Which mesh size for hop spider?

[newfiebrew]

Hello all....I was about to order a new grainfather and was going to also get a SS hop spider with it and I have two choices 300um or 800um mesh. Do anyone have experience with either size spider? Is the 300um to small and prone to clogging and poor hop oil penetration and /or is 800 um too large and would allow most of the hop gunk through? I believe the 800um is the mangrove jacks version.

thanks

Jamie.

 

[day_trippr]

I use a 6 x 18 SS spider from stainlessbrewing.com with 400 micron mesh.
I believe their experience eventually favored that mesh over alternatives.
I'm very pleased with its performance, quite similar to the nylon hop bags I used to use wrt holding in pellet fragments while still allowing wort to pass through, without the aggravation.

800 micron is a non-starter, imo, while 300 micron might be too tight...

Cheers!

 

[augiedoggy]

I use the 300 arbor fabrication 6x14 basket (the ones that started it all) they recommended the 300 for pellet and the 400 for whole hops if I remember correctly...

 

[newfiebrew]

Well I guess the mangrove jacks 800 um that is recommended for the Grainfather isn't the best choice as I only use pellet hops.Strange to make such a large diameter mesh don't you think??

 

[augiedoggy]

Well I guess the mangrove jacks 800 um that is recommended for the Grainfather isn't the best choice as I only use pellet hops.Strange to make such a large diameter mesh don't you think??

is "UM" the same as micron? that might explain it.

 

[newfiebrew]

um=micrometer yes. Maybe incorrect but that's how I remember it being.

 

[thekraken]

@day_trippr and @augiedoggy,
How many oz of pellets do you guys typically use AND what do y'all figure is the max capacity of these 6" filters and at what batch sizes?

I believe I remember augie mentioning slightly less utilization but what about you day_trippr?

Do y'all periodically stir inside the hop basket at all or anything like that?

 

[day_trippr]

I've had as much as 15 ounces of pellets inside the spider (11g Heady Topper clone) without evident issues.
I do give the inside a stir once in awhile, and do hoist it up and let it drain a few times along the way.
Otherwise I try to keep it positioned over the largest up-welling spot in the 20g kettle to keep the pellet mush churning.

No idea about utilization, but I used to use nylon hop bags with a similar mesh. If there's any difference it hasn't been evident in the results...

Cheers!

 

[Morrey]

I've had as much as 15 ounces of pellets inside the spider (11g Heady Topper clone) without evident issues.
I do give the inside a stir once in awhile, and do hoist it up and let it drain a few times along the way.
Otherwise I try to keep it positioned over the largest up-welling spot in the 20g kettle to keep the pellet mush churning.

No idea about utilization, but I used to use nylon hop bags with a similar mesh. If there's any difference it hasn't been evident in the results...

Cheers!

I did a NEIPA with lots of pellet hops in my Arbor Fab 6"x14" hop basket with 300 micron screen. I added most of the hops for 2 late additions after flameout with my pump whirl pooling. Even with the WP arm directly shooting into the hop basket, there was minimal movement in the basket. I kept lifting the basket up and down but it seemed to remain mostly clogged.

When I finished WP, I lifted out the basket and it basically was stopped up. I figure I lost a good % of my hop utilization with this 300 micron screen. I wonder if 400 micron mesh may be a bit more forgiving when using a high volume of hops? Do you (and all reading this) feel the 400 micron screen is worth me looking into?

 

[day_trippr]

The Stainless Brewing folks wrote a blurb about their use of 400 micron and not 300 on their web page here.

Their take was good enough for me to buy the welded version with the perforated bottom...

Cheers!

 

[thekraken]

On a side note I just picked up a 400 micron version from homebrewing.org, haven't had a chance to use it yet. It was half the price than the one from arborfab, anyone have any idea why?

 

[Morrey]

On a side note I just picked up a 400 micron version from homebrewing.org, haven't had a chance to use it yet. It was half the price than the one from arborfab, anyone have any idea why?

Have you looked at an Arbor Fab basket to do a side by side quality comparison? I'd love to hear your review on the homebrewing.org basket as I make a final decision.

 

[thekraken]

Have you looked at an Arbor Fab basket to do a side by side quality comparison? I'd love to hear your review on the homebrewing.org basket as I make a final decision.

I have not seen the arbor fab basket in person.

After next brew day I'll report back but that won't be for another few weeks.

 

[augiedoggy]

On a side note I just picked up a 400 micron version from homebrewing.org, haven't had a chance to use it yet. It was half the price than the one from arborfab, anyone have any idea why?

The arbor fab one is made in the USA by arborfab.(Plus they were the first to make them so they set their own prices at the time before the competition came in.)I believe I paid close to $90 for mine... The homebrewing one is very likely made in china with cheaper labor, I'm not implying its inferior, just that it is what it is.
Heres one for $28 with free shipping..

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/13-...lgo_pvid=2451548b-a48d-4b72-a085-3f2b180a67a9

 

[RollE2k]

Old thread, but here is my take anyway.. i did have a regular 6x14" 300 micron, side hanged spider.. it worked ok, but i really never tried it many times, because i thought it was to small for my 50L batches.. so i ordered a custom made 8.9" wide 16.1" long 300 micron filter which have long arms, so it is fitted in center of kettle..
While brewing heavily hopped IPA, it instantly clogged, and was almost impossible to empty.. worked fine for less hopped beers - but kind of the whole idea was gone for me then..
So i changed to same design but 500 micron - this seems to work alot better, but i still almost wish i took 600 micron instead. Because when brewing a NEIPA with 15.87oz of hops it did also clog quite hard. It was ALOT better than the 300 micron, but i think 600 micron wouldn't have any trouble at all.. at cost of a little more hazy wort.

 

[augiedoggy]

I noticed a difference between before and after cleaning some heavy buildup off my arbor spider.. I've used it for an IPA which came out very hoppy as expected. I don't think there is much utilization lost.

If you try to recirculate into the top or do a lot of reading
raising and lowering you will plug the screen up and that should be expected. I use an electric stirred wand inside of mine to keep the hops whirlpooling inside the spider.. this works well.

 

[BarleyPopBrewer]

In case nobody else has recommended it Stainless Brewing uses 400 micron stainless mesh.

http://stainlessbrewing.3dcartstores.com/Hop-Spider-with-seam-welds_p_158.html

 

[augiedoggy]

Have you looked at an Arbor Fab basket to do a side by side quality comparison? I'd love to hear your review on the homebrewing.org basket as I make a final decision.

They are honestly very comparable in quality..

I have a third smaller 4" diameter spider too and dont recommend it. not enough surface area for many hops.

 

[WortDog]

I've now had three of the SS baskets and I'm done. They clog. They don't work well for whirl-pooling. They're a pain in the ass to clean. Their only benefit, is that they're stainless. I'm going back to nylon mesh. You throw it away when your done. I'm going to make a very large one for my 50 gallon kettles so there will be no clogging and the hops will be free to permeate the beer. I'll post pictures when it's done. The old school hop spider works so much better than these baskets do.

 

[augiedoggy]

As long as you have a sprayer attachment on your sink they are actually not bad to clean... Throwing away nylon mesh bags every brew would get expensive fast for me but I understand you points. what size baskets are you using an with what size kettle? the 4x10 baskets are useles for anything more than 1 oz of hops.

I dont really get how some people are saying they are clogging? are you guys pumping liquid into the hop siders from the top or something? It WILL force the hops to the holes in the mesh and block them (Like a filter should at that point) if you do that.

But if you just add the spider to the kettle and then add the hops and stir them every once in a while theres not reason for the hop particles to be drawn to block the mesh screen since the wort is not trying to all flow out through the mesh at the same time this way....

 

[MX1]

bit of a necro....

looking at going to whole cone hops, only used them once before, but would the perforated SS have holes that are to large?

Looking at keeping the hops out of a plate chiller

 

[Opiate42]

Hello all....I was about to order a new grainfather and was going to also get a SS hop spider with it and I have two choices 300um or 800um mesh. Do anyone have experience with either size spider? Is the 300um to small and prone to clogging and poor hop oil penetration and /or is 800 um too large and would allow most of the hop gunk through? I believe the 800um is the mangrove jacks version.

thanks

Jamie.

Complete necro #2: same question and same problem. Looking for advice on size to get.

Can't decide between 300 and 800. 400 seems hard to find....
:/

 

[augiedoggy]

When I bought my first hop spider arbor fab recommended the 400 for whole hops and 300 for pellet. It seems now many use the 400 for pellet as well these days.

 

[milldoggy]

I use around a 550 for my spider. I also use a electric brewery hop stopper. The combo works well for me. I used 28oz of hops last week, 2/3 in spider 1/3 in kettle. Flow was a little slow, but super clean wort

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

Some of the confusion may be due to screen sizes being delineated in terms of mesh, microns, and inches.

https://www.kramerindustriesonline.com/resources/mesh-size/

 

[IslandLizard]

Some of the confusion may be due to screen sizes being delineated in terms of mesh, microns, and inches.

https://www.kramerindustriesonline.com/resources/mesh-size/

Then there's also wire diameter and thus opening size to take into consideration.
Such as in this table:
https://www.mcmaster.com/wire-cloth/stainless-steel-wire-cloth-9/

 

[Dog House Brew]

I ordered my material from McMaster before anyone was making these commercially. I think mine was 30x30 mesh. It works fine, mine is 8” diameter and I used stainless wire to sew the seam. I made a fold and went at it. I just clamp it to the side. I will add the welded ones would be where it is at. Mine has frays of wires that can prick you on the bottom. I can’t say I’ve had any hop efficiency issues.