mesh size for hop stopper

[Everhard]

Hi all, Need to make a hop screen for my Kettle - what size mesh is tight enough without being too tight? Or can some one post a pic of theirs with something in the pick for reference? (quarter etc)

Thanks!

Everhard.

 

[day_trippr]

300 and 400 micron ss mesh are commonly used for hop spiders.
Mine is 400 micron and that's what I'd go with if building a hop blocker or hop taco.

That said, I bought an Electric Brewery hop stopper 1.0 a long time ago and only used it once.
It proved to be a humongous pita...

Cheers!

 

[Everhard]

I've read some people have issues with the hop stopper and others love it.
I figured given what I've read it's easy to make something similar so I'm going to give it a try.
It seems people that used an immersion chiller have issues but I don't chill that way so hopefully it'll work.

 

[day_trippr]

The problem I had was free-swimming pellets in the boil kettle plugged it most of the way while whirlpooling and then chilling (with an IC) such that the post-chill lautering never had a chance to finish. As soon as the first bit of mesh was exposed, that became the preferential path to the pump, and it cavitated within seconds, never to recover.

There were still four gallons of wort in the kettle, so I lidded it and let it sit while I cleaned everything else up, then siphoned the rest off the hop mush into the fermentor. Pretty much a horror show compared to my typical brew day, so it was one-and-done for the hop stopper and I switched to a 6x20" ss spider. Which is too bad because I really like the idea of free-swimming hops in the BK without plugging the hell out of the system...

Cheers!

 

[milldoggy]

28x28 mesh makes a good hop screen. I still have one you can have for free. I used a hop stopper 2 now. Here is 28 oz of free swimming hops and I whirlpool. I used the hop stopper 2 in a keggle with mixed results. This is my new 30 gallon pot(still 10g batches). Works amazing. I think the larger bottom service area helps flow to the stopper and it is on the side, so the cone of hops is in the center.

 

[Everhard]

That's a lot of hops! Nice! I've got a 20 gallon kettle, it's reasonably wide. I'm only doing up to 10 gallon batches though.
I appreciate the offer unfortunately I'm in Canada so likely not worth trying to send the mesh here!!
How fine is the 28x28 mesh? I'll try to find the same thing.

E.

 

[day_trippr]

The openings in 28 mesh depend on wire diameter. With the finest wire it's close to 300 microns...

Cheers!

 

[Everhard]

Ordered this:

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B01N9V2XLK/ref=ppx_od_dt_b_asin_title_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Hopefully it'll be good. Going to brew a lager once I've got it. Been brewing for a few years using a friend's brewery, but this next brew will be only the second brew with my newly built system. What I had as a screen was laughable and completely jammed up solid. (I knew it was going to give me issues and it did. Lesson learnt.) What I built is quite different from my friend's so been lots of fun learning...

E.

 

[milldoggy]

Believe mine was .01, which worked out to about 550 micron I think. Been a while since I did the math

 

[day_trippr]

I'm fairly convinced the hopstopper 2.0 can only be used under the element in an e-kettle and won't provide a happy ending on a gas kettle.

The one time I tried resting my hop spider on my gas-fired kettle bottom during the boil there was a nasty scorch mark left behind, indicating a lack of sufficient circulation under the spider. The 2.0 'stopper would be resting on the kettle bottom as well, and I would expect the same results...

Cheers!

 

[ndl]

Does anyone know what's the mesh size in hopstopper 2.0?