Stainless Steel Hop Sock

[-TH-]

I cool my wort with a gravity-fed CFC which works very well except that my racking cane plugs up with hops very easily. I've tried putting a filter on the end of the cane and that works ok, I have also used the paint strainer bag type sock in the past but I had had issues with that too. So this time I decided to build one out of stainless. I started with some 30 x 30 ss mesh that I bought from mcmaster.com (this: http://www.mcmaster.com/9319t624). I had some scrap pieces of SS laying around that I used to clamp the mesh where it where it overlaps. The bottom is just folded over a couple times and pressed flat. I have a hydraulic press that I used to press all of the seams and folds nice and flat. As you can tell it just hangs on the side of the pot. I have used it once so far and it works great.

 

[Brandonovich]

I would be really interested to find out how well that works. I used to clip all my hop socks to the side of my kettle, but I have gone to letting them float around in there freely because it seems like they mix in better. If that works well, I would love to do something like that and be done with socks forever.

 

[mbierz]

That looks great. I may look into making one myself but I don't have access to a hydraulic press.

 

[-TH-]

That looks great. I may look into making one myself but I don't have access to a hydraulic press.

I'm sure you could make one without one. It just made things easier and neater. I have seen some that have used ss wire to sew the mesh together as well.

 

[lanvp]

OK, that's cool. I want one!:rockin:

Cheers!