how tight does the finer screen fit over the filter screen that is welded in originally? I am just wondering if I could use one of the finer screen as a starting point of creating a "pre-filter" to stop the bigger stuff and let the 0.5mm screen worry only about the minute particles.

It's pretty tight.. There is just enough slack in it to slide it over the filter that is welded to the triclamp. When you guy these mesh fitlers he sends a stainless pipe clamp with it and thats how you secure it onto the filter.

pola0502ds said:

It's pretty tight.. There is just enough slack in it to slide it over the filter that is welded to the triclamp. When you guy these mesh fitlers he sends a stainless pipe clamp with it and thats how you secure it onto the filter.

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Cool. Thanks for the info.

no problem.

What do you think of how he welded the filter to the tri-clamp? Mine is only tack welded in 4 spots. I don't know much about welding so i'm just hoping it holds up over time. It seems to me if I dropped it by accident that it would snap one of the welds.

Mine is the same, but you have to consider the screen material. Being perforated, it is fairly thin. And having done a bit of welding myself years ago, I can tell you that running a bead around the filter would have been a nightmare and the potential to burn-through pretty high. Not to mention, if you drop it, you could very well damage the filter itself. If the tack-weld snaps, that would absorb a lot of the impact reducing the damage to the screen. Just my opinion of course.

Makes sense to me, thanks.

I thought I would use the filter last weekend, but alas it was delayed until today. I brewed a 10 gallon AG batch of APA with four ounces of pellet hops put loose into the wort. When there were fifteen minutes left in the boil I began to circulate boiling wort from BK>Trub Filter>March Pump>40 Plate Chiller back into the BK. As stated in previous posts, when I first opened the kettle ball valve to allow the wort to move through the filter, there was a little resistance as the air bubbled back into the kettle (watch out for this, could be potentially dangerous if you have an undersized kettle, once the chamber had filled with wort it flowed very easily. I was nervous that too much hop material would make it through the primary filter, but when I flushed/back flushed my plate chiller it only turned my PBW solution a tinge of green, very few chunks actually came out, unlike previous runs where several flushes were necessary. I did do a quick whirlpool at the end of the boil and a sizable trub/hop cone was left behind. I absolutely recommend this equipment to anyone who wants this level of trub filtration/bling for their rig.

Lookin good. I think it's nice. I'm going to rack to a secondary this coming weekend and I should get a good idea of how much hop and trub material made it into the fermentor. In my opinion, the jury is still out there for this item until I or someone else racks it.

This looks like a great piece of equipment.

I used to own a hopstopper, but many times couldn't keep the siphon on my sanke BK. This would eliminate that potential pitfall, though I've since moved to a Blichmann kettle and use the hop blocker as well, that really doesn't filter out the break. Ive never been good at the whirlpool technique. I think I'm going to try this out and see how it works for me.

I need to come up with a way to mount it and incorporate into my existing modified "Brutus" type brew rig. Any advantage to mounting vertically, as opposed to horizontally?

Thanks for the testing and reviews!

TD

The main reason I mounted mine horizontally is to reduce the turbulance involved with the boiling wort enterting the vessel. I was a little worried about hot side airation, and until I taste the final product I won't be able to tell, but I didn't see much in the way of air bubbles coming out of the unit.

Thanks!

I'm toying with getting one of these, but thinking strongly about the Blichmann HopRocket as well. Don't think I'd need both. This seems like it would probably do better at filtering, unless I filled the HopRocket with some hops - though that wouldn't be appropriate for most styles I don't think. I'd bet you could probably stuff the HopRocket with Copper of SS pot scrubber as an alternative to hops though...

TD

TrickyDick said:

........
I need to come up with a way to mount it and incorporate into my existing modified "Brutus" type brew rig. Any advantage to mounting vertically, as opposed to horizontally?

Thanks for the testing and reviews!

TD

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Mounted vertically, it is much easier to vent the trapped air to prevent "vapor-locking" your pump if you plumb it before the pump.
On the other side of the coin, if you refer to the previous pictures, you can see how the filtered material drops and collects in the bottom if the flow starts and stops or slows a time or two. Mounting it horizontally, more of the filtered material could drop away from the filter opening more area to continue filtering.

amsped180 said:

The main reason I mounted mine horizontally is to reduce the turbulance involved with the boiling wort enterting the vessel. I was a little worried about hot side airation, and until I taste the final product I won't be able to tell, but I didn't see much in the way of air bubbles coming out of the unit.

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HSA is a myth. It really doesn't exist for all practical intents and purposes, so don't let that worry you.