First, some context.
I've always brewed using gas rigs, and have used various methods of managing hops in the boil kettle.
When whole cones were still dominant I used muslin bags, then when the transition to pellets occurred I switched to nylon bags, and then switched to a 6"d x 20"h 400 micron stainless steel spider.
None of these "solutions" really work all that well. Both nylon bags and hop spider load up with grain gunk and break material way too early in the boil and have to be attended to frequently. There's no doubt the efficiency is significantly affected.
Years ago I tried the first version Hop Stopper. Once. It really failed miserably due to design issues and limitations and I had no desire to go through that horror show again. Now The Electric Brewery has come out with their V2 model, and has been selling it at a discount WITH a 100% no BS guarantee. Love it or return it for a full refund. Cool! I'm in!
But...I believe there's a potential issue with this version for gassers: it lies totally flat on the kettle bottom. The one time I tried resting my spider on the kettle bottom it left a deep, matching scorch mark - literally the only time I've ever scorched my BK - and that was a major pita to remove.
Now, I will say I have not seen any reports of the V2 causing kettle scorching, but one must keep in mind The Electric Brewery is primarily for electric brewing, so one would expect most of their products go into E-brewing use. E-kettles don't have "hot bottoms", the elements are at least an inch or two above the kettle bottom and heat the wort, not the kettle. So having a Hop Stopper resting on an E-kettle bottom is a non-issue wrt scorching.
Preferring not to be the one that discovers this is a real issue for gassers, I'm opting for avoidance.
A second issue plainly stated by the company is recirculation should be kept below 1 gpm to avoid loading up and potentially collapsing the mesh. They advise if one still wants to recirculate at a higher rate to add and use a parallel drain port and reserve the Hop Stopper port for end-of-brew kettle draining.
I love my well for its 50-something°F water year 'round, and experience shows the faster I can spin wort through my IC the faster it's chilled to pitching, and that means up in the 5-6 gpm range for my March 815pl.
And, finally, my hefty 50 foot 1/2" SS IC would totally pancake that poor Hop Stopper. It really needs to be out of the way until it's time to drain the kettle to the fermentors.
So, based on all that, I decided to add a second drain port to my boil kettle, and put the Hop Stopper V2 on a flexible connection to the primary drain port, with the ability to hold it well off the kettle bottom and out of the way until desired.
Right then. Here's what I've done.
First, I ordered some 1/2" SS tubing bits from @Bobby_M brewhardware.com, one 12" section with a 45° bend at the 8"/4" point. After playing around with the fit in the kettle I cut the long leg of the bent section to get the Hop Stopper in a good position on the kettle bottom, used the cut-off piece at the valve end with the Blichmann collar, then shaped the end that sits inside the Hop Stopper per specification.
I then used a Dremel ceramic wheel to make a length wise cut about 1/4" long on the end of the other piece of SS tubing, then used a fiber cut off wheel to lop off that 1/4" long piece of tubing. I spread out the slit then crimped the ring around the mesh at the end of the Hop Stopper. This will be used to hang the works up when not being actively used.
Connected the bits with silicone tubing. Later on I added a pair of worm clamps.
Test fit in the kettle.
Ok. Next was adding another drain port. I still had one of brewhardware.com's wonderful weldless 1/2" bulkhead fittings left over from my original build, so I had them send me a ball valve and a cool 5/8" screw-on dip tube. I put the Hop Stopper, the ss tubing bits, and the ball valve through a hot PBW soak (lots of oil came off, fwiw) followed by an overnight citric acid bath (5% by weight) for passivation of all the machined bits. Next morning I rinsed all the bits with RO water and blew them dry with my compressor.
So, hole marked, tools ready to go.
This is how I've always holed my kettles. Towels keep things fairly stable without scratching them up.
Tip: don't be shy about using the center punch. Put a decent dent in the metal to hold a puddle of oil. The dent will be removed given the finished hole size, and your drill bit will appreciate the oil.
3/16" hole went through like buttah
[TO BE CONTINUED]
Cheers!
I've always brewed using gas rigs, and have used various methods of managing hops in the boil kettle.
When whole cones were still dominant I used muslin bags, then when the transition to pellets occurred I switched to nylon bags, and then switched to a 6"d x 20"h 400 micron stainless steel spider.
None of these "solutions" really work all that well. Both nylon bags and hop spider load up with grain gunk and break material way too early in the boil and have to be attended to frequently. There's no doubt the efficiency is significantly affected.
Years ago I tried the first version Hop Stopper. Once. It really failed miserably due to design issues and limitations and I had no desire to go through that horror show again. Now The Electric Brewery has come out with their V2 model, and has been selling it at a discount WITH a 100% no BS guarantee. Love it or return it for a full refund. Cool! I'm in!
But...I believe there's a potential issue with this version for gassers: it lies totally flat on the kettle bottom. The one time I tried resting my spider on the kettle bottom it left a deep, matching scorch mark - literally the only time I've ever scorched my BK - and that was a major pita to remove.
Now, I will say I have not seen any reports of the V2 causing kettle scorching, but one must keep in mind The Electric Brewery is primarily for electric brewing, so one would expect most of their products go into E-brewing use. E-kettles don't have "hot bottoms", the elements are at least an inch or two above the kettle bottom and heat the wort, not the kettle. So having a Hop Stopper resting on an E-kettle bottom is a non-issue wrt scorching.
Preferring not to be the one that discovers this is a real issue for gassers, I'm opting for avoidance.
A second issue plainly stated by the company is recirculation should be kept below 1 gpm to avoid loading up and potentially collapsing the mesh. They advise if one still wants to recirculate at a higher rate to add and use a parallel drain port and reserve the Hop Stopper port for end-of-brew kettle draining.
I love my well for its 50-something°F water year 'round, and experience shows the faster I can spin wort through my IC the faster it's chilled to pitching, and that means up in the 5-6 gpm range for my March 815pl.
And, finally, my hefty 50 foot 1/2" SS IC would totally pancake that poor Hop Stopper. It really needs to be out of the way until it's time to drain the kettle to the fermentors.
So, based on all that, I decided to add a second drain port to my boil kettle, and put the Hop Stopper V2 on a flexible connection to the primary drain port, with the ability to hold it well off the kettle bottom and out of the way until desired.
Right then. Here's what I've done.
First, I ordered some 1/2" SS tubing bits from @Bobby_M brewhardware.com, one 12" section with a 45° bend at the 8"/4" point. After playing around with the fit in the kettle I cut the long leg of the bent section to get the Hop Stopper in a good position on the kettle bottom, used the cut-off piece at the valve end with the Blichmann collar, then shaped the end that sits inside the Hop Stopper per specification.
I then used a Dremel ceramic wheel to make a length wise cut about 1/4" long on the end of the other piece of SS tubing, then used a fiber cut off wheel to lop off that 1/4" long piece of tubing. I spread out the slit then crimped the ring around the mesh at the end of the Hop Stopper. This will be used to hang the works up when not being actively used.
Connected the bits with silicone tubing. Later on I added a pair of worm clamps.
Test fit in the kettle.
Ok. Next was adding another drain port. I still had one of brewhardware.com's wonderful weldless 1/2" bulkhead fittings left over from my original build, so I had them send me a ball valve and a cool 5/8" screw-on dip tube. I put the Hop Stopper, the ss tubing bits, and the ball valve through a hot PBW soak (lots of oil came off, fwiw) followed by an overnight citric acid bath (5% by weight) for passivation of all the machined bits. Next morning I rinsed all the bits with RO water and blew them dry with my compressor.
So, hole marked, tools ready to go.
This is how I've always holed my kettles. Towels keep things fairly stable without scratching them up.
Tip: don't be shy about using the center punch. Put a decent dent in the metal to hold a puddle of oil. The dent will be removed given the finished hole size, and your drill bit will appreciate the oil.
3/16" hole went through like buttah
[TO BE CONTINUED]
Cheers!
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