DIY hop spider from keggle lid

I'm in the process of building a hop spider using the top I trimmed off of my keggle. I don't know if anyone else has done this, but here's mine.

I'm still in the beginning stages, and will post more pics as I progress. The best thing about my project is the only things I need to buy are a hop bag and a stainless hose clamp. Everything else is essentially waste from my keggle build.

Here's the lid, marked for cutting:



The rectangular areas will be the legs, riveted to the round center. A hop bag will be clamped onto the neck of the old top and the spear will be repurposed. I'm hoping the spider doesn't interfere with evaporation, as there will be plenty of space around it for steam to escape.

Standin' By.

I would like to see it done it should work fine

Spear removed, this is the neck that the hop bag will hang from.



Legs cut out, just meet to trim the circle.

For some reason I cant picture the finished product, but I'm excited to see it. Im all about repurposing stuff like this, and I happen to have keg top and spear laying around.

Well, I won't be using the spear for this job but I'm sure it willcome in handy in the future. Hopefully I have time today to get the metal work done. Then its just a matter of getting the hop bag and clamping it in place.

Finished product! Glove is used only as a prop, waiting on my hop sack.

Here it is! 100% done. I simply centered the spider over my keggle, then bent the legs over the rim to stabilize it. The bag hangs as low as 2" above the bottom of the keggle, so no worries about burning the bag but it's low enough to get into the wort even on a 5.5 gallon batch.

I Like it.. what were your measurements on the circle and the legs?

RickBrewski said:

I Like it.. what were your measurements on the circle and the legs?

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I cut a hole in the keg to fit a 12" lid that I already had. The diameter of the center of the spider is 6 1/4", then I simply drew a triangle around that circle. Legs are an inch wide, honestly couldn't tell you how long they are. But it leaves you with close to 2" to bend around the upper rim of the keggle. It fits nice and snug, and I like the fact that's its elevated to allow sufficient evaporation during the boil.

The bag is a 5 gal paint strainer from Menards. Cost a buck. I think this thing cost me a whopping $2, for the bag and clamp. Rivets I had and the rest is basically waste material from a keggle build. And its all stainless to boot, save for the bag.

Pretty neat. Are you sure the legs will support the weight of 8 oz of wet hops in a boil? I built a hopspider out of a sinkerator coupler with 5/16" diameter threaded rods for legs. I was surprised how much it flexes under load. Just a headsup

Looks cool...hope your using pellets that might not be so fun trying to drop whole leaf hops with the small diameter holes

What happened to all the photos? I can't see what it looks lie and it is driving me crazy.

harry_the_face said:

What happened to all the photos? I can't see what it looks lie and it is driving me crazy.

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i just checked, all the pics show up on my computer just fine. IDK why you can't see them.

PLOVE said:

Pretty neat. Are you sure the legs will support the weight of 8 oz of wet hops in a boil? I built a hopspider out of a sinkerator coupler with 5/16" diameter threaded rods for legs. I was surprised how much it flexes under load. Just a headsup

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I've had as many as 6oz in there, 3 of which were leaf and it was quite sturdy, thanks for the heads up though.

Just brewed Pliny clone, had 19 oz total weight pellets in there. Worked out great!