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Author Topic: Stainless Steel Scrubber in Boil Screen to strain hops?  (Read 6660 times)

Offline hophead73

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Stainless Steel Scrubber in Boil Screen to strain hops?
« on: May 17, 2012, 09:01:23 am »
So I have a 6" boil screen in my kettle attached to my ball valve.

Now this doesn't strain that much hops out because of the larger holes in the screen so when I transfer it to my carboy I run it through a big funnel that has a screen in it to help filter. That screen constantly gets clogged and I have to sit there with a sanitized spoon and keep the screen clear.

So I was thinking to help strain more hops out of the kettle that I would put a stainless steel scrubber inside of the boil screen.

The good stainless steel ones say they won't rust, so would there be any other issue to using this?

These are the type of scrub pads I was looking at and here is the boil screen I have. I would put one inside of the screen and run the wort out of the kettle through it.

http://www.midwestsupplies.com/6-boil-screen.html

http://www.amazon.com/Company-41496-Chore-Stainless-Scouring/dp/B000V74DJG

Offline morticaixavier

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Re: Stainless Steel Scrubber in Boil Screen to strain hops?
« Reply #1 on: May 17, 2012, 09:10:24 am »
I have heard that it works well as long as you get the high quality SS scrubby. That being said, I don't really worry to much about it. I don't have any kind of screen so when I use whole hops I have to bag them so they don't clog the run off from the kettle but when I use pellets I set up a good whirlpool after chilling by stirring with a sanitized spoon and then let it settle. after the spinning has mostly stopped I run off into the fermenter and leave most of the hops/trub behind in the kettle. what does get through I don't worry about.

Sometimes I do line the bucket with a grain bag and lift it out slowly aftewards to pull almost all the hops/trub out.
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Offline kylekohlmorgen

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Re: Stainless Steel Scrubber in Boil Screen to strain hops?
« Reply #2 on: May 18, 2012, 01:10:12 pm »
Sometimes I do line the bucket with a grain bag and lift it out slowly aftewards to pull almost all the hops/trub out.

THAT's a great idea!
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Offline TrippleRippleBrewer

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Re: Stainless Steel Scrubber in Boil Screen to strain hops?
« Reply #3 on: May 21, 2012, 02:09:39 pm »
I used a stainless pot scrubber for years with a counter flow chiller and it worked well. I used it so trub and hops wouldn't clog my CFC during run off.

It will dramatically slow down wort flow as you get down to the last couple gallons depending on what you're brewing however. The most noticeable slow down is with an IPA or beer with many hops additions using pellets.

I've since switched to using a pump and an immersion chiller and don't use any filtering at all. Immersion chills the wort and it clears sufficiently that most of the hops debris and break settles in the kettle. What does make it into the carboy is unimportant to me generally. I don't harvest my yeast from my carboys and my opinion is the break and hops are relatively harmless to my beers. I just try to avoid getting most of it.




Offline Hokerer

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Re: Stainless Steel Scrubber in Boil Screen to strain hops?
« Reply #4 on: May 21, 2012, 02:30:45 pm »
I've since switched to using a pump and an immersion chiller and don't use any filtering at all. Immersion chills the wort and it clears sufficiently that most of the hops debris and break settles in the kettle. What does make it into the carboy is unimportant to me generally. I don't harvest my yeast from my carboys and my opinion is the break and hops are relatively harmless to my beers. I just try to avoid getting most of it.

+1, that's my approach in a nutshell
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Offline euge

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Re: Stainless Steel Scrubber in Boil Screen to strain hops?
« Reply #5 on: May 22, 2012, 12:50:38 am »
I've since switched to using a pump and an immersion chiller and don't use any filtering at all. Immersion chills the wort and it clears sufficiently that most of the hops debris and break settles in the kettle. What does make it into the carboy is unimportant to me generally. I don't harvest my yeast from my carboys and my opinion is the break and hops are relatively harmless to my beers. I just try to avoid getting most of it.

+1, that's my approach in a nutshell

+1
Pretty much mine too except I use hop-bags. Or I'll filter out pellet hops downstream with a china cap. I once used a copper scrubbie that worked great until the break material clogged it up like cement. "They" say that the break (trub) isn;t all that great in the fermenter but you could always transfer off the top once it settled down in that nice cool area it's sitting in... I don;t bother.
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Offline TrippleRippleBrewer

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Re: Stainless Steel Scrubber in Boil Screen to strain hops?
« Reply #6 on: May 22, 2012, 04:47:25 am »
So I have a 6" boil screen in my kettle attached to my ball valve.

Now this doesn't strain that much hops out because of the larger holes in the screen so when I transfer it to my carboy I run it through a big funnel that has a screen in it to help filter. That screen constantly gets clogged and I have to sit there with a sanitized spoon and keep the screen clear.

So I was thinking to help strain more hops out of the kettle that I would put a stainless steel scrubber inside of the boil screen.

The good stainless steel ones say they won't rust, so would there be any other issue to using this?

These are the type of scrub pads I was looking at and here is the boil screen I have. I would put one inside of the screen and run the wort out of the kettle through it.

http://www.midwestsupplies.com/6-boil-screen.html

http://www.amazon.com/Company-41496-Chore-Stainless-Scouring/dp/B000V74DJG

I'm buildind a hops spider for my next brew. You might try that too. IPA runoff should be cleaner for me hopefully.