Just did second brew this week,same problem with my equipment.

I am a new brewer,Monday was my first.Today i went to my local brew store(beer on tap for customers!YaY!)and bought 3 carboys,some sanitizer and an extract kit.Anyway,the only snag i had with my first brew which really hindered sanitation was my hop strainer crapped out half way through.Turns out the 50 feet of 1/2 copper tubing i made a wort chiller from kinked the strainer,just one of those stainless doohickeys from laundry hoses.

So before my second brew tonight i went downstairs to the shop and cut off the kinked part with a cut off wheel,two attemps later it was good.Thinking to myself that i had solved the problem of loss of a siphon i proceeded to drink beer and try to make some in the process.Same damn thing happened this time but i lost the siphon this time because of the pipe threads inside the keggle drawing air.The strainer seemed to clog pretty good too but the main thing this time was air leaking in to pipe threads.Obviously I'm not going to use pipe sealant.

So are there any easy ways to set up a hops strainer in a keggle that will not make me get pissed and un sanitary at the end of my brew?

Here is my Hops strainer set up,this thing sucks!!,I may just smash it to make my self feel better.

Use a paint strainer bag for hops and hang it over the pot.

Teflon tape is fine to use on the threads to fix your siphon problem, and pellet hops will clog strainers like that really easily so use muslin or nylon bags for hops. Those two things sound like they will eliminate 90% of the problems you are experiencing.

Ok,Thanks guys.Now i just need more kegs so i can brew some more beer.