Screen/Filter Inside Primary?

[Bassman2003]

Hello,

I was thinking about my fermentation setup and would like to do some dry hopping. I use a SS Fusti for fermentation and spund to kegs for finishing. My hope is to be able to dry hop with loose pellets in the primary but do not want any hop particles making their way into the service keg.

So I am thinking of having little SS filter screen made to put over/around the outlet on the inside of my primary. Then I could drop the pellets in from the airlock hole and do a closed transfer. I am envisioning something like a Bazooka screen but protruding inside the fermenter to stop the hops from going out with the wort.

Thoughts?

Do you think the yeast will coat and clog the filter during the course of fermentation?

Which micron size? I was thinking 200 micron. Most of the kettle hop filters are 300 micron but I think this requires a bit finer filtration.

Thanks for your input.

 

[Vale71]

Do you think the yeast will coat and clog the filter during the course of fermentation?

If the yeast doesn't do it then the hop material definitely will and then you will be stuck with a clogged filter inside the full fermenter which is the last place you want to be dipping your hands into.

 

[Bassman2003]

Thanks for your reply. I have never dry hopped with pellets before, so I am bringing this up to learn some things.

I will probably never go over 2oz added. My impression was that a lot of the hops would sink or settle out over the 5 day period. Is this off base? I can use a bag but would rather not open the fermenter and the loose hops have more impact.

I do the sanitizer purge keg prep and opening that lid after purging seems counter intuitive. Just trying to find a way to figure out a low/no O2 dry hop procedure. Adding to the primary during fermentation seems like the best option.

 

[Pappers_]

I think there is a good possibility of getting clogs, but who knows until they actually try it. Give it a go and let us know how it worked out.

My experience is that much/most of the hop particulate does drop to the bottom, especially if you cold crash.

Since LODO is one of your concerns, you might ask over at that subforum if anyone there has addressed this issue and how.

 

[Bassman2003]

Thanks. I thought if I made the filter a decent size I could get 5 gallons by it without severe clogging. It is a leap of faith as the filer would need to be fabricated which will probably cost $30 to $50. The alternative is to get a good bag and deal with a little less effectiveness. (which many do successfully).

 

[NeoBrew]

You would be better off getting an inline filter of some sort so that you can take it apart and service it if need be. I have used tri-clover gaskets with mesh in them in attempts to filter chunks out as I transfer to kegs. What I have found is that it's not the big chunks that are the problem. The fines have an amazing ability to find every pore that is open (the flowing liquid takes them there) and then clog it up. I'm in a conical, and for me the answer has been to dump the trub below the pickup tube rather than filter.

In your case, if you do decide to try the internal screen, you could always use a racking cane to save the batch if the screen gets clogged. Not very LoDo, but better than wasting a whole batch!

If you are using a fusti, do you have a way to get your racking valve above the trub? If the screen/pickup is down in that trub, I'd give it a 99% chance of clogging up.

That just gave me an interesting idea. What if the screen was tube shaped and several inches long and located vertically with the outlet on the bottom. Then perhaps the screen would get clogged near the bottom, but the part of the screen sticking above the trub would stay open. The lower part that was clogged would essentially work like a tube because the sides would be clogged up. We could call it a trub-tube.

 

[Bassman2003]

Now we are talkin'! Thanks for your reply and I like the "Trub Tube". I am on the fence about even trying it as everybody is correct, if it does get clogged I get half or no batch as I do not own a racking cane. But, I like to discuss these things so here is a photo I found of my fusti:

The inlet is about an 1 1/2" from the bottom. My thought with the Bazooka type screen would be to have the filter project out enough to give the surface area. But, I am also aware that this would be in there the entire fermentation. So it would be catching stuff the entire time, not just during dry hopping.

My LODO goal would have been to drop pellets in through my airlock hole with about 10 gravity points left and five days later pour priming sugar in through the same hole. Then a closed transfer once the 2nd fermentation started. (Which I can still do if I use a bag).

Although I enjoy the backyard engineering side of homebrewing, I think just using a bag or wire mesh hop container is probably the best way forward. Since the yeast will still be chugging when I need to open the lid, the O2 ingress should be quite small if any.

Thanks for any more input!

Edit: I remember reading about the magnet approach where magnets are placed in the dry hop bag and placed in the fermenter from day one, but held up top by magnets on the outside. When you are ready to drop the bag the outer magnets are taken away and the bag goes in without opening anything. Since my fusti has pretty broad shoulders and a large top cap, this approach would probably work well.

 

[augiedoggy]

Thanks. I thought if I made the filter a decent size I could get 5 gallons by it without severe clogging. It is a leap of faith as the filer would need to be fabricated which will probably cost $30 to $50. The alternative is to get a good bag and deal with a little less effectiveness. (which many do successfully).

How are you going to effectively clean and sanitize this filter? Seems like more work than it will be worth but if you try it please report back your results.
Ive tried those huge tri clamp inline filters and even those plugged and wasted a lot of beer. a conical is the best solution to this problem I know of..

 

[Bassman2003]

My initial idea was to have a filter made that clamped on the inside ring of the container. It would be clamped in place before I sanitized the fermenter as always. So not much extra work. It would stay in place for the entire fermentation.

But, that is a risk for clogging, so I think I will pursue the magnet drop approach. I will look into Utah Filter adapting one of their keg dry hop mesh containers and mount a magnet on it. I would need to load the pellets when the wort goes in and the lid is shut. Then bombs away when the time is right by removing the outside magnet that would be holding up the container.

Having the hops stay in the container seems like less risk. We will see.

 

[NeoBrew]

I would think most mesh would want to be deep cleaned and heat sanitized/sterilized. There are a lot of nooks and crannies for critters to fester in. If it is a braided mesh that has multiple layers I would heat sanitize it for sure.

 

[Bassman2003]

It is tough to know how much cleaning is needed, but you are right to be alert as it is in the fermenter. I might just start with opening the lid a little, throwing a hop bag in and skip all of the engineering. Simple might be best and if I open the lid during active fermentation the O2 penalty will probably be low to nill.