Hop spider

I have been enjoying all grain brewing for for a bit now. I have done five or six batches pretty much have my process down and a good handle on temps and amounts things are fairly predictable at this point. The only thing I am struggling with is losing so much beer A gallon to a gallon and a half to due to hop and trub losses. I have been doing 90 minute boils from 9 gallons down to 6.3ish gallons but still only getting four to four and a half gallons in the fermentor. I would like to get five and a half so I end up with five in the keg what is everyone else brewing and or losing and would a hop spider help me to yield one more gallon ? I am flustered at this point. I am currently using a bazooka screen which is a waste of time hops just clog the damn thing I tried using whole hops thinking the whole hops would help filter out some of the pellets it just got worse any suggestions would be greatly appreciated


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I use muslim bags. It works fairly well.

 

I have read bags are a huge hassle and cut down on the hops profile. Has this been the case for you I am looking at this View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1416764122.562296.jpg


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I've been using a homemade hop spider that uses a paint strainer bag (5 gal) and it works great for me, even when doing highly hopped IPA's with half a pound or more hops used. Pretty sure there was a thread or two on here as to how to make it. Can be done for less than 15 bucks in parts from the local big box hardware store.

 

This is what I made a couple years ago, from about $20 of parts. The center ring is a stainless sink insert for an Insinkerator. You can get those for around $10 at any plumbing or home center store. The rest is just three 8" long ss carriage bolts and nuts, ss hose clamp and hops bag. The pic shows it on a 5 gallon BK, but the bolts are long enough to span the top of my keggle.

 

I'm not knocking the hop spider, that's a nice unit. But for me, I prefer the muslim bags. They are simple to use and clean (not a pain). The bags circulate throughout the wort from the top to the bottom while boiling, so I truly doubt it affects the hops utilization. What I like the most is it's one less piece of equipment that I need to store.

 

the bags are not followers of Allah. They are musliN


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Oh! Excuse my ignorance. I'll never search them for bomber's vests again!!!

 

I was gonna say it but you never know who will be offended


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Just looking for a no hassle solution

 

I have to try your ipa


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This is the exact model I have. Works extremely well. No trub into the boil. Just dump and wash out and you're good to go for the next brew.

 

Is it possible to save a good amount of beer. I am hoping to make up at least a a gallon?


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I just got mine the other day used it twice love it
Attachment 237756
money well spent

 

I don't really experience any huge losses from using the spider. I typically raise it just above the wort level and allow it to drain while I'm cooling unless I have a flameout addition. I mostly use pellet hops but have used whole hops as well.

 

I'm not sure why you are losing so much at any stage. I usually only do an hour boil but that goes from 6.5 gallons to 5.5. If you start at 9 gal you should be around 7.5 after an hour and a half. Perhaps you have your burner turned up to high. I like to crank it all the way up to get up to boil then turn it down as low as I can to keep the boil.
If I start fermentation at 5.5 gal I usually get 50-54 bottles out at the end. I really cant see how you are losing 2.7 gal in the boil and I don't understand where the other 2 gal are going. Are you leaving a lot at the bottom of the kettle and or in the primary fermenter? I can't imagine how much hops it would take to absorb 2 gallons. Maybe I'm missing something in your explanation.

 

My kettle is fairly large 20 gallon I did a calculation based on the diameter and and I lose 1.8 gallons an hour I could opt for a smaller kettle but I am done buying kettles so I sparge extra to maximize my yield and boil off the excess water and have hit my gravity+ on every batch I read about this in the all grain sticky here on HBT and it works well


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I have 4 SS baskets from Chad @ Arbor Fabricating. Two different sizes for my BK. The size I use depends on how many hops are going into the boil plus whether or not I'm using pellets or whole hops.
I also have two SS mesh tubes from Chad for use in my BB's for dry hopping.
All work very well and cleanup is fairly easy. Especially if you do it right away!

 

I have the spider from stainless brewing. It is a little expesive but it is a quality piece. I went with the largest one they offer. Overall I am glad I purchased it. Previously I was using bags and I hated cleaning them. I would just toss them and buy new bags instead of cleaning them out. With the spider I just hose it off at the end of the day or hang it in the kettle while circulating cleaner through the plate chiler if it is getting nasty.

Couple things I noticed from using mine.
1) The hop sludge will collect on the sides and will actually hold wort in the middle and drain very slowly. I just tip it side to side as the level drops and this allows it to drain.
2) The drop is 18" which left the spider a ways off the bottom of my keggle. Originally I was not able to do fwh on smaller batches due to this gap. I ended up just drilling 3 holes just above the lip of the keggle. This dropped the spider down to almost the bottom of the kette and now fwh are not a problem. Doing this also increased the surface area and has helped with the draining at the end of boils. I did have to shorten my dip tube to do this, but that was not a problem.