New way to control Pellet Hop gunk!

I just ordered a 4x11 filter with 300 microns. Chad was great with communication, and replied back quickly. He's going to try and get my order in this weekend, but it sounds like he has a lot of orders to do. I paid an extra 10 bucks for it over the advertised ebay listing as it was a custom order.

I can't wait to try it out! only thing I am concerned about is fitting my wort chiller in my 11 gal pot with it. I figure I'll put it inside of it when I start sanitizing. I'm sure it'll be fine.

Also, thanks mods for keeping this civil!

I have the 400 micron version and very little of the pellet hops got through the mesh.

I was bummed when this thread got disrespectful and was closed. I was really interested in people's opinions on this (especially on the 300/400 size experiences). I was going to PM the mod to see if they would delete the nasties and reopen, but they beat me to it.

Super awesome forum here. Such great info. I think I read 10,000x more than I post.

Thanks, Yuri!

I'm also interested in hearing the differences on 300 vs 400, glad it's reopened.

Has anyone tried to max one of these out yet to see how much they will hold? It seems like a 6"x10" cylinder should be able to handle at least 6 ounces of pellet hops. I need to wait for the wife to forget about some of my recent purchases before I pull on one of these but I would be good to know what they can handle. I absolutely hate dealing with hop sacks. I have literally just thrown them away full of hops over digging them out and cleaning them. It would be awesome to just pull one of these out, drain it and knock the hops into the yard waste barrel spray clean and put it away.

bottlebomber said:

Has anyone tried to max one of these out yet to see how much they will hold? It seems like a 6"x10" cylinder should be able to handle at least 6 ounces of pellet hops. I need to wait for the wife to forget about some of my recent purchases before I pull on one of these but I would be good to know what they can handle. I absolutely hate dealing with hop sacks. I have literally just thrown them away full of hops over digging them out and cleaning them. It would be awesome to just pull one of these out, drain it and knock the hops into the yard waste barrel spray clean and put it away.

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My next batch will be Pliny with well over a pound, we'll see how much it will take!

bottlebomber said:

Has anyone tried to max one of these out yet to see how much they will hold? It seems like a 6"x10" cylinder should be able to handle at least 6 ounces of pellet hops. I need to wait for the wife to forget about some of my recent purchases before I pull on one of these but I would be good to know what they can handle. I absolutely hate dealing with hop sacks. I have literally just thrown them away full of hops over digging them out and cleaning them. It would be awesome to just pull one of these out, drain it and knock the hops into the yard waste barrel spray clean and put it away.

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My next batch will be Pliny with well over a pound, we'll see how much it will take!

HI Everyone
Just though I'd post a few pictures of the components in the 6" filters
1st) are all the pieces, The 2- 6 inch rings, 2 pieces of the mesh for the cylinder and the bottom.
2nd) the cylinder is rolled and seam welded, the bottom stretched, wrapped, and spot welded to the bottom ring.
3rd) the top ring is spot welded the the cylinder and the bottom is slid up into the cylinder and spot welded.
last) the top handle and tab are TIG welded on

[email protected]

chads454 said:

HI Everyone
Just though I'd post a few pictures of the components in the 6" filters
1st) are all the pieces, The 2- 6 inch rings, 2 pieces of the mesh for the cylinder and the bottom.
2nd) the cylinder is rolled and seam welded, the bottom stretched, wrapped, and spot welded to the bottom ring.
3rd) the top ring is spot welded the the cylinder and the bottom is slid up into the cylinder and spot welded.
last) the top handle and tab are TIG welded on

[email protected]

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Chad, would you be willing to make a spider version?

4 legs on the top ring, to center the basket

I used my 300 micron filter today brewing a pumpkin ale and it worked great. I am very happy with the purchase. It kept almost all the hop material out of the boil kettle and fermenter. I will be buying a second one soon for my larger brew pot. Thanks Chad!

DakotaRules said:

Chad, would you be willing to make a spider version?

4 legs on the top ring, to center the basket

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Sure send me some ideas with dimensions.

I will be brewing this weekend work my 300 Micron one I received from Chad. They fit great in the Penrose kettles too.

Kyled93 said:

I will be brewing this weekend work my 300 Micron one I received from Chad. They fit great in the Penrose kettles too.

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I was thinking about getting one of these for my penrose kettle too. What dimensions did you get?

This thread has given me a few ideas. I will probably make one of these for my keggle. I work in a sheet metal shop so I can just do this when I have a few extra minutes at work. But I was thinking. It would also be neat to make one of these that is about 12-14 inches in diameter and whatever hight I can fit in my keggle and use it for mashing grains. Kind of do a large biab type thing. Maybe I'll give it a shot sometime just for something different.

rossi46 said:

I was thinking about getting one of these for my penrose kettle too. What dimensions did you get?

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I bought the standard. 6" dia by 14" 300 micron. Just a note: It doesn't sit on the bottom of the kettle. I think our dimensions for the Penrose kettles are 15.75 dia by 19" tall. On a typical 10 gallon batch we are looking at least 7" of exposure with this filter.

Well, I just got one of these, heres my thoughts on it:

300 micron, it looks like it'll work, but I won't be showing this off to my buddies - the welds are pretty ugly, lots of different colors from red to black to green in some places and a few sharp parts - I've already pricked my finger once and drawn blood. Wife saw it and freaked out, started looking for my last tetanus shot records, she finally calmed down

I've tried it in a few brews and it works good, filtering out all the hop gunk, 300 micron is the way to go for sure, but for $50, I kinda expected something that looked a little better. When I get the money together for a single tier set up, I'll probably be replacing it with something that looks nicer (and that doesn't bleed me!!)

all in all, if you're looking for a budget hop stopper, this will do the trick, but you get what you pay for.

Gabba said:

Well, I just got one of these, heres my thoughts on it:

300 micron, it looks like it'll work, but I won't be showing this off to my buddies - the welds are pretty ugly, lots of different colors from red to black to green in some places and a few sharp parts - I've already pricked my finger once and drawn blood. Wife saw it and freaked out, started looking for my last tetanus shot records, she finally calmed down

I've tried it in a few brews and it works good, filtering out all the hop gunk, 300 micron is the way to go for sure, but for $50, I kinda expected something that looked a little better. When I get the money together for a single tier set up, I'll probably be replacing it with something that looks nicer (and that doesn't bleed me!!)

all in all, if you're looking for a budget hop stopper, this will do the trick, but you get what you pay for.

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Well here we are again on what a, Non sanded, non polished, not electropolished, Stainless Steel weld looks like.
Here is a better picture of them,

As for getting picked sorry I do what I can to sand the edges and try to keep the wire edges from sticking out and getting someone picked,
Yes they can be electropolished and look pretty for your friends.
at around $50ea but everyone is trying to find a reasonably priced solution for the gunk,

The welds above look very nice. All kinds of colors are fine and completely normal except Black. Most likely sugaring took place because of lack of Argon or too much heat and rust will start to form. All other colors of the rainbow are completely normal.

StainlessBrewing said:

The welds above look very nice. <snip> All other colors of the rainbow are completely normal.

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THIS.

people are getting their panties in a knot over something that doesn't matter. it is not unhealthy and won't effect your brew. folks are brewing in discarded, dented, rough-cut keggles - and they're worried about this?

get rid of the colors by sanding them yourself or paying a whole lot more for a sanded/polished/plated unit.

I don't think that many people are worked up about it. The welds look nice. Great value.

I'm not the least bit concerned about the looks of that.. It looks fine. And personally I would rather spend a half hour of my time with a file and a buffing wheel than pay an extra X dollars. But in reality I probably won't even do that. I think I'm gonna pull on one of these in about 3 weeks - is the jury in on 300 vs. 400?

bottlebomber said:

I'm not the least bit concerned about the looks of that.. It looks fine. And personally I would rather spend a half hour of my time with a file and a buffing wheel than pay an extra X dollars. But in reality I probably won't even do that. I think I'm gonna pull on one of these in about 3 weeks - is the jury in on 300 vs. 400?

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I'm perfectly happy with my 300.... Good flow through and no hop gunk to muck up my plate chiller.

CraigT said:

This thread has given me a few ideas. I will probably make one of these for my keggle. I work in a sheet metal shop so I can just do this when I have a few extra minutes at work. But I was thinking. It would also be neat to make one of these that is about 12-14 inches in diameter and whatever hight I can fit in my keggle and use it for mashing grains. Kind of do a large biab type thing. Maybe I'll give it a shot sometime just for something different.

Click to expand...

I had the same idea only on a bigger scale after looking at his biodiesel filters for 55 gallon drums.... I was thinking that it would be possible to build a single vessel electric brewery with the simplicity of the Braumeister but that would also have a conical bottom for fermenting and could also be pressurized for serving with a jacket to pump coolant through to maintain temps for fermentation and ultimately to serve from....

Kyled93 said:

I bought the standard. 6" dia by 14" 300 micron. Just a note: It doesn't sit on the bottom of the kettle. I think our dimensions for the Penrose kettles are 15.75 dia by 19" tall. On a typical 10 gallon batch we are looking at least 7" of exposure with this filter.

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Cool, thanks.

I contacted Chad and ordered a 4x9 300 micron. Im only doing 5 gal batches on a stove top.

6" x 14" 300 micron ordered. I'll be using it in a 25 gallon 20" x 20" boil kettle with 18 gallons of wort typically boiled down to 15 gallons. I average 8 oz of Saaz hop pellets per Pilsner batch. Hopefully it will work as well as it has for others (I'm tired of fishing nylon bags of hop gunk out of the boil)...

DrHops said:

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.

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Jukas said:

These looked interesting, but I believe that vendor is doing themselves a great disservice by displaying a $30 price, only to find that it's really at least $80.

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gjabball said:

I got a quote for a 6 by 14 with 300 micron and it was $60.00.Not too bad.

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I just want make sure some are comparing apples to apples as far as the actual size and price paid for Chad's baskets vs ours. A lot of pictures on here show 6" but the $29 basket on Ebay has a description of 4". I feel we're pretty fair on price as well compared to Chad's. Being a homebrewer myself and a preferred vendor we can always help out with cheaper alternatives. I'm not knockin on Chad's products or trying to steal anyone's thunder, I just wanted to point a few things out if some didn't see that we're not far off on price.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f41/stainless-accessories-328846/index29.html

StainlessBrewing said:

I just want make sure some are comparing apples to apples as far as the actual size and price paid for Chad's baskets vs ours. A lot of pictures on here show 6" but the $29 basket on Ebay has a description of 4". I feel we're pretty fair on price as well compared to Chad's. Being a homebrewer myself and a preferred vendor we can always help out with cheaper alternatives. I'm not knockin on Chad's products or trying to steal anyone's thunder, I just wanted to point a few things out if some didn't see that we're not far off on price.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f41/stainless-accessories-328846/index29.html

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Now now lets not get into a price war...:cross:

StainlessBrewing said:

I just want make sure some are comparing apples to apples as far as the actual size and price paid for Chad's baskets vs ours. A lot of pictures on here show 6" but the $29 basket on Ebay has a description of 4". I feel we're pretty fair on price as well compared to Chad's. Being a homebrewer myself and a preferred vendor we can always help out with cheaper alternatives. I'm not knockin on Chad's products or trying to steal anyone's thunder, I just wanted to point a few things out if some didn't see that we're not far off on price.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f41/stainless-accessories-328846/index29.html

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Hi, not throwing stones here but here's how I started the thread:

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!

Cut to now:
I hadn't seen your product but checked it out after a couple of people pointed out that you were an HBT sponsor/vendor.... I also got smashed by a few for posting about my experiments when all I was looking to do was share my experiences and experiments in the community and I'm the one who started the thread!

Other people have been interested and are also purchasing from Chad which is why I'm sure you are posting now as there are a ton of hits on this thread. Read the early posts, no one is hammering on you here - just looking for a reasonable solution to the problem.... There are lots of threads on hop spiders and I'm sure you've sold your share, this is merely another way to solve the problem and one that I particularly like over the spider approach or the filter post boil approach.

I hear ya. No price wars and no drama. I've seen this thread long before and it has nothing to do with how many views or hits it has. I just wanted to state why there is such a difference in price since Stainless Brewing was brought up earlier in this thread and never really a detail why ours is higher. I have plenty to keep busy with and have no intention of driving you or others away from Chad's product. Chad makes a great product and it's obvious he has many happy customers. It sounds like he stands behind his product as well offering a customer to return it because they were not satisfied. I never felt like anyone is hammering Stainless Brewing on here and I don't feel like I'm hammering on Chad or his product. I'm glad he was able to help make something work for you and others.

Cheers!

StainlessBrewing said:

I hear ya. No price wars and no drama. I've seen this thread long before and it has nothing to do with how many views or hits it has. I just wanted to state why there is such a difference in price since Stainless Brewing was brought up earlier in this thread and never really a detail why ours is higher. I have plenty to keep busy with and have no intention of driving you or others away from Chad's product. Chad makes a great product and it's obvious he has many happy customers. It sounds like he stands behind his product as well offering a customer to return it because they were not satisfied. I never felt like anyone is hammering Stainless Brewing on here and I don't feel like I'm hammering on Chad or his product. I'm glad he was able to help make something work for you and others.

Cheers!

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Cheers to this very kind response!

Just received my order -- the filter looks great! Quality work done. I am looking forward to using this in my brew session this coming weekend. I'll be sure to add post brew highlights. Two thumbs up!

Got mine today. Brown clowns smashed one end of the box and creased the mesh on mine. It will still work though.

fosgate said:

Got mine today. Brown clowns smashed one end of the box and creased the mesh on mine. It will still work though.

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I love that quote! "Brown clowns!"

Brother in law works as UPS and hates it when I refer to them like that.

DakotaRules said:

I love that quote! "Brown clowns!"

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Me too! Never heard it!

I give my Brown Clown homebrew because he delivers my DIY stuff!! He even brings my bottles back (he use to brew).

helibrewer said:

I give my Brown Clown homebrew because he delivers my DIY stuff!! He even brings my bottles back (he use to brew).

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Mine just shakes his head when I order bulk grains, but I help him unload the bags : )

Marcb, if you don't mind my asking, where do you order the grains from and how much is it shipped?

Brewed my vanilla caramel cream ale this morning. The filter worked out beautifully. The only item in the bottom of the kettle was a little bit of hot break.

That being said when others brew with this filter, do you leave in the filter until you transfer to your fermenter or remove it during cooling?