Looking to make a stainless mesh hop bag...

I searched hard but couldn’t find anything, so I have to ask: Have any of you out there have made a hop bag out of stainless mesh? Currently, I siphon through a CFC for cooling so the hops can plug it up too much and slow down or even stop the siphon. I’ve tried the pvc/paint strainer technique but didn’t like it too much (I can explain if you’d like but that’s not my main point here). I’ve used a small stainless mesh ball at the end of the racking cane but that doesn’t let enough liquid through once its covered with hops.

Anyway, I’m just going to make one but I figure there’s got to be others out there…

-TH- said:

I’ve used a small stainless mesh ball . . .

Click to expand...

You could buy one of the larger ones.

5" diameter spice ball

I was gonna say that's the one I have, but I actually have the large size and not the jumbo.

The large one will hold 2oz of pellet hops, but 2oz is jampacked. The jumbo one (5") looks quite a bit bigger...wish I would've got that one.

Would that work when you have multiple hop additions?

You'd need more than one spice ball.
But even if you make your own you'd have the same problem.


I've tried removing and adding more hops, but it's a PITA.


. . . and painfully hot!

Ah yes.

I was thinking about making it cylindrically shaped and then hang it on the inside of the brew pot. The top would be open, but above the level of the wort. Then you would be able to drop the pellets in for each addition.

I guess I'm going to need an explanation on the hop bag/paint strainer bag, and precisely what problem a stainless steel mesh fixes.

http://www.northernbrewer.com/brewing/brewing-equipment/stirring-straining/the-brew-infuser.html

This one is for dry hopping in a carboy.

I worked for a while to make a stainless hop bag and the process to cut and shape and weld something up was more than I really wanted to do. I tried a pair of stainless strainers clamped together, and they worked "ok". They still let a bunch of very small particles out, but the worst was not being able to make simple additions.

I am currently building a stainless frame to wrap a paint strainer bag around to prevent the hops from "clumping? during the boil. My first attempt was very successful, but I'm trying to improve the design and see how much it would cost to build with readily-accessible parts, instead of the special deal I got at the scrapyard.

One idea I had was to forego the hops strainer and simply build a small strainer that I could stick my siphon down into. If siphoning from the edge, it should work a treat to keep the junk out. That is until I go from siphon to spigot. That's why I'm still working on the strainer frame idea.

I've got plenty of SS mesh to play with, though, so perhaps I'll try again to come up with an easy way to use it for this. So far my latest plan was to use the spot welder from work and just tack weld the SS mesh together into a basket shape.

You could also 'sew/weave' some SS mesh into cylinder shape with SS safety wire.

BrewThruYou said:

I was gonna say that's the one I have, but I actually have the large size and not the jumbo.

The large one will hold 2oz of pellet hops, but 2oz is jampacked. The jumbo one (5") looks quite a bit bigger...wish I would've got that one.

Click to expand...

I have both. I don't put more than 1.5oz in the 4" ones, and 2.5" in the 5" one.

-TH- said:

Would that work when you have multiple hop additions?

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You need more than one then. If I have a TON of additions, I use a couple muslin bags in addition to my 4 mesh infusers.

Hex said:

You could also 'sew/weave' some SS mesh into cylinder shape with SS safety wire.

Click to expand...

Which sounds cooler:

"Yeah, it's a hop strainer, I sewed it myself!"

or,

"Yeah, it's a hop strainer, I welded it myself!"

weirdboy said:

I guess I'm going to need an explanation on the hop bag/paint strainer bag, and precisely what problem a stainless steel mesh fixes.

Click to expand...

The pvc/paint strainer I tried is like here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/lil-sparky-tha-man-40738/ you’ll have to go to page 3 to see some sample pics I think. Anyway it didn’t work well for me because the bag stretched as wide as the pot so I couldn’t stir at all, plus I got a lot of foam/bubbles even though I use fermcap. I tried it 4 or 5 times and just didn’t like it. I could probably make it work somehow, but I like the idea of making something else out of stainless.

Hex said:

You could also 'sew/weave' some SS mesh into cylinder shape with SS safety wire.

Click to expand...

This is basically what I had in mind. Just wondered if anyone else had done it.

Homercidal said:

Which sounds cooler:

"Yeah, it's a hop strainer, I sewed it myself!"

or,

"Yeah, it's a hop strainer, I welded it myself!"

Click to expand...

No question welded is cooler. Unfortunately the welder I have access to doesn't have SS wire in it.

i use the SS tea balls for dry hopping in the keg. works great cause you can just drop it in, and not have to worry about it getting sucked up and blocking the dip tube like a mesh bag would.

You can use them in boil, but as stated, you can't really add more hops once it's in. Solution? Well, for only $3.50 ea. just buy about 5-6 of em. use one for each addition.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00004RIZ7/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Just out of curiosity, what exactly are you stirring in your wort during the boil?

weirdboy said:

Just out of curiosity, what exactly are you stirring in your wort during the boil?

Click to expand...

I guess when I used a hop bag then nothing, except to try to move the paint strainer back to the middle, which was difficult because the pressure wanting to expand it was so great. Back then I used an IC and had nowhere to put it which was a real PITA. I suppose i could try it again now that I use a CFC but I'd rather come up with something else.

metaltim said:

i use the SS tea balls for dry hopping in the keg. works great cause you can just drop it in, and not have to worry about it getting sucked up and blocking the dip tube like a mesh bag would.

You can use them in boil, but as stated, you can't really add more hops once it's in. Solution? Well, for only $3.50 ea. just buy about 5-6 of em. use one for each addition.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00004RIZ7/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Click to expand...

I have one of those tiny ones. I wouldn't put more than a half ounce in those, personally. The hops form such a thick ball I think the surface area/utilization suffers a lot

Sounds like a SS mesh hop spider could be fabricated that took up half the kettle (half cylinder) while allowing stirring access to both the bottom of the kettle and the hops side. It could clip over the side of the kettle and go nearly to the bottom.

The problem that I have is bending the stuff. It's pretty stiff and hard to work with. I suppose if I really sat down and tried it it might work out, but it would be best for someone with metal bending experience and the right tools.

That's one reason I thought using a frame to hold open a paint strainer would work better. Cheaper to build and anyone can buy replaceable bags once they have a frame.

Then again, the SS mesh would be infinitely reusable.