Hop strainer?

[Sawdustguy]

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.

If you use the strainer bags from FilterBags.com the polyester one are good to 300*.

 

[Lmuggs]

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.

RDWHAHB Indeed heh... After a 5 year hiatus from home brewing, I made an imperial IPA yesterday and it worked like a champ. 6.25 oz of pellet hops in the bag. Between the paint strainer bag and the DIY hop stopper screen on the pickup tube (thanks Bobby_M), I had 0 issues. Love it!

 

[FireBrewer]

You absolutely cannot go wrong with the hop stopper...

Initially I said the same thing. After about a year use though, its performance was considerably reduced. Even with vigorous cleaning (short of complete disassembly), over time it still dropped off to the point I started calling it the HopClogger™. To that end, I cannibalized it and made an impromptu strainer with the stainless steel mesh. Pellet hops are just miserable.

Think I'm gonna give BobbyM's version a try, thanks for posting it Bobby.

 

[Dog House Brew]

Actually Bobby's is finer than the HS. He recommended going to 20 x 20. I bought the 20 x 20, but think the 16 x 16 would be the best choice. Bazooka with more surface area. we will see Thanksgiving weekend if 20 x 20 is the way to go.

 

[TripleHopped]

Thanks for the inspiration Lil Sparky.

A little (very little) variation of your hop strainer.

Here it is sitting on top of a keg that wants to be a keggle when it grows up.

There are fender washers with nuts J-B Welded on them that are adjustable.

Here it is on top of my 8 gallon pot.

 

[jaba]

Digging up an old thread here... I am thinking about building a device like sparky's, but just out of curiosity, is it safe to boil a nylon strainer bag for 60+ minutes? I looked around online but couldn't find anything about boiling nylon and food safety.

 

[passedpawn]

Digging up an old thread here... I am thinking about building a device like sparky's, but just out of curiosity, is it safe to boil a nylon strainer bag for 60+ minutes? I looked around online but couldn't find anything about boiling nylon and food safety.

I've been doing it for about a year and I feel pretty good. I'd say you are safe.

 

[wyzazz]

+1 Works just fine for me!

 

[carp]

I've been doing it for about a year and I feel pretty good. I'd say you are safe.

I'm always amazed at the comments by smart people along these lines. One can smoke cigarettes, or breath asbestos, or eat lead paint, or eat too much fat and sugar and salt for decades, or drive without a seatbelt, and still feel fine. It doesn't mean that eventually these things won't get to you.

In fact I use the Lowes paint strainer bag and I don't worry about it. I don't worry about the zinc nut coated with JB weld on my heat stick either. But I don't pretend that my 'feeling fine' from these activities constitutes the least bit of evidence that they are benign.

 

[passedpawn]

I was being glib. I do understand your seat belt reference and you're right about that kind of attitude.

I do have a "worry" threshold, but there are things that I just accept as harmless. Nylon is one of them. My kitchen is full of black nylon utensils (spatulas, large stiring spoons, etc).

 

[jaginger]

Those paint strainer bags don't seem like they would constrain pellet hops very well, do they?

 

[TripleHopped]

They probably keep about 90% of the hops in the bag.

 

[Lil' Sparky]

Yeah, they really work surprisingly well, and I like their more coarse mesh compared to the fine mesh bags, because I think you get better (maybe full) utilization from your hops.

 

[humann_brewing]

well I didn't take this picture for the purpose of showing the hop bag but it is in there

 

[ScottSA]

For those of you who add irish moss, do you add it into the strainer bag or outside of it. I just got all the stuff to put this together. I'm really excited to not be fishing hops out of my CPC QDs

 

[Irrenarzt]

I pitch it right in the boiling wort.

 

[legaleagle]

This paint bag on a collar thingy is nifty and seems like a good solution if your kettle drain spigot/valve has a small diameter opening and/or you are usung a CFC. However, if your drain spigot/valve has a larger diameter (like 3/4 inch) and you are using an immersion chiller (and not a CFC), a better solution (imho) is to tie the paint strainer bag to a fermentatio bucket so that the bottom sits about 1/4 of the way into the bucket, drop some whole leaf hops in to create a hopback, and open the kettle valve to let the wort drain directly into the bucket. If you ferment in a bucket, when you pull the bag you are done; if you ferment in a carboy, you pull the bag and then pour or siphon it into the carboy.

There are several benefits of this process that the bag-on-a-collar solution does not provide: complete and unrestricted mixing of hops and wort during the boil with no immersion chiller-bag entanglement issue, late wort fresh hops aroma addition via the hopback, good filtering of not only spent hops (especially pellets) but also trub, better aeration of the wort (especially if you dump into a carboy as you are aerating twice). The down side is if you ferment in a carboy, an extra step has been added (albeit a beneficial step - more aeration) and it will only work if your kettle valve is large enough to drain a wort containing hops and trub (assuming you cooled the wort inside the kettle with an immersion chiller) without clogging.

 

[Lil' Sparky]

What size ball valve are you using where whole hops won't clog it? 1"?

 

[TripleHopped]

I don't have any entanglement issues with my immersion chiller and hop strainer.

 

[legaleagle]

no whole hops in kettle; only in hopback. kettle hops are all pellets. it would take at least a 1" valve for whole hops, i would guess (and i wouldn't even try it then). i find that if i do some combination of late pellet hops in the kettle, a small amount of whole leaf hops in a hopback (1-2 ounces) and/or dry hop post fermentation with pellets, the final hoop flavor/aroma is indiscernable from using whole hops througout the entire process. but that's just my taste buds.

 

[Dog House Brew]

I have a 1 1/2" ball valve on my boil kettle. I used to do the open and filter bag in a bucket thing. It worked, but I like the Sparky filter. I have a hopback on my new build and may go back to it. The Sparky filter does a better job with the pellet hops. I never put whole hops in the strainer bag though. I use the Sparky and a home made Hop Stopper to filter the rest.

 

[hukdizzle]

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.

Is that a custom frame you had built for the hop strainer Ed? Is that somethign we can find locally?

 

[jim4065]

Ed's holder looks custom to me. How are the rest of you holding the PVC? Kinda looks like all-thread. I couldn't find Lil' Sparky's original thread. Is anyone using the bag with an electric element?

 

[passedpawn]

Ed's holder looks custom to me. How are the rest of you holding the PVC? Kinda looks like all-thread. I couldn't find Lil' Sparky's original thread. Is anyone using the bag with an electric element?

No problem with electric keggle, 10 or 5g batch.

Sparky's thread is in DIY, look at the stickys for Project Locator thread. It's in there.

 

[Lil' Sparky]

Jim, it's not actually my thread... or my idea originally. I was just an early user/advocate.

Here's the thread ScubaSteve started. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/lil-sparky-tha-man-40738/

 

[shroomzofdoom]

Seriously though, there are about as many strategies of dealing with hop filtering as there are brewers. So far today I've read about whirlpooling, Hopstopper, hop strainers, french presses, hopbacks, the Sparky, paint strainer bags, SS strainers, filter media....and all matter of DIY problem solving.

I am just going to throw my lot in with the paint strainer bag. For me it gets most of the hops, then I run my chilled wort through a fine SS sieve--which aerates and removes any remaining hop trub and cold break. After that, fermentation and secondary racking take care of the rest.

I am one of those unfortunate brewers for which the laws of physics vis-a-vis whirlpooling just never seemed to apply.

 

[goetzUM]

I built the hop paint strainer bag device and used it for awhile. I found that I wasn't getting good hop utilization, especially with late addition hops. The hops would just absorb a good percentage of the wort and after transferring my wort to the carboy, I'd be left with a great-smelling, hoppy, liquidy paint thinner bag full of hops. However, that indicated that all of that hoppy goodness was being left in the brew kettle and not in my carboy. I agree with the people that have said that you really have to increase the hops to get what you're looking for when you use the paint thinner bags.

Then, my PVC collar melted just from the steam rising from my boil (which is not a very vigorous boil at all). So, I no longer use the strainer bags.

I'm still looking for a good solution to the hop straining problem. Ideally I'd whirlpool to get maximum hop aroma from late additions and then siphon (I don't have a drain valve on my kettle) with a hop filter to keep the hops in the kettle.

 

[winstonofbeer]

hmm......
I was going to build one this weekend.
Was going to do IPA that had a hop addition every 10minutes.

But after reading goetzUM problem, I am rethinking the idea.

Any other imput?

 

[goetzUM]

It's actually really good for doing many hop additions. Having an open place to throw the hops makes things easy and makes transferring easy as well. The only drawback is hop utilization. That and the fact mine melted, but maybe if you have a large enough brewpot that your PVC collar is far enough above the liquid that the steam won't melt it?

 

[jim4065]

If the steam is melting many collars, you'd think someone would start selling BIG (maybe 12" diameter) SS "baskets" - kinda like a round fry basket - but with much tighter mesh. Use the same basic suspension method but allow the basket to have a variable depth to ensure that most of it stays submerged. Or make several depths available to allow a good match with wort depth. I'd sure buy as long as the price stayed under $100 or so.