Hopster Hopscreen

[cpirius]

Thanks for this! I plan to make this also. I'm so sick of the bag. My bag always fills up with hops and cold break and wont strain. I recirculate back into the bag while I'm chilling and the bag just expands, it fills with break and hop materiel and it wont drain fast enough and then I lose my prime to my pump. Im so sick of this. I hope that the 20X20 screen will end all my hop and break material issues.
I plan on using rivets, I think these rivets will be fine but if there is any objection let me know.
http://www.smallparts.com/blind-riv...=1303094698&filterBy.material_browse=16414661

I think those rivets are to long. It sounds like the grip is the thickness of material that they should be used for, which for those is listed as .501"-.625".

I don't have any experience with rivets though.

I'm going to try these ones and I'll let you know how they work:

https://www.smallparts.com/blind-ri...=1303316010&filterBy.material_browse=16414661

 

[DakotaRules]

I have no idea what kind of rivets to get I saw cheap, a smaller diameter, and I'm glad I didn't buy.

 

[cpirius]

Total cost was about $100 for materials and took about 3 hours and 4 bottles of Pliny to make. A little pricey - but well worth the effort.

Parts:
6" section of 10" ID 304L Stainless Pipe (10 guage wall)
24"x24" sheet of 8x8, .032 304L Stainless Mesh
(3) 3/8" 18-2 Stainless studs - 6"
(9) 3/8 18-2 Stainless nuts
(1) 10" Stainless Hose Clamp
Handfull of Stainless Rivets

I don't understand how you got a 24" wide stainless mesh sheet around a 10" diameter stainless pipe that has a circumference of about 31"?

 

[Biscostew]

any updates on anyone who decided to make this, thinking about making the plunge and wanted to get some updated feedback if possible. thanks.

 

[cpirius]

I've built one. I really like it but I need to make it bigger for recipes with more than ~2 or 3 oz of hops. I'll put up some pics and more info next week, going out of town for the weekend.

 

[jaginger]

I'm pleased with how this went...see pics below.

I've got extra materials and will make somebody one of these or sell the materials if interested.

 

[DakotaRules]

How much?

 

[Dog House Brew]

I would put some type of band around the top to give it more strength. The strands will be pokinging your hands and flexing when you dump it. I finally found something that fits mine. I'm cutting the top off a cheap stainless pot. I wish I had made mine the full diameter of my kettle. Looks great and I can say that it totally cured any hop problems I ever had. No clogging, even with straight pellets.

 

[johnodon]

jaginger...what size rivets did you use?

John

 

[jaginger]

jaginger...what size rivets did you use?

John

From McMaster, item # 97525A410:

18-8 SS Blind Rivet with 18-8 SS Mandrel Domed, 1/8" Dia, .032"-.062" Material Thickness​

 

[johnodon]

I don't understand how you got a 24" wide stainless mesh sheet around a 10" diameter stainless pipe that has a circumference of about 31"?

This confuses me also. Although, I have been out of highschool for a long time!

Please...soemone help me with my math. If I wanted to do a 10" diameter hop strainer with ~1" overlap, would a 24" x 24" sheet suffice?

Here is what I am thinking. Check this out: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003N3F7CM/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20


I was thinking of buying 2 of those...one for the top and one for the bottom. The mesh would be secured to both via SS hose clamps and riveted up the overlap. I would cut the mesh out of the top sifter.

Thoughts?

John

 

[pickles]

This confuses me also. Although, I have been out of highschool for a long time!

Please...soemone help me with my math. If I wanted to do a 10" diameter hop strainer with ~1" overlap, would a 24" x 24" sheet suffice?

Here is what I am thinking. Check this out: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003N3F7CM/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20


I was thinking of buying 2 of those...one for the top and one for the bottom. The mesh would be secured to both via SS hose clamps and riveted up the overlap. I would cut the mesh out of the top sifter.

Thoughts?

John

No, the circumference of a 10" circle is 31.4".

 

[Dog House Brew]

Johnodon,

For mine I bought the 20x20 mesh from Mcmaster. It was 36" x 36" and I used the off fall for the bottom of my "Pig". The part # is 9226T001 and it works great. A bit on the higher price side, but the frustration it has saved me is worth every penny.

 

[johnodon]

No, the circumference of a 10" circle is 31.4".

Not a 10" circumference...10" diameter.

John

 

[Dog House Brew]

10" diameter would equal 10 x 3.14= 31.4" circumference, what Pickles stated.

 

[johnodon]

Johnodon,

For mine I bought the 20x20 mesh from Mcmaster. It was 36" x 36" and I used the off fall for the bottom of my "Pig". The part # is 9226T001 and it works great. A bit on the higher price side, but the frustration it has saved me is worth every penny.

Hey Dog,

Are you happy with the 20 x 20? I was really leaning toward the 30 x 30 since I use pellet hops exclusively but was worried it may be a little too fine. Do you ever wish you would have went a little finer?

Thanks!

John

 

[johnodon]

10" diameter would equal 10 x 3.14= 31.4" circumference, what Pickles stated.

And to think...math used to be my strong subject.

 

[Dog House Brew]

Hey Dog,

Are you happy with the 20 x 20? I was really leaning toward the 30 x 30 since I use pellet hops exclusively but was worried it may be a little too fine. Do you ever wish you would have went a little finer?

Thanks!

John

I feel like it works fine for me. I use both cones and pellets. There isn't enough that gets through to cause me any issues. I whirlpool with my pump and have my dip tube to the side of my BK. I can't say I've wished it were finer, but finer wouldn't be a problem. I think the main part of this build is making the bottom close to the bottom of the kettle so the boil comes up through the mesh. If it is too far off the bottom it tends to not move the hops as well. I've done batches up to 14 oz of pellets so far w/o any problems. I'm doing a 16 gallon batch of IPA Sat and it has 28 oz of hops in it. Most are pellets, so I will know for sure after Sat. Best thing I've built for my rig for sure.

 

[johnodon]

OK...my riveting skills leave a lot to be desired, however, the abomination I created holds the material in just fine.

The top is nothing more that an old teflon coated pot with the bottom and handle chopped off. 30 x 30 SS mesh, SS 1/8" rivets, 5/16"eyebolts/nuts/washers (6" length).

The overall diameter is about 8 1/2" and it sits about 1/2" from the bottom of the kettle. It sits perfectly inside of my immersion chiller.

John

 

[Dog House Brew]

I think it looks great man. I need to find me a pot that fits the top of mine. I made a stainless spider for bags and it is just hanging from it. Best thing I've copied yet. Didn't get to really test it this weekend. Thursday I'm doing my IPA, and if it can handle the 28 oz, I'm going to look back at why didn't I do this sooner. Nice build! Let us know how you like the 30 x 30.

 

[Biscostew]

dog house, 28 oz will be quite the test, please keep us posted on your results.

 

[DrBrewDC]

For those of you who use IC's.... what do you do? Pull it out when you place the IC in to sterilize and fit it inside for the remainder of the boil?

 

[passedpawn]

Why 3 pegs?

These things are SO much easier if you just drill 2 holes on opposite sides, then run a rod through. Remove the rod when done. MUCH smaller footprint for storage, and hangs just fine.

I haven't made a SS one, but that's the way my plastic one is and it's worked fine for quite a while.

 

[Dog House Brew]

Mine has the three legs so the interior is all open. When I did my IPA this weekend it worked awesome. It had 30 oz of hops! 16 oz of those were pellets and had zero problem with all the hops. I also like having an opening of 9". Easy to dump into and out of. No question this is the best piece of equipment I have ever add to the rig. Thanks to the OP for it. Backed it up ith an all pellet Cream Ale yesterday that worked just as well. It had 8oz of pellets in an 18 gallon batch.

 

[allthingsgiant]

... so I made a hopster. Total cost about $50.

https://picasaweb.google.com/jeffre...hkey=Gv1sRgCPGBt9yxuK3lNg#5629827018517275794

https://picasaweb.google.com/jeffre...hkey=Gv1sRgCPGBt9yxuK3lNg#5629827022152190226

I used the Fat Daddio's Pastry Ring, 6" x 2" (found on Amazon). $13.50

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001331MX2/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

I got the stainless mesh from McMaster Carr. $23.15. Part # 9238T291 20x20, 0.014 wire diameter. Cut a cylinder about 14" long and 7" in diameter (sits about 1" off the bottom of my BK), and a circle 9" in diameter for the domed bottom. I folded over the cylinder bottom about 1/4" so i wouldn't scratch anything. The top of the mesh cylinder sits about 1/8" from the top of the pastry ring.

I got 20 stainless rivets from homeboy Jason for $3 on this forum, he got them from McMC. 18-8 SS Blind Rivet with 18-8 SS Mandrel Domed, 1/8" Dia, .032"-.062" Material Thickness. Got some 1/8" aluminum rivet washers from Lowe's. Note, these rivets are perfect to connect mesh-to-mesh using a washer. When I connected the mesh-over-mesh to the aluminum support, I didn't need a washer. When I tried using these rivets just for mesh-on-mesh, they didn't hold without the washer. They are too short to connect anything larger than these two options.

I got a 3/4" x 1/16" x 3 ft bar of aluminum from Lowe's. $4. I created a handle, a side support, and a hanger from this. Very easy to bend with your hands and a table corner. Easy to cut with a good pair of metal snips.

Got some short size #6 stainless screws & nuts ($6) to attach the hanger and handle to the mesh and stainless ring. Note the three screws hold the mesh in place on the SS pastry ring. No rivets needed. Keeps it pretty

Only tools required were metal snips, a drill and some bits, a rivet gun, screwdriver, and pure muscle. A ruler helps. Muscle optional.

Just used it tonight for an IPA boil using 3 oz of pellet hops in a 5 gallon boil. I use a 7 gallon boil kettle, so both my immersion chiller and my hopster fit in side-by-side perfectly.

https://picasaweb.google.com/jeffre...hkey=Gv1sRgCPGBt9yxuK3lNg#5629827008387815490

I was skpetical as soon as I added hops, as it looked like the hops found themselves out of the hopster and into the greater part of the kettle. However, I was pleasantly surprised when I was done and lifted out the hopster - over 1.5" x 6" of hops remained in the hopster.

https://picasaweb.google.com/jeffre...hkey=Gv1sRgCPGBt9yxuK3lNg#5629827005823467666

There was a significant amout of cold break in the BK, but it definitely helped me auto-siphon from my BK -> strainer -> fermenter much easier, no clogs with the help of whirlpool. I would guesstimate about 1/4 to 1/3 of the hops escaped the hopster.

Couple notes. If you build one, make sure your hopster sits away from the sides of your kettle if your liquid volume is close to the brim. I run about a 6.75 gal boil in a 7 gal BK and the hopster (because metal conducts heat) caused a little boil over when it sat directly over the burner. I moved it to the back of the BK, and all was fine with the expense of less agitation of the hops inside. I might bend the hanger so that it sits off the side by about an inch. Also, there is less 'agitation' of the hops in my hopster compared to the boil rate of the rest of the BK, but I took care in stirring up the contents of the hopster every 5-10 minutes. I highly doubt there was any loss in IBU efficiency there, the good roll of the boil was adjacent to the hopster.

If I had to do it all over again, I might use slightly thicker wire or more wires per inch, just to prevent more of the hops to leaking out of the hopster, to the expense of less agitation. I use pellet hops 75% of the time, so this is a necessary evil. I will also order a stainless steel support bar for the handle and hanger and such instead of using aluminum, but I was in a hurry and Lowe's didn't carry stainless bars. Will also get stainless rivet washers, too.

All in all, this thing is super easy to build, and was fun to make. The benefits outweigh the cons, so I'll keep using it. Once I step up to a 10-15 gallon batch size, I'll do it all over again and I'll sell this one to one of you guys.

I'm two 90-Minute IPA's and one Lagunitas Little Somethin' Somethin' IPA's deep, and I just wanna relax now. Man, this Little Somethin' Somethin' is some gooood beer.

 

[kshuler]

Has anyone noticed any decreased hop aroma or utilization when using one of these as opposed to letting the hops float free? It looks like an amazing build. Lots of filtration area. Anyone think this would be a problem with an e-kettle?

 

[Mike3701]

Anyone want to sell me one???

 

[NTabb]

I have to say I'm completely impressed on how well this worked. I have a Blichmann 20 gal kettle that I just used this in and it was the cleanest wort into a fermenter I've ever seen. I used McMasterCarr part# 9226T254 for the screen and a 10"X3" pastry ring. I used 4oz of pellets and 1 oz of whole hops and the screen size was perfect. I also used a stainless steel scrubbing pad around the dip tube for cold break. No need to whirlpool or anything. Finally my cold break and hops going into my fermenter has been resolved!

 

[RobbyBeers]

Great thread and great builds.

I'm not sure how handy I would be with the stainless mesh and rivets...I'll have to give that some thought. But in the meantime, I got some good ideas from the parts lists, so I came up with the following no-build solution:

I used two 4"x2" stainless pastry rings, two all-stainless worm clamps, a stainless s-hook, and a 5 gallon paint strainer.

Paint strainers work well for me in general, but they tend to get twisted, float around, etc. Hopefully this stainless skeleton will help alleviate those problems.

One advantage to this build is that it can be disassembled after each brew, and the strainers are disposable. For those who used the stainless mesh: Are you having any trouble keeping it clean? I'm trying to decide if I should still shoot for the full build, or if I should stick with the paint strainers.

 

[TheYoshi]

I tend to brew ridiculously hopped IPAs, this is a necessity for me! Can any of you using the finer mesh comment on utilization?

Also what about using brazed solder instead of rivets? Mesh should take the solder quite well.