Hop screen help

Looking to make a hop screen to lay across the bottom of my keggle, to those of you have done it what material did you use? I'm looking at some perforated sheeting from McMaster. Size/perferation % would you recomend?

http://www.mcmaster.com/#standard-perforated-sheets/=gaov0d

I'm plan on it looking something like more beer false bottoms. They use 18 ga, but is than necessary since it's just going to be used as a hop screen?

http://morebeer.com/view_product/17242//Hinged_False_Bottom_For_Keg

Sounds like a lot of work for just straining hops. Good luck if u choose to go this route. I think you would get the same results ( and save time and money) by just building a hop spider. I found the project on you tube. Good brewing.

how bout using a tea infuser ball around ur pickup tube...works really well.

Schoeny
I thought about the hop spider route, guess I wanted something with a bit more bling, plus it's it's going to be in my kettle I'd rather it was stainless.

Steve-
The Tea infuser around the pick up sounds really good, and simple too, my concern is with it clogging since I use whole leaf hops, and sometimes alot of them.

JoshuaWhite5522 said:

Schoeny
I thought about the hop spider route, guess I wanted something with a bit more bling, plus it's it's going to be in my kettle I'd rather it was stainless.

Steve-
The Tea infuser around the pick up sounds really good, and simple too, my concern is with it clogging since I use whole leaf hops, and sometimes alot of them.

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check ebay, i just got 2 infuser balls for $5 shipped. you could always just use the infusers as they're meant to be used, and place the hops in them (they come in different sizes)

Check out my thread, I just built a hop stopper like device. The link for the stainless mesh I used is in there.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/hop-quesadilla-305073/

Milldoggy-
Thats a pretty solid build, I noticed it worked pretty good with the pellet hops, have you given it a run with whole leaf hops? If so how did it preform?

No, today was the first run. I think it will work better with leaf hops. Do a search for Hop Stopper or Hop Taco, I bet you will find other examples and some might have info on using leaf hops.

If you're only using whole leaf hops, a false bottom in the BK works wonders. I have a 12" Jaybird in my keggle and the last time I brewed with whole leaf hops, it drained down to about 1/2 cup of liquid left under the false bottom. That liquid probably drained out from the hops while I was getting stuff broken down for cleaning as the siphon broke when pumping through my plate chiller into the carboy.

BSD

SteveMillerTime said:

check ebay, i just got 2 infuser balls for $5 shipped. you could always just use the infusers as they're meant to be used, and place the hops in them (they come in different sizes)

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How many ounces are you loading into them? Have you noticed any decrease in IBUs?

Islandboy85 said:

How many ounces are you loading into them? Have you noticed any decrease in IBUs?

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haven't tried it yet, actually just bought them the other day so waiting for em to get here. i'd say fill the infuser with enough hops so that they can still kind of move around, but barely. It's almost the same concept as straining tea, as long as water can flow freely over the hops you should be fine.

Here is what I built. Works great. Plans and video on YouTube.

Plankton said:

Here is what I built. Works great. Plans and video on YouTube.

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Titled as what? There is a ton of stuff on YouTube.

i was just over a fellow member's house yesterday to get bottles, just so happens he was brewing and showed me his set up. For the hops he built a really cool "hop bag" using a paint strainer and some hardware found at home depot or lowes. Definitely think I'll be going this route with my next brew.

Here's a link to the wiki - its a pretty straight forward build - https://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Hop_Bag

I've seen those, i just came across this one too, a little more involved and a bit more pricey but I like that it's all stainless

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/hopster-hopscreen-157529/

One thing to consider is that the perforated plastic you linked to has a max temp of 200*F...or did I miss something?

ThinkingOutLoud said:

One thing to consider is that the perforated plastic you linked to has a max temp of 200*F...or did I miss something?

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I'm assuming ur referring to me?

That wouldn't really matter because the plastic isn't sitting in the boiling water...it'd be getting hit by steam which has a smaller surface area, so it wont see that 200*

This works for whole hops.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/10-stainless-diy-hop-blocker-289349/

This is what I use in my mash tun and my brew pot. I use kegs as kettles.
http://store.homebrewheaven.com/stainless-steel-false-bottom-kit-p684.aspx
Here's one for a 12" pot.
http://store.homebrewheaven.com/12-hbh-stainless-steel-false-bottom-p1984.aspx
Here's one for a 9" pot.
http://store.homebrewheaven.com/9-hbh-false-bottom-p1985.aspx

SteveMillerTime said:

I'm assuming ur referring to me?

That wouldn't really matter because the plastic isn't sitting in the boiling water...it'd be getting hit by steam which has a smaller surface area, so it wont see that 200*

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No, sorry, I was actually talking about JoshuaWhite5522. The link he posted in his first post was to some plastic perf. He stated it would be laying on the bottom of his kettle.

Steam? I may have confused some threads...

ThinkingOutLoud said:

No, sorry, I was actually talking about JoshuaWhite5522. The link he posted in his first post was to some plastic perf. He stated it would be laying on the bottom of his kettle.

Steam? I may have confused some threads...

Click to expand...

lol ah gotchya, and yea there would be steam coming from the boiling wort