Hop strainer?

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Ah, good point. I don't have cold break in the BK because I use a CFC, so I may just initially trust it enough to brew a batch. I'll make sure I have a backup plan in case it clogs, though.
 
Here's the result of my test run. It seems that because I just used water and hops, the hops really stuck to the inside of the BK. I ran the outlet of the BK through a paint-strainer bag to see how well the "hopstopper" worked. Not much made it through, IMO. My conclusion is that it worked well enough for my purposes. I usually brew IIPAs, so I needed something, ya know?!


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Anybody ever tried wrapping a fine mesh, like the one Dog House Brew suggests, over a bazooka screen? You can get a 12x12 sheet at McMaster for about $15. What do you guys think?
 
You could wrap it, but IMO its about the surface area. Using the mesh and making a hopster has been the best thing I've ever done. I never have problems with hops anymore. If I could build something again it would be out of 30x30 mesh.
 
I've search all over researching how I wanted to build my version of this. From what I have gathered the window screen stuff is a No-No because of coatings they put on the screen material, either stainless or aluminum. The screen material that looks like metal is either a gray plastic type coating or clear plastic type coating.

So are you saying that the aluminum or stainless window screen is OK and not to use the "non-metallic" screen or to not use any type of window screen for filtering regardless of what it is made out of?

Just wondering!
 
Look up the MSDS for every material you question!! Sofar all I can find on nylon says materials to avoid are strong acids and oxidizing agents and conditions to avoid are temps above 555° f may cause thermal decomposition(degrade).. So melting point temps at +400°f is where it would probably start to leach or I guess also if you soak it in sum strong acid!! Look it up!!
 
Plastic leaches a ton of bad stuff WAY before it decomposes.

The nylon Crock pot liners leach stuff at 200F, and they are specifically made for food and heat.

AND THEY ARE FDA approved.

No one expects anyone to boil paint, so there is no data on boiling those things.

Everything plastic leaches above 200F or so.

I am not saying "RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!!"

I am just saying, "NOT IN MY BEER"
 
Ahhh....not used to seeing the C listed first!

My bad. I am still not a fan of them.

Extreme temps (400F) means a spike or short flare. BOILING said **** for 60-90 minutes hasn't been tested, and if I was betting, leaches stuff just as badly.
 
That's why I always go to the MSDS.. I use them almost every day since I do make plastic and turn it into the tubing that is used in your veins for IV catheters.. We can't use pigment and (UV) stabilizers which is where most of the toxic chemicals come from.. :mug:
EDIT: oh, and we do use the paint strainer bags for our pellets to run tests on and our driers run at 190°-250°f
 
:mug: I don't claim know to all about it, I just know that every 6 years or so, we learn that something or other that was thought safe, isn't.

I will limit where I can.

(MSDS?)
 
[...]Would a 50 micron size be good to filter out particles while still letting the acids out?

Lessee, 50 microns is near 'nuff to .002 inches, which I think is way too fine to allow water to flow through at a useful rate.

By comparison, a 40x40 SS woven cloth using .01 inch diameter wire has .015" wide openings - and I've yet to see anyone construct a hop taco or hop blocker with anything that fine. 30x30 is usually the tightest used, and that has openings more like .024" - which is a dozen times coarser than that 50 micron mesh...

Cheers!
 
TheOnionKnight said:
Are you looking at these? http://www.thepurchaseadvantage.com/page/TPA/CTGY/polyester_bag_filters.html

Would a 50 micron size be good to filter out particles while still letting the acids out?

yeah, those were what I looked at for a material comparison but I do agree with day_tripper for utilization purposes because you want the wort to contact the hops as much as possible for full utilization.

day_trippr said:
Lessee, 50 microns is near 'nuff to .002 inches, which I think is way too fine to allow water to flow through at a useful rate.

By comparison, a 40x40 SS woven cloth using .01 inch diameter wire has .015" wide openings - and I've yet to see anyone construct a hop taco or hop blocker with anything that fine. 30x30 is usually the tightest used, and that has openings more like .024" - which is a dozen times coarser than that 50 micron mesh...

Cheers!
here is some of the screens we use 40,60,80,120 and we go to 500 on some materials.. I agree that a 30 is as fine as I would go for a hop blocker... :mug:

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I built a different version of the hop strainer - a design that allows me to move it to one side and add in the chiller (I have a wide kettle). It worked like a charm! Wanted to share with you guys. The brackets are from an aluminum c-channel, stainless steel bolts. Enjoy!

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had sum time to kill here at work so I took a 40x40 mesh and put it against a paint srainer bag under a microscope for fun..lol.. what you think :mug:

Interesting image. I used a paint strainer bag for the last time last week. I get terrible wort flow through it with a large amount of hops. I'm leaving way too much hop oil behind. Has anyone had success with some of the commercially available mesh stainless steel hop spiders?
 
I had used the hop strainer for a while, several years ago, and then got away from it for a long time. My systems clogs when using hop pellets so I put them in small muslin bags. I question the resulting utilzation, because of the small size and hence fullness of the bags, and they are a bit of a pain (i empty them and reuse them) .

So lately for my late additions (IPAs) with a lot of hops I've been using the strainer bags. I use a separate 9x12 size bag for each of maybe 10,5 and flameout addition, and toss the bags in (tied) not using a hanging fixture. One thing I really like is the ability to squeeze the bag near the end of cooling - recovering a lot of liquid this way that would otherwise be tied up in hops.

It's hard for me to imagine the issue of terrible wort flow, unless of course the hops are packed in there. It seems like fluid flows really easily through these. I don't bring this up to debate, I'm genuinely curious as to others' observations and thoughts on the issue.

Greg
 
Ok, I don't get it, why would you not just use small hop bags and toss them in ?

For me a hop spider is really the only way. When I simply tried using the little hop bags they would get sucked down to the bottom of the kettle and clog up my outlet when it was time to pump the wort to the fermentor or when recirculating during cooling. I suppose I could have tried fishing them out beforehand but I like to leave the hops in the wort as long as possible while recirculating before draining.
 
had sum time to kill here at work so I took a 40x40 mesh and put it against a paint srainer bag under a microscope for fun..lol.. what you think :mug:

This is awesome...probably a first! Why didn't I think of that???

I would be really interested in seeing:

1. A nylon bag that has been used for some time (to see if they melt and thus clog more easily with use).

2. Both materials actually full of hops right after the boil. You could see how the debris lodges in there. The folks using SS don't seem to have the clogging problems...I suspect the rigidity of the wires causes it to retain the particles differently. And they won't melt (if that is what the nylon is doing).
 
I would be really interested in seeing:

1. A nylon bag that has been used for some time (to see if they melt and thus clog more easily with use).

2. Both materials actually full of hops right after the boil. You could see how the debris lodges in there.







It's hard for me to imagine the issue of terrible wort flow, unless of course the hops are packed in there. It seems like fluid flows really easily through these. I don't bring this up to debate, I'm genuinely curious as to others' observations and thoughts on the issue.

Greg







For me a hop spider is really the only way. When I simply tried using the little hop bags they would get sucked down to the bottom of the kettle and clog up my outlet when it was time to pump the wort to the fermentor or when recirculating during cooling. I suppose I could have tried fishing them out beforehand but I like to leave the hops in the wort as long as possible while recirculating before draining.

I make 10-11 gallon batches, and with beers that use a lot of hops, I've found that the flow of wort through a large hop strainer bag is terrible. I learned this by slowly recirculating wort at the end of the boil directly into the top of the hop spider (if you are setup for this, try it). The bag completely filled with wort like a huge balloon. I immediately stopped the flow and watched it. It stayed full and only partially drained, even after the boil kettle was completely drained.
 
Well I have yet to make an IPA, maybe this weekend. But besides a hop spider or the small muslin bags, which I also have concerns about hop utilization, there's really no other options.

I do intend to pick up a stainless steel hop spider in the near future but judging from the photo above, the mesh appears to be almost identical in the weave with the strainer bags. I suppose the only option is to increase the amount of hops to compensate.
 
Well I have yet to make an IPA, maybe this weekend. But besides a hop spider or the small muslin bags, which I also have concerns about hop utilization, there's really no other options.

I do intend to pick up a stainless steel hop spider in the near future but judging from the photo above, the mesh appears to be almost identical in the weave with the strainer bags. I suppose the only option is to increase the amount of hops to compensate.

From some videos that I've seen online of people using stainless steel hop strainers, they appear to have a good flow of wort through them. I'm sure some are better than others. I will probably buy one if the filter that I recently obtained from brewershardware.com doesn't do a good enough job of filtering out the hops. The reviews and their own test on the website look promising.
 
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