Hop Stopper first use = not happy

[Bobby_M]

The reason you have to slow the flow down towards the end of the drain is that the hop debris built up on the screen slows how fast wort can drain into the interior of the pocket. If the wort level hits the screen height and you pump all of the wort out of the interior, you suck air and lose prime on the pump. You have to close off the valve on the output of the pump to nearly a trickle just before your wort hits the height of the top of the screen. If you feel like the slowed flow is going to overchill the wort, dial your coolant down slower also.

 

[ElevenBrewCo]

Are you using a Blichmann kettle by any chance? I'm curious to know whether this might work for me on the blichmann dip tube. I'm also using 1/2" silicone tubing and a March pump...

No ive got a sanke keg set up with copper pick up tube. Il take a pic of my set up so you can see what mine looks like

 

[Cardog]

What Bobby said sounds accurate to your problem and or possibly not having a tight fit on the dip tube as well. I just wanted to chime in and say I have one too and it is by far one of the best investments I've made. I did as much as 6oz of hops and never had any issues with the hop stopper. Heck, I even used it for bottling when I dry hop at times.

Come to think of it, I think the Boilermaker is your problem......I'll give you $200 for it

 

[julian81]

The reason you have to slow the flow down towards the end of the drain is that the hop debris built up on the screen slows how fast wort can drain into the interior of the pocket. If the wort level hits the screen height and you pump all of the wort out of the interior, you suck air and lose prime on the pump. You have to close off the valve on the output of the pump to nearly a trickle just before your wort hits the height of the top of the screen. If you feel like the slowed flow is going to overchill the wort, dial your coolant down slower also.

OK well I definitely have a few things to try. One of my concerns is the dip tube that the Hop Stopper came with doesn't have the machined groove in it like the blichmann one does so it doesn't "click" into place with the O-ring in the bulkhead. It's just a smooth surface so it provides for more wiggle. That being said, I'm going to cut the dip tube so it's centered more, try to whirlpool a bit after boil and before draining, and then slow the output down like you've suggested. If none of this solves the problem, I'm going to return the Hop Stopper and probably try the Hop Blocker next.

 

[julian81]

What Bobby said sounds accurate to your problem and or possibly not having a tight fit on the dip tube as well. I just wanted to chime in and say I have one too and it is by far one of the best investments I've made. I did as much as 6oz of hops and never had any issues with the hop stopper. Heck, I even used it for bottling when I dry hop at times.

Come to think of it, I think the Boilermaker is your problem......I'll give you $200 for it

Haha, that's OK But yeah, I just replied to Bobby's reply, and noted that there is some "wiggle" with the hop stopper due to not having the machined groove in it like the blichmann dip tube has.

Does your hop stopper rest on the bottom of your kettle or is it slightly elevated? Because from what I can tell the mesh of the hop stopper rests on the bottom of the kettle, and so the dip tube isn't that far from the kettle floor...unlike the blichmann dip tube which is 3/8" above the floor.

 

[Cardog]

Ok, if the dip tube is the problem then here is what you need to make sure of. The groove (imho) is not a deal killer. I would venture to say that you did not mount the coller from the Blichmann dip tube on to the hopstopper. This is more important than the groove. If you didn't, you must install that coller. It is the round clamp that is pinched tighten with the allen screw. This does 3things when properly installed.

1) it provides a depth setting so the when pushed in all the way, the groove will align with the o-ring.

2) because it has a dowel on the top (roll pin) it positions the dip tube straigh up and down.

3) and this may be the main reason for your troubles. It will keep the dip tube perfectly centered in the port so it does NOT wiggle, hang, etc. Keep in mind the Boilermaker does not provide a compression fitting here. This is why that coller is so important.

Now, my guess is that your dip tube on the hopstopper was NOT made at the correct height. If it were perfect, then the dip tube should be perfectly centered in the port as the other end it rests on the bottom of the pot. And I would venture to say that once you install that coller,than the hopstopper will not rest on the bottome like it actually should (mine does). Therefore the weight of the hopstopper may tug down on it. I would suspect a forgiving tolerence though.

Btw, the hopstopper resting on the bottom of the pot will not cause any kind of plugging. If you carefully at the end of the dip tube (inside the screen) you will see a notch cut out at the end of it.

Let me know if this helps.

 

[julian81]

Ok, if the dip tube is the problem then here is what you need to make sure of. The groove (imho) is not a deal killer. I would venture to say that you did not mount the coller from the Blichmann dip tube on to the hopstopper. This is more important than the groove. If you didn't, you must install that coller. It is the round clamp that is pinched tighten with the allen screw. This does 3things when properly installed.

1) it provides a depth setting so the when pushed in all the way, the groove will align with the o-ring.

2) because it has a dowel on the top (roll pin) it positions the dip tube straigh up and down.

3) and this may be the main reason for your troubles. It will keep the dip tube perfectly centered in the port so it does NOT wiggle, hang, etc. Keep in mind the Boilermaker does not provide a compression fitting here. This is why that coller is so important.

Now, my guess is that your dip tube on the hopstopper was NOT made at the correct height. If it were perfect, then the dip tube should be perfectly centered in the port as the other end it rests on the bottom of the pot. And I would venture to say that once you install that coller,than the hopstopper will not rest on the bottome like it actually should (mine does). Therefore the weight of the hopstopper may tug down on it. I would suspect a forgiving tolerence though.

Btw, the hopstopper resting on the bottom of the pot will not cause any kind of plugging. If you carefully at the end of the dip tube (inside the screen) you will see a notch cut out at the end of it.

Let me know if this helps.

Thanks for the detailed response Cardog.

I did in fact mount the Blichmann collar onto the Hop Stopper dip tube. I followed the HS instructions to the tee. But, like I said the HS dip tube is way longer than it needs to be for my kettle. I need to cut it to fit right, but have no way of cutting stainless steel, so not sure how I'm going to do it. But the collar is installed and tightened...

 

[Bobby_M]

A hack saw will get through it.

 

[julian81]

Cool, I'll try a hacksaw...if I can't get my local sheet metal shop to cut it for me...

 

[pjj2ba]

I have a homemade hop stopper, and it has worked great until 2 brews ago. I lost my siphon. I think over time the fit of the pickup tube into the kettle fitting finally got to the point where once the filter got a little plugged, air got in that joint and I lost my siphon. I replaced the fitting on the kettle and adjusted the fit on the pickup so it puts less strain on the fitting. I also use a hose clamp. It does help to tighten the fit (copper tubing and fittings). Last batch worked flawlessly.

I used to recirculate back to the kettle (plate chiller) but after 10 min or so the filter would start to clog. I now use a "grant" for my hot wort. I gravity feed the hot wort into a modified corny. It takes about 5 min. Then I cool and recirculate back to the corny. All of the hot break and hop debris are left in the kettle so I don't have to worry about clogging my plate chiller, and I can pump at full throttle with no issues. Plus it can double as a hopback.

 

[EarthBound]

The reason you have to slow the flow down towards the end of the drain is that the hop debris built up on the screen slows how fast wort can drain into the interior of the pocket. If the wort level hits the screen height and you pump all of the wort out of the interior, you suck air and lose prime on the pump. You have to close off the valve on the output of the pump to nearly a trickle just before your wort hits the height of the top of the screen. If you feel like the slowed flow is going to overchill the wort, dial your coolant down slower also.

This is what happened to me.

OK well I definitely have a few things to try. One of my concerns is the dip tube that the Hop Stopper came with doesn't have the machined groove in it like the blichmann one does so it doesn't "click" into place with the O-ring in the bulkhead. It's just a smooth surface so it provides for more wiggle. That being said, I'm going to cut the dip tube so it's centered more, try to whirlpool a bit after boil and before draining, and then slow the output down like you've suggested. If none of this solves the problem, I'm going to return the Hop Stopper and probably try the Hop Blocker next.

So... what happened?

 

[RussH]

I'd also like to hear an update on this. I have a hop stopper and use mostly leaf hops. I normally just gravity drain, though I have 2 chugger pumps. I drain VERY slowly to prevent breaking the siphon, but the last few batches, the hop stopper has clogged on me. Flow will stop when the level gets low, but siphon hasn't been broken yet. If I flip the pump on, I can see the Hop Stopper go concave from the negative pressure inside. Last batch I had to stick my hand in scalding wort to remove the hop stopper and dip tube, then I removed the hop stopper, and put the dip tube in bare. I am going to try the SS scrubby approach and see if that helps. I find it strange that so many people have no problems with the HS and I do. I'd really like to keep it, but not if it doesn't do the job. When I cleaned the big chunks of hops off, the screen has a resiny film blocking all the little pores.

 

[tasq]

I works fine with pellet hops. Ive haf no issues with it at all.

I'm sorry, but this is false. You must not brew very hoppy beers because I clogged many a scrubbie with pellets before making a hop spider. The pliny clone was the worst. :X

 

[kombat]

I'm having the same problem as everyone else. Once the wort level gets down to the outlet port/Hop Stopper, I lose prime in my pump and I'm done. Today I was super-careful and cranked back the flow to a bare trickle, but it still lost suction with at least 3 quarts left in the kettle. I'm getting pretty frustrated at dumping almost a gallon of perfectly good wort down my driveway.

 

[cscade]

I installed a hop stopper when I built my kal clone, and frankly - it's garbage. While it will work acceptably in some cases (if you watch your pump speed like a hawk) it is very susceptible to hop type, quantity, hot break, wort composition (wheat, etc)... it's just an extremely inconsistent solution.

After fighting it for 10 batches or so I went back to the standard blichmann dip tube, and placed a Brewer's Hardware TC filter inline between the kettle and the pump. I run the 2 micron screen on the filter, and have not had it clog yet, even on tricky batches. It's a breeze to clean, relatively, and it does double duty to catch dry hops when I pressure transfer from my conical to kegs.

I think the main difference between the hop stopper and the TC filter is where the pump suction resolves. With the hop stopper, the suction resolves in the kettle, and air is readily able to enter the "pocket" faster than wort, and get drawn into the dip tube. With the TC filter, the suction resolves inside the filter chamber, so all it's doing is drawing wort through the filter (a good thing) rather than drawing in atmosphere - because the dip tube is before the filter and is still full of wort.

After switching to the TC filter, I can get nearly a gallon more wort into the fermentor, with a lot less frustration.

 

[kombat]

I modified my approach this weekend and was able to get better results. Basically what I did differently was instead of directing the chilled wort from the plate chiller outlet into the fermenter, I instead pumped it back into the boil kettle (in a whirlpool action). By monitoring the thermometer on my kettle, I could see when the temperature of the wort had dropped to the desired level (60° F). And by pumping it back into the kettle, I was able to run the flow wide open without worrying about the Hop Stopper losing suction (because the kettle remained full the entire time). But it still filtered out most of the break material.

Once the wort was cooled enough, I turned off the pump and chiller, and racked the wort to a fermenter using a plain old autosiphon. This allowed me to get every last drop of wort, without having to rely on the Hop Stopper and the pickup tube (which consistently lose suction on me with several quarts remaining in the kettle).

I was quite happy with this approach, and thought maybe someone else might benefit from it too.

 

[LandoLincoln]

Hrm, yeah but whirlfloc/irish moss is kind of a common thing to add to beers. I would have assumed that with this addition clogging wouldn't be an issue as compared to the 26oz hop test that the Hop Stopper went through. Also, I'm not confident it would have worked without the whirlfloc...

But yeah, I'm not so happy with this thing. I'm leaning towards either trying the Blichmann Hop Blocker and/or the Blichmann flase bottom with nylon mesh bags for my hops (does that affect your utilization?)

Do you use a false bottom when using pellet hops too as an added filter or only for leaf hops?

Thanks for the reply!

Personally, I'd dump the plate chiller. My buddy and I had so many problems with our shirron plate chiller that we abandoned it and built a CFC copper-pipe-within-a-garden-hose chiller. No more clogs. We tried lots of different mesh screens in order to try to stop the hop material from getting through, but more often than not it didn't work.

 

[kombat]

Well, I think I'm done with the Hop Stopper. This weekend, I brewed 10 gallons of an Amarillo IPA. With 15 minutes left in the boil, I turned on my pump and began recirculating boiling wort through my chiller and lines to sanitize everything. After about 5 minutes, the pump lost suction and the line from the kettle was full of bubbles. Once again, the Hop Stopper had become completely caked over with break material (I even have a separate hop screen for my hops, so there are no actual hops loose in the wort!) and could not pass through the screen to the pickup tube. So I had 10 gallons of boiling hot wort that would not come out the valve port.

What to do? My old immersion chiller has been sitting in the garage, unused, for over a year, and the clamps are rusty and unreliable, so I didn't feel comfortable using it.

I ended up dumping the boiling wort into several smaller pots to get it out of my boil kettle. I dumped a bucket of cold water into my kettle to cool it quickly, then removed the Hop Stopper, returned the wort back into the kettle and heated it back to boiling. It worked, but it messed up my hop schedule. I chilled it as usual with my plate chiller, which did not clog (possibly because a good amount of break material had already been removed, caked onto the Hop Stopper).

The thing is difficult to clean and is very prone to clogging, even when the boil contains no lose hops at all. The break material alone is enough to choke this thing off completely. Going forward, I think I'm just going to take my chances running unfiltered wort through my plate chiller. What other options do I have?

 

[dstar26t]

I do 2 things to help the hop stopper. An addition of whole hops and a long handled heat resistant spoon. The whole hops help keep the screen from clogging and the spoon can be put in the boil for the last 15 minutes to sanitize and be used to scrape the screen if it clogs.