Trub/Hop Filter from BrewersHardware

[pola0502ds]

Mine came today! Man, this thing is pretty massive...it definitely adds some bling to my rig. Just wondering what size batches everyone is brewing, especially for the guys that have managed to clog the filter. My system is set up for 5 gallons,so for those that have had problems I'm just wondering how much volume you're putting through it.

Everyone one in this thread is using it on 5 and 10 gallon batches

 

[pola0502ds]

Yes, he has his filter plumbed backwards.

As for flow rates, mine varies to some extent and I can't exactly find a common correlation, pellet vs whole vs old, etc. I have plugged my filter on one occasion, but it was nearly full of sludge. There is no way to fault the filter if you cram more material in it than it can hold. I have considered coming up with some type of "pre-filter" to catch the bulk of the junk so that this one can filter only the finest stuff. However, it is far easier to just use a hop spider and not worry about it.
One has to consider that everything has its limitations to some degree. I think the best thing to do is find an approximation of the volume of hop sludge that is going to result from the amount of hops being used. And if that is greater than the volume between the filter screen and the outer wall of the tube, then a hop spider should be used. Regardless of how well it is designed and built, expecting to stuff 10 lbs of crap into a 5 lb bag just is not going to work.
I would also add, the flow seems to have a pretty strong bearing on how soon the flow will diminish and to what degree. Flowing too fast creates a lot of turbulence inside the filter. Instead of allowing the material to settle in the bottom and work its way up, it immediately coats the entire surface of the filter creating smaller pathways for the wort to flow through. This will lead to plugging much more quickly. This is of course my opinion, but seems to hold true with each use.

Thanks but the flow has nothing to do with the filter being clogged up in my situation. The first time i used this filter i did a APA that had 12 ounces of hops in it. That completely filled the filter and you can see pictures of that in previous posts in this thread. The filter was completely filled up and still pulling wort through it! The filter worked like a champ, but on that same brew day i do remember it taking forever to get a good flow rate but once i had it right it was good until the last drop. I've used it plenty of times since then and it's just been a nightmare ever since. Derrin gave me good advice so i'm going to put the filter after the pump and see what that does.

I really don't think the problem I am having is the filter, i think it's gotta be something else. Everyone else that has one does not have this problem as bad as I do.

 

[bull8042]

Thanks but the flow has nothing to do with the filter being clogged up in my situation. The first time i used this filter i did a APA that had 12 ounces of hops in it. That completely filled the filter and you can see pictures of that in previous posts in this thread. The filter was completely filled up and still pulling wort through it! The filter worked like a champ, but on that same brew day i do remember it taking forever to get a good flow rate but once i had it right it was good until the last drop. I've used it plenty of times since then and it's just been a nightmare ever since. Derrin gave me good advice so i'm going to put the filter after the pump and see what that does.

I really don't think the problem I am having is the filter, i think it's gotta be something else. Everyone else that has one does not have this problem as bad as I do.

Make sure to update us as to what you discover. I really, REALLY don't want to think about re-plumbing my system in order to put the filter after the pump.
However, I have to respectfully disagree with you a little about the flow, at least the "nothing to do with it" part. No, it may not be the root cause at all, but slowing the flow I think should mitigate some of the effect you are seeing. I do agree though, putting the filter on the pump output could very well solve the issue as perhaps YOUR pump is not generating the same suction as a different one might.
I think what this boils down to is that the differences in pump and plumbing could have a pretty big effect on the overall performance of the filter. So, now I have to somewhat agree that your plugging may in no way be related to flow....
Damn! I hate when I contradict myself like that.
No I don't.
See!

 

[pola0502ds]

Thanks for trying to help me out. The only other thing i thought of was that I'm using 3/8" dia. triclamp hose barb but I have 1/2" i.d. silicone tubing attached to it. The small dia of the hose barb could be a issue but the dia of the hose could be a issue in itself.

What I need to do is, saturday I will just play with the configuration. It's not an ideal situation to move the filter around when your trying to cool your wort so maybe I do a small test batch.

 

[bull8042]

Thanks for trying to help me out. The only other thing i thought of was that I'm using 3/8" dia. triclamp hose barb but I have 1/2" i.d. silicone tubing attached to it. The small dia of the hose barb could be a issue but the dia of the hose could be a issue in itself.

What I need to do is, saturday I will just play with the configuration. It's not an ideal situation to move the filter around when your trying to cool your wort so maybe I do a small test batch.

I am using 1/2" OD SS tubing for all of my plumbing, so the ID is slightly less, 0.46" or something like that. But I haven't really had any starvation or flow issues attributed to the tubing thus far. However, if you have a 3/8" restriction, perhaps it is contributing to some of your issues.
Tell Derrin that the problem was the crappy tri-clovers. Just be sure to tell him you are kidding before he has a coronary though. I love the tri-clovers personally.

 

[pola0502ds]

i absolutely love tri-clamps but everyone else on this board will tell you they were a waste of money.

 

[pola0502ds]

So, I brewed with the filter after the pump. That means I am pushing the wort through the filter. My findings were that it worked great! I had great flow which solved my biggest complaint about this filter. However, when I opened the filter after I was done there was hardly anything in it. There was 4 ounces of pellet hops in the 10 gallon recipe and all I had was a extremely small amount of trub. I think the problem now is that the pump is pushing the wort through the filter so fast that everything can pass through the little holes. I would hate to slow down how fast the wort is going through the filter because that means I will use more water. I have a plate chiller so it's not that bad but throughout the brewing process and clean up so much freaking water is used.

So that was brew #1 for the day, Brew #2 was a Imperial Honey Porter and for the aroma hops I used 8oz. of freshly picked hops (picked in the morning). Chilling a beer with this filter that has hops is like being in hell. I never used whole hops before, I didn't know what to expect but it sucked. Just make sure the whole hops don't reach the filter. Thats all i'm going to say about that.

 

[bull8042]

I am glad to hear that moving the filter helped you with your flow issues. I always slow the flow down a lot when chilling because my ground water temp is usually around 75°F. So even with the refrigeration unit, my cooling water is only in the neighborhood of 60°F by the time I start the discharge. As the weather cools though, I will have colder water to work with and will be able to increase the flow substantially. I guess then I will be able to see what, if any effect that has on my system performance.
Whole hops....HA! I swear that 1oz of whole hops could plug up a garbage bag sized filter....

 

[ryan0914]

So from everyone's experience what seems to work best. Before or after the pump and vertical or horizontal. I'm installing mine on my roll around pump in a box and im lazy and dont want to do all trial and error to figure out what is best. So I'm checking what everyone else has found out.

 

[bull8042]

Sorry, but you are required to do your own trial and error before we can tell you what works best.



The general consensus seems to be vertically mounted with the large (3") tri-clover on the bottom so that the wort flows around and through the filter screen thereby collecting the trub & crud on the outside of the screen.
As for before/after, it seems to depend on your system and plumbing for the most part. However, I am beginning to see some real benefits to plumbing it on the output side of the pump. That seemed to solve most of pola0502ds's issues...

 

[ryan0914]

Cool ya that's what I was seeing when reading through. I just thought I would throw in a post to make it easier for others in the future. I dont really have the room on my box to mount vertically but I guess I'll figure something out.

 

[bull8042]

As long as the direction of flow is correct, horizontal mounting should be fine. This is especially true if you plumb it on the output side of your pump. The problem with mounting it horizontally is when it is before the pump. In that instance, it is much harder to purge all of the air from the filter. The remaining air is sucked into the pump causing it to quickly lose prime.
As far as filter performance is concerned, I don't think you'll see a difference with mounting vertical vs horizontal....

 

[Ace_Club]

As long as the direction of flow is correct, horizontal mounting should be fine. This is especially true if you plumb it on the output side of your pump. The problem with mounting it horizontally is when it is before the pump. In that instance, it is much harder to purge all of the air from the filter. The remaining air is sucked into the pump causing it to quickly lose prime.
As far as filter performance is concerned, I don't think you'll see a difference with mounting vertical vs horizontal....

We miss you, bull. Please come back and visit some time.

 

[amsped180]

I have now used this filter several times in the same configuration BK>Filter>Pump>CFC>FV. This past Saturday was the first time I have used it with whole hops, and didn't coduct a whirlpool/rest. When I began my runoff everything was going great, and then the cooled wort stopped moving. I first determined that it was not due to cavitation of the pump and then began to trouble shoot from there. My second inclination was that the leaf hops had clogged the ball valve on the kettle or the filter. I played with that for a few minutes and had no success. Not wanting to burn myself by taking apart the filter I searched for other possible reasons. It turned out that downstream closer to the FV my hose was kinked! As soon as I unkinked this problem everything went perfectly! When I was cleaning up after transfer I opened the filter and there was a good number of the whole hop cones that had made their way through the ball valve and into the filter housing. Despite all of these cones being packed into the filter I had no issues with clogging and as always my wort in the FV looked trub/hop free!

 

[bull8042]

.....Not wanting to burn myself by taking apart the filter I searched for other possible reasons. It turned out that downstream closer to the FV my hose was kinked! As soon as I unkinked this problem everything went perfectly! .....

HAHA. I have a real love/hate relationship with these types of problems. I hate that something so stupid/trivial bit me in the backside, and at the same time love that I was able to rectify it without resorting to wrenches, burns, and lost wort.

 

[amsped180]

I agree, I hate the extra time my wort sat at a high temp and that it was such a simple fix, but I also love that I didn't end up going the difficult route only to find out that it was something so simple!

 

[pola0502ds]

I have now used this filter several times in the same configuration BK>Filter>Pump>CFC>FV. This past Saturday was the first time I have used it with whole hops, and didn't coduct a whirlpool/rest. When I began my runoff everything was going great, and then the cooled wort stopped moving. I first determined that it was not due to cavitation of the pump and then began to trouble shoot from there. My second inclination was that the leaf hops had clogged the ball valve on the kettle or the filter. I played with that for a few minutes and had no success. Not wanting to burn myself by taking apart the filter I searched for other possible reasons. It turned out that downstream closer to the FV my hose was kinked! As soon as I unkinked this problem everything went perfectly! When I was cleaning up after transfer I opened the filter and there was a good number of the whole hop cones that had made their way through the ball valve and into the filter housing. Despite all of these cones being packed into the filter I had no issues with clogging and as always my wort in the FV looked trub/hop free!

I am absolutely floored that you were able to successfully filter whole hops. Why, why, why, is this so stinking hard for me. I wonder if my pick up tube is the cause.

 

[amsped180]

Maybe next time, if there is a next time, you brew with leaf hops leave them in the kettle after transfer then fill the kettle with water and try to determine if it is the pick up tube or the filter. My bet is the pick up tube is getting clogged. I have no pick up inside the kettle just the ball valve and I had no issues as previously described. Are you using hose clamps on your fittings at all? I know that I had a hole in one of my silicone hoses right after the kettle and transferring was abismal. The same occurs when the fittings are not air tight. Once I remedied these issues I get a great siphon that is even further assisted by the march 809.

 

[pola0502ds]

Maybe next time, if there is a next time, you brew with leaf hops leave them in the kettle after transfer then fill the kettle with water and try to determine if it is the pick up tube or the filter. My bet is the pick up tube is getting clogged. I have no pick up inside the kettle just the ball valve and I had no issues as previously described. Are you using hose clamps on your fittings at all? I know that I had a hole in one of my silicone hoses right after the kettle and transferring was abismal. The same occurs when the fittings are not air tight. Once I remedied these issues I get a great siphon that is even further assisted by the march 809.

I use hose clamps to connect all my silicone tubing to my tri-clamp hose barbs. 1/2" ID silicone tubing to 3/8" OD hose barb. Then all my valves and other fittings are connected by TC. I am really starting to think that is my biggest problem because the barb is restricting the flow and the 1/2" hose can't fill up fast enough trapping air in the hose? I don't know.

Can you give me an example of a fitting not being air tight? Like a valve being loose or something?

 

[amsped180]

I would say it sounds like you've got all of your affairs in order. I use a similar set of triclamp hose barbs with hose clamps. What is the vertical rise between your pump and your kettle valve? Personally I have about two feet of rise between the two and gravity seems to help things along.

 

[pola0502ds]

Mine is about the same or a litle less, if there is any difference it wouldn't be much. Put it this way, after i attach a TC elbow to the kettle and attach the filter onto the elbow, the bottom of the filter is only maybe 6" away from the pump.

 

[kshuler]

OK, I have another thought on how to possibly use this filter. Not sure if it would work, but I will put it to the group and see. I use a hopstopper for filtering in the kettle that rarely lets any particles through, at least nothing large enough to clog my plate chiller. My problem is actually with cooling. Some things I run through the plate chiller and directly into the fermenter, but other times I want to to do recirculation chilling to get the whole volume of wort down quickly. When I do this, the cold break accumulates and invariably clogs my hopstopper.

Does anyone think that this device would be able to filter out cold break? My thought was to have the wort pass through the chiller, then immediately after the chiller put this trub filter inline, then run a tube back to the fermentor. Anyone think it will get clogged? Should I buy one of the 0.2mm filters for it to do this, or would you keep it at 0.5 mm?

 

[pola0502ds]

Hot or Cold break really isn't a solid like hops are so I think that the force of the wort would just push the hot break through the holes because the break would just break up into any size to pass through any size hole, no?

 

[jcav]

Thanks for posting Bull8042! I bought my trub filter from Derrin as soon as he offered it on his website. I mainly purchased it to not have to deal with all the particles getting into my Therminator. I have yet to brew with it yet (my stand is still in construction stage), but after reading all your posts I am confident that I will have very little matter in my chiller.

By the way I also used tri-clamp fittings and used 3/4 inch tri clamp hose barbs everywhere on my rig (for better flow), to go over the 1/2 inch silicone tubing. I know there are mixed reviews on tri-clamp fittings.................... but thats what makes each person's brewery THEIR BREWERY!!

Thanks for posting brother!

John

 

[amsped180]

Well today I put this filter to the test. I brewed a Double Cascadian Dark Ale with 8 oz's of pellet hops and at least one more ounce of leaf hops. If you've read through my other posts thus far, I have yet to have a real issue with the filter (kinked hoses are another story). This brew really put the hop filter through it's paces, and it is most likely because I intentionally filled it with leaf hops! When I first looked into purchasing this unit, it was so that I would have a hop back to add to my system. The decision came down to the blichmann hop rocket, building my own hop back, or the brewers hardware hop filter. I really liked the price on the BH filter, and the fact that it would function to filter any hops out, whether or not they were "hop back" hops, before they reached my 40 plate chiller was the deciding factor. The good news is, that despite the fact that I had packed the filter housing full of leaf hops, I never had my flow stop! As always I have no fittings inside the bk>filter>pump>chiller this time to carboy instead of conical. The flow was slow, but it allowed me to chill my wort to 63F in about 20 minutes for a 6 gallon batch! I don't think that I will ever attempt to use this filter as a hop back again, as it was packed tight when I opened it, but I still stand by the fact that this is a great piece of equipment that I have yet to have any real issues with!:rockin:

 

[Dgonza9]

I'm building a bottom drain electric brew keggle. Would this thing make it possible to let hops free float in the keggle and then pump through the chiller?

Or is this simply for filtering out break and trub materials in a system where you do something else to contain hops?

I have generally used a hop spider, but I'm rarely satisfied and want to try letting hops free float. Can this be used to filter hops in this way?

It seems some have done this, but I want to be sure. I do 10 gallon batches and use both whole and pellet hops.

Thanks for the info. I read most of the thread, but was never sure if people were using this as a hopback, for trub filtering only, or full on, all in one solution.

 

[amsped180]

Dgonza9, the answer is yes. Most of us use this without any other solutions for containing the hops. The thing you will need to consider is the fact that most of us, I'm thinking, use this filter in conjunction with side port drains. I personally know, that if I were to drain everything through this filter, it would clog. I generally haven't been whirlpooling, and have yet to have a flow stopped. The wort in the FV is always very clear, but I'm worried with your dish bottom, that everything in the kettle will be drained into this unit and may clog

 

[Dgonza9]

Dgonza9, the answer is yes. Most of us use this without any other solutions for containing the hops. The thing you will need to consider is the fact that most of us, I'm thinking, use this filter in conjunction with side port drains. I personally know, that if I were to drain everything through this filter, it would clog. I generally haven't been whirlpooling, and have yet to have a flow stopped. The wort in the FV is always very clear, but I'm worried with your dish bottom, that everything in the kettle will be drained into this unit and may clog

Thanks for the clarificatioin. I think I'll continue with the hop spider for now.

 

[SankePankey]

Thanks for the clarificatioin. I think I'll continue with the hop spider for now.

I think that's wise. The basketball sized bag of hops I took out of the kettle last time I brewed wouldn't fit in about any post filter if I tried to push it out of the bottom dump.

That's why you see both separate whirlpool vessels with hop backs after them in many (most) larger breweries. Many (most) use the hop back for it's filtering abilities more so than the hop character it imparts.

I am getting a little tired of the bag though. I am fine with it's degree of hop filtering, but I'm getting some stainless mesh cloth to do a real spider of my own (cause I just loooooove cleaning things at the end of brew day).

 

[bull8042]

Thanks for posting Bull8042! I bought my trub filter from Derrin as soon as he offered it on his website. I mainly purchased it to not have to deal with all the particles getting into my Therminator. I have yet to brew with it yet (my stand is still in construction stage), but after reading all your posts I am confident that I will have very little matter in my chiller.

By the way I also used tri-clamp fittings and used 3/4 inch tri clamp hose barbs everywhere on my rig (for better flow), to go over the 1/2 inch silicone tubing. I know there are mixed reviews on tri-clamp fittings.................... but thats what makes each person's brewery THEIR BREWERY!!

Thanks for posting brother!

John

You are quite welcome, and exactly right about each brewery being unique. I hope it works as well for you as mine has for me.