Hop Spider

I'm thinking of using one of these but am concerned the plastic paint strainer will not hold up to boiling temps. Any comments from those with experience would be appreciated.

It'll hold up to boiling water just fine. Just be sure it doesn't rest on the bottom of your boil kettle.

Thanks!

Every paint strainer bag I've seen is made of nylon, which depending on the exact type has a melting point around 400°-500°F. Boiling temps are a non-issue.

Build it out of stainless, wimp. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/hopster-hopscreen-157529/

Yep, it will be fine. Done it many times.

I bought a very large spice ball... it would hold a Softball... I just toss the whole thing in when the addtion is due

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004X4LGIO/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

how does that spice ball work... do you like it.... Do you take it out and add each addition of hops, or do you have several...

Those spice balls really constrict the hops inside unless you're using a very small amount.

Now that being said, the strainer/hop bags aren't exactly 100% effective at their job either. I just brewed a black IPA w/7oz in the spider. When it came time to xfer the wort to the carboy, I had to filter out probably 1oz worth of hops. That's all the finer material that slowly makes its way through the micro-holes in the bag. But it's great for just removing hops at the end of a boil and not dealing with nearly as much a mess during IPA brew sessions.

you say filter... do you actually use a filter you made, bought... we are thinking of the same process soon...

Here's my hops spider build:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/better-stainless-hop-spider-318491/

The only drawback with using it is that the paint strainer bags will clog up and hold a lot of the wort like a balloon when you go to remove it. I have to set it in a colander to strain the liquid out of the bag. It's not too much of a hassle, but it's my only complaint. Otherwise, it's great!

Firebat138 said:

you say filter... do you actually use a filter you made, bought... we are thinking of the same process soon...

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When I say filter, I mean basic filtering via hop bag or strainer bag. I don't mean a real dedicated filter mechanism.

And yeah, they absorb wort, but any way you dry hop, you're gonna have a mess. It's much easier to rotate the bag to give it max surface area to drain than it is to try to get the hop dust out of the beer.

Whatever you do, don't try to put your wort through a paint strainer after cooling. Iwound up with abig bag full of beer. That was the most frustrating thing I've experienced in brewing. I had to stab the filter repeatedly for like 20 minutes to get all the wort out.

frothus said:

Whatever you do, don't try to put your wort through a paint strainer after cooling. Iwound up with abig bag full of beer. That was the most frustrating thing I've experienced in brewing. I had to stab the filter repeatedly for like 20 minutes to get all the wort out.

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I'm glad I wasn't drinking anything when I read that! ;-)

FirstStateBrewer said:

I'm glad I wasn't drinking anything when I read that! ;-)

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Haha... It was well aerated though!

frothus said:

Whatever you do, don't try to put your wort through a paint strainer after cooling. Iwound up with abig bag full of beer. That was the most frustrating thing I've experienced in brewing. I had to stab the filter repeatedly for like 20 minutes to get all the wort out.

Click to expand...

That was funny. What I do is wrap the filter on a handheld metal colander, which sits on my funnel. After about the first half of the batch is poured, you start to hit the hop and break/rest material pretty hard.

I end up picking up the bag and rotating it around, redirecting the mass to areas of the bag that aren't clogged. After 3-4 pours, I put the bag inside out and dump the material, and a quick dip into my sanitizer cooler. Rinse and repeat.

May be a bit OCD, but I've been bitten in the ass by hop problems before, so I take precautions.