bazooka screen

I want to put a bazooka screen in my kettle to filter out trub and hops when I empty the wort into the fermenter through the kettle spigot. My only concern is whether the the immersion chiller will damage the screen each time. If it will only damage it over a considerible amount of time, I don't really mind bc the screens are only about $12

They are really rigid and I've never had a problem yet. I actually bent mine a little to be more flush with the bottom of the keggle. I have a 50' SS chiller.

I have one and they are very ridged. I hit mine all the time with my spoon and the immersion Chiller with no ill effects. They work real well filtering out break and hop material.

The mesh on those Bazooka screens is pretty course. That means it will let lots of the smaller particles through. What is your experience with them? Do they clog? How much goes through?

I still use a braid, which does filter most hops and break out, but it's way too fine and clogs badly, independent of the amount of hops used, even with 2 oz of hop pellets in a 5 gal boil. With the pump, I only get a drizzle (1/8 inch stream) going through the plate chiller into to carboy. I'm looking at a hop basket now.

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I use a bazooka screen in my kettle. It worked fine for my 5 gallon batches (APAs with 3 or 4 oz of hops and such), but tonight I made a 10 gallon batch with 9oz of pellet hops and it clogged up pretty badly. Before tonight I would've recommended one, but after tonight, I'm looking for a better solution.

501irishred said:

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nolabrew85 said:

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Rather than hitting "thread tools>subscribe to thread" he just replied with "subed" (subbed) which subscribed him to the thread.

nolabrew85 said:

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rajun50 said:

Rather than hitting "thread tools>subscribe to thread" he just replied with "subed" (subbed) which subscribed him to the thread.

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Correct. Was getting "kicked" off the computer by SWMBO at the time.....

Gotcha.

I saved 2 quarts of hop matter from a previous batch, so I could do some "testing" with the braid. Using 2-3 gallons of lukewarm water and a pint of the saved hop debris, I could easily see what was going on.

When just draining, and much quicker when running the pump, the hops fibers get sucked onto the braid, effectively clogging up the pores in the braid. When I run my hand or the stirring spoon along the braid, thus cleaning its surface, the flow increases momentarily, but clogs up again within 10-20 seconds. This confirmed what I expected to be the problem.

Moreover, I was surprised to see that it didn't take much hops fiber at all to clog it up. A very slight coating is all it takes to plug it up. While clogged as such, the resulting wort stream is about 1/8 of an inch, so some wort get through, but very slowly.

The good news is that the wort that gets filtered this way is very clear and mostly if not completely free of any hops matter. I assume only some of the finest particles makes it through.

To be able to run my (March) pump at all in this scenario, I inserted a valved feedback loop from the plate chiller's exit back to the pump's inlet. This prevents the pump from cavitating, by keeping the drain line, pump, chiller, and feedback loop full of wort. There is plenty of suction on the braid this way, just not much wort passes through.

I was looking to replace the braid with a bazooka screen or some other coarser filter mesh material than the braid. Hop bags, a hop spider, or a hop basket are among other options.

I brew with whole (leaf) hops and average at 5oz per 5 gals. Never had a stuck wort. I would think that a hop spider/basket would be good insurance to prevent clogging. I would assume you may get hot break material if your don't use some filter or screen, but Ive always used the bazooka screen and had no issues. Tye most I've done is 8 or 9 oz of whole leaf hops and still didnt have a problem with the bazooka screen

Komocabo said:

I brew with whole (leaf) hops and average at 5oz per 5 gals. Never had a stuck wort. I would think that a hop spider/basket would be good insurance to prevent clogging. I would assume you may get hot break material if your don't use some filter or screen, but Ive always used the bazooka screen and had no issues. Tye most I've done is 8 or 9 oz of whole leaf hops and still didnt have a problem with the bazooka screen

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I've heard the same positive feedback in regard to using a Bazooka screen with leaf hops. I don't think the (quite course) screen will hold back the break per se, although it may cling to the hop leaves and thus not transfer to the fermentor as much.

There are more than just a few threads on hop bags, hop spiders, and hop baskets, all having advantages over one another.

Using leaf hops make sense, but storing 1 pound of leaves takes at least as much space as 5 pounds of pellets. Also not every hop is available as leaf at times. So there is still need to filter those hop fibers at some point.

IME a lot of the hop matter and trub falls to the bottom of the fermenter by the time you bottle or transfer to secondary (and definitely from secondary to bottling), so I am not looking for or expecting anything to be a perefect filter, just something to reduce the the amount of hop matter and trub. Before, I used a sanitized mesh strainer when pouring from kettle to primary, but after the first 2 gallons or so the strainer would become so clogged that I would only have a trickle of wort into the fermenter, so that I would get impatient and just remove it and pour the rest in. So, really I am just looking to a better alternative to that.

Island Lizard, I grow my own hops, hence all the leaf hops Yes, they take up more space, but they are free (basically) for me. I do buy some leaf hops in bulk when needed, but try to stick with whole hops in general. Its a preference... nothing wrong with pellets.
~Cheers

I've only used pellets from a kit... So it sounds like bazooka screen is great for whole hops, but not very useful with pellets due to the fine particles. Makes sense to me.

Komocabo said:

Island Lizard, I grow my own hops, hence all the leaf hops ...

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That explains a lot. And yes, if you're trying to make us jealous, you're succeeding quite well. Growing your own sounds so good. In that case I would use leaf hops too, circumventing the shredded hop matter all together, but storage may pose a problem, as availability.

6 oz of hop pellets in my latest (Fresh Squeezed IPA) got me 2 quarts of hop matter. It took over an hour to drain from the BK with that 98% clogged braid laying there in the bottom. But it smelled wonderful while scooping it out, and the next day the nose was still there. I was hoping to re-purpose it somehow, but found no viable ideas.

I'm looking at those hop baskets. Hop utilization seems to be fine with the 300 micron screens, while the 400 micron ones lets more of the fine stuff through, so 300 seems the optimum. I'll probably get a wide and relatively shallow one for my 8 gallon BK.

Sounds awesome. Give it a shot and let us know...

Alsi, here is most of last year's harvest... yes its all hops

Komocabo said:

Sounds awesome. Give it a shot and let us know...

Alsi, here is most of last year's harvest... yes its all hops

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How old are your plants? I have a few magnum and something else, I think sterling, in my yard, but they are only 2 or 3 years old. I got slim picking last year, and the biggest plant turned out to be male! Boy was that a fun time digging out a 13 pound rhizome! I hope my production reaches what I see you have there. Do you dry them just like in the photo? Or do you do something else?

I have 2 lots... my father-in-law has 6 varieties and they are about 7 years old, maybe more. Mine were actually first year, and the plant I shot there was my new one (I was amazed too!). I live in the Willamette Valley and the climate is great for hops. I was able to get about a # of Galena and a little more than a # of Willamettes ( both 1st year). My Magnum never produced much... I think it may be a male...

Yep, thats how I dried them, but spread out a lot more. I had 2 screen doors at my house in the garage, and then about 6 other screen contraptions in the green house for the rest. Its nice to grow them and use them, but it is a pain in the arse to harvest, pick, dry, and vaccuum seal them. I have two little "helpers" that like to help Daddy, so that makes it more enjoyable.

One of my brewing buddies is about two.doors down and he grew some this year, but didnt get much. Maybe a # total from 4 plants. We think that he planted them too late. Hoping to have a big hop swap this summer.