Hop strainer?

[Saccharomyces]

Every time I see that thing, I get jealous. I need to build me one of those.

15 minutes at Home Depot and $12, 15 minutes with a few simple tools, and voila. It's done. Hardest part of building mine was getting the paint strainer bags. They had them on a hook out of reach, I'm a short guy at 5'5".

 

[EdWort]

Mine for the Blingmann arrived in time for the first brew of the year.

One piece stainless with a 4"to3" PVC adapter and a 5" worm clamp with a 5 gallon paint strainer.

 

[Brewme]

What if you just put a hop bag over the end your tubing when transferring to the fermentor? The wort would just flow through the bag while stopping all the trub.

 

[KopyKat]

Ed, that is just too cool!!!:rockin:

 

[wildwest450]

What if you just put a hop bag over the end your tubing when transferring to the fermentor? The wort would just flow through the bag while stopping all the trub.

I have a 1/2" ball valve on my kettle. I just use an ale pail with a paint strainer in it, let the cooled wort fly out into the ale pail. Then I pull out the paint strainer with the hops, and pour the wort into my fermenter. It's one extra step but it takes care of aeration, and you don't have to worry about hop utilization like you do with a bag.

 

[Jared311]

I am looking at using a couple of these:

Tea Infuser

Then I can string a bunch together and add in my hop additions at different times. I use all pellets so I think a 3" would be able to support most beers. At $2 a piece I could order a ton too.

 

[Lil' Sparky]

Yeah, I think those would work well, too.

 

[wildwest450]

I am looking at using a couple of these:

Tea Infuser

There can't be any way you will get full utilization out of one of those. Have you dry hopped with them? 1oz of hops will completely fill one of those when hydrated, I can't see how you would get water flowing through that while boiling.

 

[Bobby_M]

Way too small IMHO. If I have a 1oz bittering addition, I use the 5-GALLON straining bag. I usually dedicate a whole new staining bag to subsequent additions and I still notice a big drop in utilization.

 

[EvilBrewer]

What is the plastic piece that you used? I assume it's plastic or some kind of polymer...the white piece.

My first guess is that it's PVC...if so, is that safe??? I'd like to make one; looks awesome! Just wanna be sure I'm not poisoning myself with some chemical that leaches out of PVC at boiling temperatures...

Hopefully, I'm just being paranoid!

 

[Yankeehillbrewer]

I made one of these and used it on my last batch.

The difficulty came when I wanted to put the IC in with 10 minutes remaining.

Do you remove the hop strainer, add the IC and then put the hop strainer back in the middle of the IC? It was kind of awkward...

I had used one of these for a few batches, but i quit using it for this exact reason. I just throw the hops into the BK loose now. When it comes time to transfer to the fermentor, I put the 5g paint strainer over the fementor and clip it on with binder clips, then dump the BK into primary. Then all I have to do is pull the paint strainer out and wring out the hops. works great for me.

 

[Lil' Sparky]

What is the plastic piece that you used? I assume it's plastic or some kind of polymer...the white piece.

My first guess is that it's PVC...if so, is that safe??? I'd like to make one; looks awesome! Just wanna be sure I'm not poisoning myself with some chemical that leaches out of PVC at boiling temperatures...

Hopefully, I'm just being paranoid!

It's just a pvc coupler. At least in my setup the coupler never touches the wort, so it should be leaching anything into the wort. No harmful effects so far, anyway.

 

[EvilBrewer]

It's just a pvc coupler. At least in my setup the coupler never touches the wort, so it should be leaching anything into the wort. No harmful effects so far, anyway.

Fair enough...thanks for the reply. I'm gonna make one of these this week.

 

[Beavdowg]

I had used one of these for a few batches, but i quit using it for this exact reason. I just throw the hops into the BK loose now. When it comes time to transfer to the fermentor, I put the 5g paint strainer over the fementor and clip it on with binder clips, then dump the BK into primary. Then all I have to do is pull the paint strainer out and wring out the hops. works great for me.

The solution you're using doesn't work for those of us that have a ball valve to drain the kettle. The struggle we're all having is a way to strain the hop/trub while draining the kettle through the ball valve/pickup tube. If you just drain the kettle (by using the ball valve) into a straining bag in your fermentor you'll still clog up your pickup tube/ball valve and the flow of wort out of the kettle will come to a painful stop.

 

[Irrenarzt]

The hop stopper flat out rules. That plus Dennis has incredible customer service. You absolutely cannot go wrong with the hop stopper...

Watch the video on his site. They ran a batch with 26 ounces of pellet hops. 26Friggen ounces and it went fine.

 

[Beavdowg]

The hop stopper flat out rules. That plus Dennis has incredible customer service. You absolutely cannot go wrong with the hop stopper...

Watch the video on his site. They ran a batch with 26 ounces of pellet hops. 26Friggen ounces and it went fine.

Bobby M says even the hopstopper can't stop a large 100% pellet load. The other worry I have is that I have an immersion chiller so there's an enourmous amount of cold break in the kettle too. The example on hopstopper's website talks about using a CFC so there's no cold break in the kettle. Will the hopstopper be able to handle hops plus a big cold break? Finally, it just seems outrageous to spend $60 for that hopstopper. That's crazy for me. It seems a little overpriced. Other than that it seems like a cool addition.

 

[Irrenarzt]

I brewed the Northern Brewer 115th Dream IPA which was 16 oz of pellet hops and I also use an IC (although I am currently building a Brutus 10 so I will be switching over to a Therminator) and it went great. Barely any hop particulate made it through and although I hit the hop stopper with the IC all the time, it's tough enough to handle the abuse. Although a large amount of material was left behind in the kettle, I did manage to get out all the wort I could without any clogging. I have the all stainless version which was 90 bucks but it is holding up well. It's easily worth the money as I had the Blichmann screen before and that thing sucks donkeydick. If you make a lot of big hop addition beers, then the hop stopper is well worth it IMO.

 

[Dog House Brew]

I have been using an IM chiller that I whirlpool with a spoon. I have tried a lot of things. My pot has a 1 1/2" ball valve that I put a grain bag over and open into a bucket for now. It is the only way I could get the filter problem resolved. I'm trying to make a Bobby M Hopstopper. I'm sick of clogged kettles. On my new build I'm going paint strainer, and Hopstopper. If that doesn't work I'm staying with the 1 1/2" hop bag deal.

 

[samc]

My experience with the Hopstopper (Bobby M version) was that cold break & pellets clogged it very quickly. I stopped using pellets and now put the leaf hops in a large mesh bag. No clogging of pumps, plate chiller or anything else. If you are not using an IC then I think the Hopstopper has a fighting chance of working.

 

[Sawdustguy]

Or make yourself one of these. Easy and works great.

Sparky, that my friend is the best thing simce sliced bread!

 

[Beavdowg]

I have been using an IM chiller that I whirlpool with a spoon. I have tried a lot of things. My pot has a 1 1/2" ball valve that I put a grain bag over and open into a bucket for now. It is the only way I could get the filter problem resolved. I'm trying to make a Bobby M Hopstopper. I'm sick of clogged kettles. On my new build I'm going paint strainer, and Hopstopper. If that doesn't work I'm staying with the 1 1/2" hop bag deal.

Where can we see Bobby M's hopstopper? I don't see a link to it in his signature.

 

[Croy9000]

Bobby M's hopstopper -

BTW - can someone reference a McMaster part number for SS mesh material that works well? I searched for SS, type 316, 30x30, but there are still so many options to choose from (wire diameter etc).

 

[Sawdustguy]

I have found a better alternative to the paint strainer bags for Lil' Sparky's hop filter gadget. I use the 150 micron Polyester Multifiliment version of these:

http://www.filterbags.com/filter_bag_pricing.htm

The Polyester Multifiliment version is good to 300* F and you can load the heck out of them with pellet hops. Back in July I did some tests on the bags to see if they would restrict hop flavoring. I brewed a simple brown ale. I had enough grains to do a 10 gallon batch so I split the grains and brewed one 5 gallon batch on a Saturday without the a hop bag using an immersion chiller and on Sunday I brewed the other 5 gallon batch using the Polyester hop bag and a Shirron plate chiller. I used an equal amount of hops in each batch. When the beer was ready to drink (barely) I had my brother Gary do the taste test. Damn if he could tell a difference in hoppiness and neither could I. While this was not a perfectly controlled laboratory test. I told me what I needed to know. The cool thing was that I found no hop debris in Keggle when using the bag. The other neat thing is that you do not need a clamp when using the Polyester Multifiliment Bag as they have a molded top that is wider than the small piece of PVC pipe I used. They are washable also.

 

[Lil' Sparky]

That's a cool find there. Which part # did you use. I assume you didn't go too fine on the mesh.

The 5 gal paint strainer is fine enough to hold back all of the large hop debris, is cheap, and easy to find, but you do need to clamp it or secure it to something. The built in collar on the ones you posted are pretty cool.

 

[Sawdustguy]

That's a cool find there. Which part # did you use. I assume you didn't go too fine on the mesh.

The 5 gal paint strainer is fine enough to hold back all of the large hop debris, is cheap, and easy to find, but you do need to clamp it or secure it to something. The built in collar on the ones you posted are pretty cool.

Sparky,

I use the PEM150P2POSS Polyester Multifiliment Bag which is 150 Micron in Size 2 (7.25" Dia x 31.5" Long). I purchased the long bag in case I do a 5 gallon batch. They are well long enough to reach down into a 5 gallon batch. As I mentioned, you will get no Hop debris and the Hops incorporate themselves into the wort very well. They are $4.60 ea and are washable and reuseable.

 

[Bobby_M]

Bobby M's hopstopper - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypBIcRE2cV8

BTW - can someone reference a McMaster part number for SS mesh material that works well? I searched for SS, type 316, 30x30, but there are still so many options to choose from (wire diameter etc).

Keep in mind that I'm able to clog this thing up with about 4 oz of pellet hops (with no leaf hops to help break up the coating). I'm going to suggest that someone try 20x20 or 16x16 mesh instead.

I used 85385T857

How about 85385T67 which is 18x18 mesh.

 

[Dog House Brew]

Bazooka screens are 16 x 16 mesh. I think 16 would work great. The Bazooka screen just needs more surface area. The suface area this provides would make it awesome in my opinion.

 

[Lmuggs]

That's a cool find there. Which part # did you use. I assume you didn't go too fine on the mesh.

The 5 gal paint strainer is fine enough to hold back all of the large hop debris, is cheap, and easy to find, but you do need to clamp it or secure it to something. The built in collar on the ones you posted are pretty cool.

So I decided to build a hop strainer using a 5 gallon paint strainer bags as well. But, I'm always a little hesitant to add anything into the kettle that isn't considered "food grade". I was reading the description for the filter bags at: www.filterbags.com and noticed this: "All filter bags are of a sewn construction and all thread used in filter bags is silicone free". The paint strainer bags from Lowe's are made in China . I wonder if they are 100% nylon and safe to use.

 

[Beavdowg]

I hear you there. The whole nylon thing has me a bit concerned too. Well, what if we just made a "5-gal" bag out of stainless steel mesh? Basically, it would be an open-ended hop-stopper that hung from the top of the brew kettle.

Eh?:rockin:

 

[passedpawn]

I've used those paint strainer bags in almost every batch I've ever made. Holy Sh*t, RDWHAHB.

I made the wiki/Lil sparky deal in about 15 minutes.

Oh, btw, I have never had one break (the bag). I keep thinking the abuse, heat, etc will do it, but they kick ass. And beer comes out the other end.