Single Tier HERMS Brewstand Step by Step Build

[supercarbuilder]

Great design and build!

Please share how well the Hop Stopper performed in your BK? So far the biggest complaint I’ve heard has to do with the cold break formed either from an immersion chiller or from a counter-flow chiller if cold wort is recirculated back into the BK. Also did you experience any scorching between the screen and the bottom of the BK?

I really like the hop stopper, It keeps junk like coriander and orange peel out of my pumps and hops out of my fermenter. As for cold break, I have heard of side by side fermentations where all the trub and cold break is left in the kettle and the other batch was simply dumped in the fermenter with no decernable difference except some possible extra bitterness from the hop matter going through fermentation.

I use it with a plate chiller but I run the chiller output to another port in the side of the boil kettle so all the wort chills at once and remains in the kettle. Once it is cooled I then pump it over to the fermenter letting it go through a cold break.

I usually only use the hop stopper with whole cone hops now because when I run the chiller output to the kettle I have an elbow on it to whirlpool and then I pull the wort from the side to leave any hops or break in the kettle.