using a hop spider post-chill as siphon well?

[twd000]

I'm trying to come up with a way to reduce the volume of hops making it into my fermenter. I use Whirlfloc 5 minutes before flameout, chill with my IC, then rack with an auto-siphon after it settles. But it's still a lot of sludge getting sucked up and clogging the siphon.

I don't have a hops spider, but the few times I boiled hops in a muslin bag I got low bitterness extraction. So my idea is to boil the free-floating hops, then only use the hop spider as a well during racking. Once the sludge has settled, set the hop spider down on the base of the kettle, and let clear-ish wort flow into the basket. Then insert the auto-siphon cane and rack the clear-ish wort from the well into the fermentor.

Has anyone tried this? Would the spider clog up with hops on the outside surface and prevent the wort from filtering into the center of the well?

 

[ITV]

That should work fine as you would be adding a 300/400 micron filter assuming that you are referring to the stainless steel type of hop spider.

Since I have a plate chiller I take extra measures to prevent it from plugging up. I use my hop spider to hold my hops, I have a false bottom on my brew kettle and before transfering I recirculate from the bottom of the brew kettle, through my pump and back into the top of the kettle with the discharge hose going into a clean hop basket to filter out any trub that made it past the false bottom.

 

[twd000]

yes, I'm referring to a stainless hop spider with the typical 300/400 micron filter.

I'm thinking that will give me the best of both worlds - free floating hops during the boil for max extraction, and filtered straining prior to transfer

 

[Jim R]

That should work but I have found that a cheap kitchen colander/ strainer (see below) works better for my stainless fermenter. I set this sanitized strainer on the top of my fermenter which frees up my hands to control the auto siphon hose. Depending on the beer and hop debris, I usually have to move the hose around the surface of this big strainer quite a bit as each section plugs up with debris. The surface on the smaller hop spider may fill up with debris pretty fast and slow down flow.

https://www.amazon.com/U-S-Kitchen-...ywords=kitchen+colander&qid=1608665385&sr=8-7

 

[Jag75]

It took me 3 times to hate the hop spider. It takes a long time to drain .

 

[cactusgarrett]

It takes a long time to drain .

This. When I use my spider in a traditional sense (putting the hops IN it, draining the "clean" wort from the valve), even with a modest amount of hops (say, 2oz), the kettle could drain faster than the spider would let liquid out. I would imagine the reverse would happen, also: I bet siphoning the "clean" wort from the spider would empty the spider quickly, and the influx of wort into it wouldn't keep up.