Kettle Filter for Pellets

[MisterTipsy]

I made this recently. I'm hoping it will allow me to ditch the hop bags and minimize hops in the primary.

I have three types of mesh (30, 50 and 100). I'm trying 50 mesh first. I hope it works.

 

[day_trippr]

Good luck, but comparing the mesh area with that of, say, a Hop Blocker, and given my experiences with one of those, I think you're bringing a pen knife to a gun fight...

Cheers!

 

[MisterTipsy]

It definitely has a small surface area. I'm going to test it before I actually brew beer. I could make two of them into a Tee, if needed.

 

[MisterTipsy]

No work for me today, so I'm going to test it with a bunch of ground eucalyptus. It is variable between flakes and a fine powder. Going to try 4oz.

 

[MisterTipsy]

It worked. It didn't clog with some stirring. It filtered very well, but it was slow. It took 15-20 minutes to drain 5.5 gallons.

I now have 5.5 gallons of fresh eucalyptus water!

 

[MisterTipsy]

looks like hops and wort

 

[phoenixs4r]

Nice! All of my filter ideas have failed thus far. I don't like hop spiders, my next theory is to put the nylon bag, sanitized, into the wort and remove my pump output from the whirpool fitting and pump directly into a bag until it comes out clear. Not sure if it's going to work, probably more work on an already long brew day, lol.

 

[MisterTipsy]

Ran some tests with a timer. Should have done that on the first try. 15 minutes was a bad estimate.

Draining 5.5gal of water:

spigot hole only - 5 mins

8'' copper pipe with six hacksaw cuts - 8 mins

8'' copper pipe and 50 mesh screen - 9 mins

It looked like the limiting factor was the pipe, so I enlarged all six cuts with a hacksaw. Now it drains like a champ.

8'' copper pipe with fatter cuts - 3 minutes (faster than the spigot hole alone)

8'' copper pipe with fatter cuts and 50 mesh screen - 3.5 minutes

Now its time to drain another quarter pound of eucalyptus.

 

[MisterTipsy]

Nice! All of my filter ideas have failed thus far. I don't like hop spiders, my next theory is to put the nylon bag, sanitized, into the wort and remove my pump output from the whirpool fitting and pump directly into a bag until it comes out clear. Not sure if it's going to work, probably more work on an already long brew day, lol.

I was thinking about wrapping my essentially useless bazooka filter with a polyester bag, but I tried this instead.

 

[MisterTipsy]

BTW, if you ever want to make eucalyptus water, 4oz is way too much for a 5.5 gallon batch.

 

[Silentnoiz]

Nice! All of my filter ideas have failed thus far. I don't like hop spiders, my next theory is to put the nylon bag, sanitized, into the wort and remove my pump output from the whirpool fitting and pump directly into a bag until it comes out clear. Not sure if it's going to work, probably more work on an already long brew day, lol.

Why don't you like hop spiders? Curious because I was thinking about making one. I'm going to have to do some searches on different filters and methods.

 

[MisterTipsy]

The 8'' copper pipe with fatter drain cuts and a 50 mesh screen drained 5.5 gallons of water with 4oz. of ground eucalyptus in 5.5 minutes.

There was no clogging with constant stirring around the filter. There is virtually no eucalyptus in the bucket. If I look really closely, I can see a little bit of material, but it's like a fine powder and there isn't much of it.

I'll use it on a real batch of beer soon.

 

[MisterTipsy]

I have a 1/2 a pound of ground lavender. It's really fine. Mostly powder.

If I can drain a batch of that without clogging, there is no stopping this filter. I don't think I need to try it. Beer is next.

You may ask yourself, why in the heck does MisterTipsy have 1/2 pound of ground eucalyptus and a 1/2 a pound of ground lavender sitting around the house? Fair question. I was buying bulk spices a long time ago and a 1/2 pound was the minimum. Never got around to using them.

 

[tgmartin000]

Why don't you like hop spiders? Curious because I was thinking about making one. I'm going to have to do some searches on different filters and methods.

I'm also considering making one. Lots of people seem to like them. Would like to hear some more feedback.

 

[MisterTipsy]

Well that didn't work.

It clogged with real batch of beer. I got about 2 gallons out before it clogged. I couldn't unclog it, so I pulled it and got another 2 gallons before the spigot hole clogged.

I only used 2oz of hops in the boil. Apparently ground eucalyptus and cold water isn't a good test to emulate boiled hops and malt. It looked very similar. I think the syrupy LME was a big part of the clogging problem.

I'll try the wider 30 mesh next time and make the drain holes even wider. There's always hop bags.

 

[MisterTipsy]

 

[MisterTipsy]

I just realized it may not have clogged. I use a plate chiller and drain into a bucket with a hose attached to the lid. I accidentally sealed the lid on the bucket. This stops the drainage flow because the air pressure in the bucket overcomes the fluid pressure. I did this once before but I popped the lid and it drained. This time I just assumed the new filter clogged and forgot about the sealed lid issue. So I don't know if it clogged or not. I don't think it did. It didn't look clogged . Damn it!

 

[kwadric]

Just another reason to brew again!

 

[MisterTipsy]

I want to brew again right now just to test the filter, but it will have to wait. The sealed bucket was definitely a problem.

 

[kwadric]

I know the feeling. When dumb things happen on brew day I want an instant rebrew... But the five gallons usually end up pretty tasty anyway.

 

[MisterTipsy]

The beer should be fine. The OG was correct.

I don't want to have to wait another week or two to figure out if this filter works, but I will.

 

[MisterTipsy]

Tried again with 4oz. of hops in the BK. My conclusion is 50 mesh in a BK is too fine using a 1/2" copper drain tube with six 3mm cuts and a plate chiller while relying on gravity for drainage.

I get about 3 gallons before it stalls and then I can milk one more gallon without the filter before it clogs completely. The plate chiller limits the flow quite a bit. 50 mesh is probably fine with a pump and a plate chiller, but relying on gravity with a plate chiller limiting the flow results in poor drainage.

I might try making a 50 mesh quasi-bazooka using mostly mesh, a few inches of copper tubing and some hose clamps or maybe I'll try 30 mesh with the same copper drain tube and make wider drain cuts.

 

[MisterTipsy]

The filter worked great in the secondary as a dry hop pellet filter. I dry hopped with 2oz of hops without using a hop bag. I used the 50 mesh filter and transferred to the bottling bucket with a spigot and tubing. The flow was very good. It filtered the hops well. I couldn't see any particles in the beer.

So, my filter thing-a-ma-jig is good for something!

 

[helibrewer]

I finally went a different route after many attempts at filtering. I whirlpool for about 10 minutes then let the wort settle for about 30 minutes. I draw off the trub through my dip tube into a measuring cup until it starts to run clear then I drain into the fermentor. This accomplishes two things: 1) whirlpooling really helps concentrate the trub, and 2) I have an accurate measure of my trub loss.