Hop blocking

[supe_kitchen]

I have just built a new brew stand, but I have not been able to block hops successfully. I tried an inline filter, but was getting too much clogging at the pick-up tube in my keggle (using pellets). I am thinking now that I am going to have use hop bags, but I was curious to see how people block hops on here. My boil kettle is a keggle and it has a false bottom, so if this is what you have what do you use?

 

[kpr121]

Stainless steel scrubby wedged under the diptube has worked for some.

Me, I use a big hop/grain bag ziptied to an old sanke spear. The spear lays horizontal on top of the keggle, stays in place by a small dent in the rim. Not the most glorious, but I get no hops in the fermenter.

 

[jmf143]

I have seen brewers use a piece of copper pipe and a 90 degree elbow so that the pickup is against the wall of the kettle. Whirlpooling is supposed to gather all the trub/break/hops in the center of the kettle so none is picked up. I'm leaning towards doing this myself, so I'll be watching your replies.

 

[supe_kitchen]

Just to put out there what is working for me, I use the hop spider design from a recent BYO issue with a few minor tweaks. It is a hop/grain nylon bag with three holes in it held to a PVC collar with three 8" blots. The plans in the issue used a big wire clamp, but the heat and steam from my boil warped the PVC collar which caused the clamp and bag to slip right into my boil

 

[eastoak]

Just to put out there what is working for me, I use the hop spider design from a recent BYO issue with a few minor tweaks. It is a hop/grain nylon bag with three holes in it held to a PVC collar with three 8" blots. The plans in the issue used a big wire clamp, but the heat and steam from my boil warped the PVC collar which caused the clamp and bag to slip right into my boil

i saw that article and wondered about the clamp. the writer says he throws out the bag after each use so that must be why he uses a clamp?