Filtering from Brew Kettle to Primary

[moors]

My last batch used 9oz of pellet hops in the brew kettle (bittering, 10 minute, and whirlpool). I have a bazooka screen at the bottom of the kettle. Nevertheless, my primary had tons of hop pellet particles. It clogged the bottom of my conical. After a week, I cleared the trub from the bottom of the cone (wasting some beer while doing so). I cold-crashed at three weeks, and wasted a lot more beer trying to clear the bottom of the cone again. In summary, I lost 1+ gallons of beer overall due to the conical clogging.

I was using Imperial Yeast A20 "Citrus", a very low flocculating yeast. So the mess was predominantly hop particles.

Is there a good filter for kettle-to-fermenter? Under 9oz of hop load, the bazooka screen clogs quickly and obviously passes a lot of smaller hop particles, which subsequently clogs the conical fermenter.

(some other options are using a hop bag in the kettle, or using a carboy instead of the conical)

 

[jddevinn]

Not filtering like you request... but for high hop beers I add an additional 90° elbow and site glass with a cap after the valve on the conical dump. Leave the valve open and let all the trub settle out where you can see there is no beer in the site glass, close the valve and remove the elbow. Depending on what I get out I may dump again "normal" or reinstall all or part of the assembly.

 

[McKnuckle]

Why not use a hop spider, canister, or simple bag to contain hops in the boil - then you won't have to worry about it getting into your fermenter at all?

 

[jddevinn]

I used to until I got conicals. I've used a hop spider, hop stopper and some other hop ****. They would all get clogged eventually.

I find a quick cooling, good whirlpool then rest leaves most of the trub behind. What's left falls out really quickly. I've only done the extra elbow trick with things like a pliny clone.

 

[pshankstar]

I have taken a fine mesh metal strainer from the kitchen and used that to filter the hop particles out. Yes I sanitized it before it came into contact with the cooled wort. It did require me to stop and take breaks to clean it out and took longer to fill the primary, but there was virtually no hop particles in my fermenter. I use the FastFerment conical fermenter, so I have been worried of a clogged fermenter but has not had this issue.

I hope this makes sense, but feel free to let me know if you have any questions.

 

[moors]

The the 90 elbow trick ... pictures, please!

I googled "hop spider", hop basket, etc. I'm envisioning suspending the hop basket (or hop spider) over the conical fermenter and draining the kettle through the basket. Perhaps a hop spider with a paint bag would be the simplest trial run.

My next brew is a Hefeweizen (with saccharomyces boulardii), and it only uses 1oz of hops. So nothing to worry about for awhile.

 

[TwoHingeBrewing]

Our original mesh filter (from Electric Brewery) at the bottom of our kettle clogged all of the time. HATED it. So I bought an additional filter from Utah Bio Diesel that we place the hops in. Works like a champ! It's one of my top three accusations. (Others are tankless water heater and the cheap $1.38 plastic scoop we use to scoop spent grain with.)

Haven't any clogging issues at all and it has really cut down on the particulates that go into the primary.

 

[jddevinn]

Hey moors,

I looked through my photos and can't find one with this connected. I'll try to take a photo next time.

Basically the bottom of the fermenter has an elbow already connected that makes the output parallel to the floor then the valve, then I add another elbow that points straight down and one of these tri clamp site glasses. They are normally used for yeast harvesting.

I've heard that these filters from brewershardware work well.

I still stand by the whirlpool and forget about it method most times.

 

[jddevinn]

Our original mesh filter (from Electric Brewery) at the bottom of our kettle clogged all of the time. HATED it. So I bought an additional filter from Utah Bio Diesel that we place the hops in. Works like a champ! It's one of my top three accusations. (Others are tankless water heater and the cheap $1.38 plastic scoop we use to scoop spent grain with.)

Haven't any clogging issues at all and it has really cut down on the particulates that go into the primary.

This is the first thing I changed with my system. When with a blichman hop (stopper?) next and it was better but would still clog. It would also collect break between it and the wall during whirlpool.

 

[JMathie77]

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=352293

Follow this thread, these things are amazing!

 

[TwoHingeBrewing]

That's the one! Highly HIGHLY recommended.

I'm still bitter about the first mesh filter we bought. So much hate.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=352293

Follow this thread, these things are amazing!

 

[moors]

I found one on Amazon. Small one for $70 and large for $100. Expensive!

One solution is to hang this inside of the conical fermenter and drain the kettle through it. That way, it filters everything coming out of the kettle. In this case, 200 micron (or maybe 100 micron) would be even better!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00B4AX2U0/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

 

[JMathie77]

I have a 300 micron and it works amazingly. Go to the Arbor fab Web site they are a little cheaper there i think plus free shipping! Just use in the boil for hop additions.