Hop Randall build & use questions

I'm thinking about a project for later in the spring (after I get my mash manifold done).

I'm looking at a Cartridge Filter Housing Hop Randall build listed in the Northern Brewer Catalog.
Anyone found improvements to that design?
Anyone keep the Randall in the fridge with the tanks? Does this help reduce the foam issue?

Are there any easy ways to hook and unhook a Randal up from a 2 tap system. Many of my beers just don't need it... I did see mention of a by-pass somewhere... any advice?


I plan to brew several APA's & IPA's in a row this spring & summer, always been interested in trying the Randall method.

Thanks in advance

This guy has a pretty good way of doing a homemade one, and he just uses a separate picnic tap when he connects it to his kegs. Seems like that might be a nice option...

http://dcsanders.com/?m=201008

cuttsjp said:

This guy has a pretty good way of doing a homemade one, and he just uses a separate picnic tap when he connects it to his kegs. Seems like that might be a nice option...

http://dcsanders.com/?m=201008

Click to expand...

That looks like a good quick down & dirty to quick disconnect.

Any suggestions on a switch valve inline to still serve off tap? maybe to leave it inline for when I need it. suggestions?

Not opposed to above solution but looking for options...

When I built that Randall, I thought of doing it inline and mounting it in the fridge, but honestly, I didn't plan on using it all that often, and I wanted a picnic tap to easily do some 'before and after' pours. I looked into switch valves, and thought that a picnic tap and a separate disconnect were simpler (and I already had them around).
Either way, it was an easy way to give it a little extra oomph.

Found this on ebay last night

http://cgi.ebay.com/10-HOP-RANDALL-...250?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item45f0d4fb62

I think this is going to do what I want it to do... and I think I can build it much cheaper!

found a ball lock post for $12... which should only be a few bucks added to final build.

and thoughts on installing ball lock post? I'm pretty new to kegging and haven't broken down a keg fully yet.

Here is your part list, only thing I may switch out besides ball lock post is using a plastic hydrometer test cylinder, I cracked the bottom 1/2" on my 12" tube in the freezer, and it leaks now so I need another anyway. Are there any other gaskets or seals needed?

- A whole-house water sediment filter
- 3/4 to 1/2 inch reduction fittings, then 1/2 inch to 1/4 flare fittings
- A tube for the middle to act as a filter (it’s widely suggested to use a stainless steel tube, but I used a 10.5″ length of 1″ blowoff tube). I drilled about 20 holes in the bottom 1/4 of it to force the beer down through the hops.
- about 10 feet of beverage line and some clamps, and a picnic tap (I used 1/4 inch beer line)
- a few ounces of hops.

Nice Hop Randall build and any thoughts or words of wisdom on the build or my modifications would be appreciated!

I've never thought of installing a ball lock post on it, but that's pretty cool! That would make switching from a picnic tap to a tower faucet pretty easy! Nice clean looking build he has.
I might have to give that a try, though I'd have to look into how to secure the post. I assume it wouldn't be too hard.

I added no other gaskets or seals, just used pipe thread tape on the fittings. I pretty much used things I had around the basement, outside of the filter housing, of course.

Where did you get your filter housing? If found a few and the price varies starting about $25 and going up from there I do want a clear housing, I saw some white ones that were cheaper, but only by a few bucks.

Rough estimate on cost should be about $50 based around a $25 filter a $12 ball lock post and a couple of bucks in fittings (not including parts I have).

First post:

I just made one last week by mushing together all the threads I read here and everything that was linked. You could find cheaper parts, but I was building mine for a party later that night. Basically I went to the big box store (home depot) and found their only clear housing full house filter ($35 i think), which also has the handy "bypass" switch on top so you can compare randallized and non-randallized beverage. The fittings on the filter housing are 3/4" FPT, home depot only sells pipe thread parts to reduce a single size, so I went with a 3/4" to 1/2" reducer, and a 1/2" to 1/4" reducer, then a 1/4" MPT to 1/4" male flare adapter. (Note: posted in other threads there is a 3/4" to 1/4" reducer and even a 3/4" MPT to 1/4" male flare fitting which can be found online, thus reducing the fittings required and thus the price) My kegerator is setup so every hose is 1/4" flare, making it easy to switch between corny and sanke parts, or in this case, adding an inline randall. The hoses all have 1/4" female flare parts and all hardware (disconnects, randall's, tap shanks) have male flare parts. So all I needed to do was make the randall have 1/4" male flare fittings, and make up a "5' jumper" of beverage line with 1/4" female flares which went between the liquid ball lock disconnect and the randall, the tap side tube was screwed into the out on the randall.

So all my hardware has these fittings:

http://www.northernbrewer.com/brewing/kegging/soda-kegs-fittings/ball-disc-1-4-mfl-gas.html

And all my tubing has these fittings:

http://www.northernbrewer.com/brewing/1-4-barbed-swivel-nut.html

To convert the filter housing, I cut a piece of 1" PVC to 9 and 7/8" to fit inside the housing where the filter once was. I then used a dremel with a disc cutting tool to cut in about 10 parallel slits on each side of the tube on the bottom 1/4 of the tube, to make beer pass through the length of the hops before heading to the tap. These slots worked very well, no clogging and minimal leaf parts exiting to the glass. I'll likely switch to stainless when I get some more time to fuss around with it.

Foaming: Yes, I put the randall inside the fridge on the compressor hump. I have a standard mini-fridge and was still able to fit both corny kegs in as well. The key to not foaming is A) PURGING THE GAS initially when beer is first allowed to flow into the randall using the little pressure relief button on the side of the filter, B) REDUCING YOUR POURING PRESSURE, I turned the tank down to around 8 psi, and C) most importantly 10 FEET OF BEVERAGE TUBING TO THE TAP, this goes for all pouring applications. I had foaming for about 1/2 a pint glass, then nothing but perfect pours all night.

All in all I was amazed at how stupidly easy this was to build and look forward to putting honeycomb in there for a wit!

Oh, right, and I had to cram 2 oz. of whole leaf hops in there, with the 1" pipe (home depot sells 2' sections instead of the whole 8 footer) 1.5 oz. is probably more appropriate, but my hops were in 1 oz. packages.

Excellent info jrathfon.

I did find out that the ball lock post I'm looking at has a 5/8" thread so a 3/4 to 5/8 reduction fitting should do the trick!

I like the by-pass feature... may be worth the few extra bucks...

I got the housing at Menards, or Fleet Farm. Can't really remember. I too had little to no foaming after a glass or so at 6 psi. I normally serve at 8-9.

Do you know the brand of clear housing full house filter (for $35), which also has the handy "bypass" switch on top? I stopped by Lowes (pass buy on my way home) and didn't see one with the bypass. May check HD later this week. I need some CPVC for a manifold build anyway.

I'm a bit lazy and may want to leave in line (after cleaning of course) using the bypass setting when not needed, if that bypass works well. thoughts?

It was a GE whole house filter at HD. It was either $35 or $39 can't remember. It was the only clear housing filter on the shelf. The white filter housings were as cheap as $19, some with switches, some without. As far as leaving in bypass mode, I wouldn't see the problem if you clean your lines AND clean out the hops (the bypass allows you to unscrew the filter housing while the flow is still pressurized, aka not shutting off the water to your entire house while you replace a filter). I would think the hops would start to funk up after a while if you just left them in.

And ya, I used PVC as the "filter" just like the dremel slotted manifolds seen around these forums.

I also plan to replace the slotted PVC pipe with stainless, as I expect I'll see some discoloration in the future, judging from my experience with PVC in long contact with dark liquids (read: black ipa) in the past.

AWESOME! Thanks for the info, just what I needed. I'd be giving it a good clean after use.

How many servings would you get out of 2oz of hops?

Any thoughts on how long you could leave the hops in one of these and hooked to an active keg without it getting funky?

I'm going on 2 weeks with it in, no side-effects/off-flavors. It was definitely more intense at the beginning. Though when it sits for a few days, then you pull a pint, wooo! that's good sauce. I'm just going to leave it on until the 5 gallons kicks, which will probably be a 3 week span, since I'll likely bottle off the end of the corny.

I have no idea about the longevity of 2 oz, but my guess is it's dependent on the alcohol % and contact time as these are the factors contributing to the AA usage. I've found the later pints have been more even, more pleasant, and better on the enamel/chewy scale.

jrathfon, How many ounces do you have in yours?

starrfish said:

Excellent info jrathfon.

I did find out that the ball lock post I'm looking at has a 5/8" thread so a 3/4 to 5/8 reduction fitting should do the trick!

I like the by-pass feature... may be worth the few extra bucks...

Click to expand...

Firestone beerside ball lock posts have a female 3/4-18 threads thread on the bottom. The filter has a female 3/4 thread will be looking for a 3/4" male threaded piece to join.

has anyone used a chunk of the dip tube from a cut up sanke keg for the tube in the middle?

From what I read when I initially researched building this, that's what a lot of people use. I only used blowoff tube because I had it on hand and never needed it (I recently had my first blowoff, so I was kicking myself), and it fit snugly in the filter housing.
I'm waiting for a length of stainless tube to magically appear so I can upgrade it.

Can someone explain to me how you go about setting this up? I just built one and drilled holes in the stainless tubing 2/3 of the way up. Does the beer come splashing in from the top? Also my main concern, does it fill up with beer all the way or does the top third stay filled with air? I read in another thread someone turned it upside down at first to purge it, any experiences or suggestions??

Thanks

I've seen one in use once, seems to fill from to and draw from bottom. I've picked up most of my parts outside the mail filter housing and need final connection to balllock pins. My swing by HomeDepot this weekend. have an american pale coming up soon I want to Randall with cascade

In the FWIW category:

I recently added a Hop Randall to my system and found foaming to be a bit high. The popular opinion of who's guilty seems to be turbulence created in the hop chamber. So, I stuffed some coffee straws into the output port side of the tubing (to encourage a laminar flow). It seems to have reduced the foam by about half... YMMV.

I have had one for a few months and have used it a couple of times.
FYI... get some food grade lube and put it around the threads.
I took my apart Friday and cleaned it out. It was hooked up for
about three weeks.
I didn't think I was ever going to get it apart!!!

GatorDad said:

In the FWIW category:

I recently added a Hop Randall to my system and found foaming to be a bit high. The popular opinion of who's guilty seems to be turbulence created in the hop chamber. So, I stuffed some coffee straws into the output port side of the tubing (to encourage a laminar flow). It seems to have reduced the foam by about half... YMMV.

Click to expand...

Great tip. Haven't gotten the last few parts... waiting for some extra cash flow.

Will try coffee straw tip and possibly the epoxy mixer see which works best.

Building a 2 chamber Randall tomorrow. Any other ideas or tips to add?

Flyguy01 said:

Building a 2 chamber Randall tomorrow. Any other ideas or tips to add?

Click to expand...

Flyguy, how did you build your two-chamber randall? I am just about finished with my one chamber randall but hear it foams like crazy. i'm interested to see how your two-chamber one performs and, also, how you assembled them together.

Any pictures you can share?

Thanks!
Scott

scottycope said:

Flyguy, how did you build your two-chamber randall? I am just about finished with my one chamber randall but hear it foams like crazy. i'm interested to see how your two-chamber one performs and, also, how you assembled them together.

Any pictures you can share?

Thanks!
Scott

Click to expand...

I only used it once for a homebrew competition. It foamed a bit but once it got going it was fine. The second chamber only filled about half way. It was a pretty cool experiment. Don't pack the hops in there.