Hop Spider for kettle transfer

[wsmith1625]

I was thinking about purchasing a SS Hop Spider for my kettle boils to reduce hops from entering the fermenter. I was looking at a 6" x 14" for my #10 kettle. One of the reviewers mentioned that the size was an issue when adding the immersion chiller to the end of the boil. He made it work, but sounds like more hassle that I'd like to deal with. The smaller 4" x 10" seem a little small and could possibly clog up by the end of the boil, so late additions and hop stands would suffer for it. I was thinking outside the box and though maybe I could put the 4" x 10" in the neck of my Fermonster during the transfer. Then I can loose hop for the boil and catch it when I transfer. I'm aware that the neck of the Fermonster is 4", so it will be a tight fit. My only concern is that the mesh will clog and not allowing for the complete #5 transfer. I've never used a SS hop spider, so I don't know how bad they clog. The one I was looking at uses a 300 micron SS screen. Any SS hop spiders users, what do you think?

 

[Barbarossa]

I tried to use a small one and tie it up. Then I ordered a huge one with hooks. Much better. Fits well in the coil. No pictures but I did it a few times. Now I'm planning to just pitch everything in then use the big one to filter the wort as it enters the fermenter.

On Amazon: YaeBrew 6 X 14 Inch Hop Spider 300 Micron Mesh Stainless Steel

 

[BrewHack]

View attachment 720881

I tried this and it worked great for the first 2/3s of siphoning. The hops eventually caked on thick enough to stop flow into the hop spider. Still an improvement. I should have tried scraping the hops off of the spider as it built up.

 

[wsmith1625]

I tried this and it worked great for the first 2/3s of siphoning. The hops eventually caked on thick enough to stop flow into the hop spider. Still an improvement. I should have tried scraping the hops off of the spider as it built up.

What size spider were you using?

 

[BrewHack]

Same as above, 6x14

 

[wsmith1625]

BTW, my first attempt was to line the fermenter with a brew bag and pull the bag when the transfer completed. It allowed for a complete transfer, but pulling the bag was a mess. The hops caked in the bag trapping the wort inside and then I had to pull a soccer ball sized bag through the 4" neck of the Fermonster. I didn't lose much wort, but frustrating and messy. Never again.

 

[wsmith1625]

Same as above, 6x14

So my limitation to a 4x10 will most definitely clog. Thanks for saving me the expense and headache of trying to pull this off. When I was using a plastic bucket to ferment, I used to transfer through a SS strainer and it would also clog. Scraping it didn't help much. I had to stop the transfer and empty the strainer a few times to get the job done. Doing this in a Fermonster would be very frustrating. Thanks!