To Get a Hop Spider or Not?

[andy6026]

So I’ve been mulling around the idea of buying a hop spider. Reading various customer reviews has me on the fence on whether or not it’d worth it. Here’s my circumstance:

I brew a variety of beers but one of my main staples is a 15 gallon batch of an IPA in a 20-gallon kettle. It uses a total of 14oz of hops. I tend to use exclusively pellet hops. At the end of the brew i end up with quite a bit of hop sediment at the bottom of the kettle. I’m not sure if it’s really harming anything (thanks Brulosophy Exbeeriments!) but I do try to avoid putting it into the buckets.

My questions are:

1) Do hop spiders easily get clogged? Is there a limit on how much hops they can handle before clogging? Or is this a non issue?

2) are there various gauges to the screeing, or the size of the hop spider itself? If so, what should I be looking for that would be suitable for my needs? Any direction would be helpful.

3) Has anyone found that a hop spider significantly improved their process or results? Alternatively has anyone bought one and found it to be an unnecessary waste to bother with?

4) anything notable about hop spiders I might not have considered yet, pro or con?

 

[Jag75]

1. Yes

2. Not sure

3. Have one , used it a couple times . Now it just sits . More of a pain then the benefits in my experience.

4. They drain very very slow . I just toss in the pellets. I have a filter and added a false bottom which has worked really well. Honestly if your adamant on containing hops in your kettle you might be better off bagging. However I've never used bags in the kettle only the fv.

 

[Bobby_M]

They are effective in two different directions. They keep some hop material out of the rest of the kettle and process and they reduce your hop utilization by some amount. As a vendor I've been changing the mesh size on my hop basket offerings over the years. Where I ended up is recommending an 800 micron mesh. It's quite coarse but it still appears to keep out about 70-80% of the hop sludge and it's mostly the larger chunky parts.

The more fine mesh like 300-400 micron stagnates like a swamp once you put ANY hops in there.

I personally don't use any method to contain hops because I use an immersion chiller and whirlpool to drain clean wort off.

 

[SMD]

I’ve gone back and forth about getting a hop spider as well to keep sediment going into my carboy. However, I’m more concerned about how well the hops will impart their bittering and aroma to the wort when contained to the basket, rather than fully immersed and mixed.

 

[DosGatosBrewing]

I stopped using mine. I was worried about how well late addition hops would get incorporated into the brew.

 

[OleBrewing]

Don't own a hop spider but made one utilizing nylon paint strainer bags. Only reason is I use a therminator and it is not fun to unclog in process. The bag works well but I don't brew hoppy beers either.

 

[Immocles]

I quit using mine on most brews because it’s such a pain in the ass for me to clean. I use it on a couple of 3g IPAish recipes and that’s about it.

edit: plus I started using more post boil hop additions and I cant fit the spider and my chiller in the kettle at the same time.

It has its uses, just not as many as I thought it would.

 

[slurms]

I will second (or third, or fourth) a lot of what was mentioned above.

I bought one a while ago and used it a few times. Even with a low hopped beer it was a pain to deal with. More hops, more problems. I think I have a 400 micron size and it just never drained except with some encouragement.

Also, definitely hard to have it in there with an immersion chiller. Mine now just sits in a box in my brew room. Probably still somewhat dirty because they are a pain to clean as well.

 

[andy6026]

Thanks for the replies, everyone. I thought I'd reach out to my brewing equipment supplier and ask their advice on it. I like retailers than can advise their customers in finding a product that's suitable for their needs, or at least help them avoid unsuitable products. However, a few years back my brewing equipment supplier, Ontario Beer Kegs (OBK), removed their customer inquiry phone lines (probably to avoid people like me tying up their workers' time asking questions) and instead switched to email and 'online chat' queries only. My experience is that this change over has probably indeed improved their efficiency but from the customers' point of view it tends to create a much more tedious back and forth in order to get reasonable advice.This latest inquiry has been no exception. I had to laugh. Check it out:

Me: I’m looking at the Stainless Steel Mesh Kettle Hop Spider - 14" X 6". Do you know what the hop capacity on it is? Thanks!

Patrick at OBK: It is a cylinder. It can be measured for volume. 14X6 works out to: V=πr2h=π·32·14≈395.84067

Me: Thanks for doing the math. I'm guessing the unit is cubic inches? And if so, any idea how 395.84067 cubic inches would translate into an equivalent of hops measured in ounces? And then can you advise me if there's a maximum capacity for this hop spider for a realistic practical application of brewing? I imagine the hop utilization would be really crap if it were stuffed tight all the way to 395.84067 cubic inches worth of hops. I guess what I'm asking is if there's a maximum amount of hops you'd want to stuff in there before using this hop spider becomes more of a problem than it's worth?

Patrick at OBK: Yes. 14" X 6" is the measurement. I have never used one. I would guess people toss a few ounces in it.

 

[JawnnyO]

I found OBK to be fairly rude in my dealings with them. I bought four used kegs from them and two had lids that wouldn’t seal because the kegs had been abused as if they had been pried open. Their response for selling me two useless kegs was that it was my fault for buying their cheapest product. I will never buy from them again.

 

[andy6026]

Were you stuck with kettles or did they take them back?

Unfortunately in Ontario we don’t seem to have much of an alternative as I think Toronto Brewing uses OBK as their supplier for much of their brewing equipment. Those guys are usually very helpful, but if the money’s going back to OBK then you’re pretty much where you started.

Before they got rid of their phone lines I found OBK to usually be helpful.

 

[Snuffy]

I originally began all-grain brewing with a basic Mash & Boil. Got a hop spider like the one Bobby_M showed above - adjustable hanger so you can raise/lower to reach your wort depending on volume in the unit. For hop loads of a couple ounces, it was fine. For big IPAs not so much. Drained slow. Didn't use it much after the first couple of attempts and went back to tossing them in.
Bought a Grainfather later and then the whole screen and pump clogging due to pellet hops came about. Had one cuss-fest brew session just tossing in hops where the screen became clogged and I knocked the rubber cap off the end trying to scrape it clean. Gummed up the pump and had to struggle thru by stopping and starting to push the sludge into the fermenter. Ended up just picking the unit up and dumping in the last part. Total sh** show. Next brew session - it was hop spider all the way. I hang it on the rail that supports the mash pipe and toss hops in as called for. I stir inside the spider being careful not to touch the sides and then periodically I lift it to allow the wort inside to drain and then hang it again. This has worked well for me. It keeps 90% of the sludge out and still provides plenty of hop presence in the beer. The clean wort is a wonderful thing and there is minimal waste - like maybe a quart or less - since you don't have the sludge volume to worry about. Lets you reduce your preboil volume a bit.
Cleanup is not so bad. I set it in the sink to drip and then dump it upside down into a plastic bag- same way I do the mash pipe. Then I lay it in the sink and spray the trapped hops out of the mesh. No big deal. For the system I have now, I think it works fine once you get used to it.

 

[JawnnyO]

sorry if I hijacked the thread. I now try to buy from local suppliers for malt and hops, and the LHBS for other items.

 

[Immocles]

I originally began all-grain brewing with a basic Mash & Boil. Got a hop spider like the one Bobby_M showed above - adjustable hanger so you can raise/lower to reach your wort depending on volume in the unit. For hop loads of a couple ounces, it was fine. For big IPAs not so much. Drained slow. Didn't use it much after the first couple of attempts and went back to tossing them in.
Bought a Grainfather later and then the whole screen and pump clogging due to pellet hops came about. Had one cuss-fest brew session just tossing in hops where the screen became clogged and I knocked the rubber cap off the end trying to scrape it clean. Gummed up the pump and had to struggle thru by stopping and starting to push the sludge into the fermenter. Ended up just picking the unit up and dumping in the last part. Total sh** show. Next brew session - it was hop spider all the way. I hang it on the rail that supports the mash pipe and toss hops in as called for. I stir inside the spider being careful not to touch the sides and then periodically I lift it to allow the wort inside to drain and then hang it again. This has worked well for me. It keeps 90% of the sludge out and still provides plenty of hop presence in the beer. The clean wort is a wonderful thing and there is minimal waste - like maybe a quart or less - since you don't have the sludge volume to worry about. Lets you reduce your preboil volume a bit.
Cleanup is not so bad. I set it in the sink to drip and then dump it upside down into a plastic bag- same way I do the mash pipe. Then I lay it in the sink and spray the trapped hops out of the mesh. No big deal. For the system I have now, I think it works fine once you get used to it.

Offtopic!
Did you have any issues triggering errors when not using a spider in the mash & boil on heavily hopped beers? Thats the only time I use it, because I'm afraid of errors killing my boil.

 

[Deadalus]

So I’ve been mulling around the idea of buying a hop spider. Reading various customer reviews has me on the fence on whether or not it’d worth it. Here’s my circumstance:

I brew a variety of beers but one of my main staples is a 15 gallon batch of an IPA in a 20-gallon kettle. It uses a total of 14oz of hops. I tend to use exclusively pellet hops. At the end of the brew i end up with quite a bit of hop sediment at the bottom of the kettle. I’m not sure if it’s really harming anything (thanks Brulosophy Exbeeriments!) but I do try to avoid putting it into the buckets.

My questions are:

1) Do hop spiders easily get clogged? Is there a limit on how much hops they can handle before clogging? Or is this a non issue?

2) are there various gauges to the screeing, or the size of the hop spider itself? If so, what should I be looking for that would be suitable for my needs? Any direction would be helpful.

3) Has anyone found that a hop spider significantly improved their process or results? Alternatively has anyone bought one and found it to be an unnecessary waste to bother with?

4) anything notable about hop spiders I might not have considered yet, pro or con?

1. I haven't had my 400 mesh gets completely clogged. I have a brew paddle that fits in there really well so I periodically put it in the spider and spin it. It's flat sided. The hop spider can restrict flow similar to using a screened funnel when transferring wort to a carboy for instance. Not nearly as much as there is more surface area on the cylinder vs. the flat screen.

3. So I have used mesh bags and the hop spider, separately, to keep hops out of my Therminator. I have a three spoke ring for the bags, also called a hop spider too but it being somewhat different physically is a little confusing. If you don't have the metal ring for the bags, it's a little harder to fish the bag out and add more hops. If you use the ring, you might need a longer bag to reach your wort. So I like the SS mesh cylinder. Cleaning the cylinder requires a brush and takes extra time. I run PBW through my system after brewing in order to clean the HERMS coil and the Therminator. I like to give the cylinder a quick spray out and then let the PBW circulate through the cylinder. I find this useful and satisfying to see the extra crud that collects, the vast majority of it is coming out of the plate chiller.

4. This can be done with two bags too, but if you are whirlpooling at the end you can quick dump any bittering hops out easily.

 

[Birrofilo]

I use a 300 micron hop spider which gets totally immersed in the wort:

https://www.amazon.it/gp/product/B01N595T5I/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I have excluded letting the hop pellets in the wort as they would easily clog my recirculation pump. I ruled out a artificial voile filter because it gives substances to the wort during a long boil. If using pellet, my only option is a hop basket. If using cones, I think the classic muslin bags are perfectly fine, I used them with certain E+G kits and they did not show any problem, also I emptied them and washed them in the washing machine easily.

1. My one did not get clogged, the spider is rolling in the beer and this helps the pellets "swim" in the wort. You can also roll it or shake it in case.

2. I chose this 300 micron model, which is quite fine a mesh, because I wanted to avoid problems with my pump and for the general convenience of having less solids in the wort, even if at the price of a little less extraction.

3. Only used once, and it failed on me miserably, I raised it from the wort by using a string tied to the tap, but the tap opened and all the hop fell disastrously in my beer. Next time I will "fish" the basket with some spoons. Yet, I think for my system is the most hassle-free solution.

4. You should consider whether you want one of those which are hanged at the side of the kettle, or one of those which are left inside the wort. You should consider which mesh you want. You should consider whether to get a basket which doesn't interfere with an immersion chiller, if you use one. You can also consider buying let's say two small ones rather than one big, so that you can, for instance, get out the first after the extraction, insert the second maybe in the last 5 minutes, in the meanwhile you can clean the first and use it to filter the wort from the kettle to the fermenter.

I didn't have any problem in cleaning my basket.

Your choice will be influenced by your setup: kettle, chiller in particular.

 

[Alex4mula]

I also have a Mash & Boil and a plate chiller and I wouldn't brew without my 400m spider. It makes cleaning the chiller a breeze. Also cleaning the spider is no big deal. Drain hops, rinse with hot water, rinse with PBW, let it sit while I clean other stuff and finally rinse with hot water. Very easy. But then I do not brew hoppy beers so all the time I use only 2-3oz of hops pellets. If I was to brew very hoppy ones maybe I would use something else.

 

[Snuffy]

Offtopic!
Did you have any issues triggering errors when not using a spider in the mash & boil on heavily hopped beers? Thats the only time I use it, because I'm afraid of errors killing my boil.

Do you mean tripping out the unit due to scorch? Not with hops. Only time I ever did that was with LME I dumped in with the element on high. I learned to cut it off until you get all the extracts melted and stirred in. No issues after that.

 

[bwible]

I’ve gone back and forth about getting a hop spider as well to keep sediment going into my carboy. However, I’m more concerned about how well the hops will impart their bittering and aroma to the wort when contained to the basket, rather than fully immersed and mixed.

This is why I stopped using mine. Even with a 20% increase in hop additions to compensate, beers I brewed with the spider had inferior hop quality - especially pale ales. I have the one that hangs on the side.

 

[pvpeacock]

I made a hip spider using paint strainer bags and misc. plumbing parts. After a few uses, I stopped using it for hops because it made suing my IC difficult and made late additions harder to use. In addition, I gave up trying to keep trub out of my conical fermenters. Just let it settle during fermentation and drain it out of the bottom.

I now use my hope spider when draining wort from my mash tun to my brew kettle to catch malt that gets through the false bottom. Much better use of the spider in my opinion.