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Author Topic: Stainless Steel Hop Flter  (Read 8729 times)

Offline narcout

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Re: Stainless Steel Hop Flter
« Reply #15 on: March 11, 2014, 01:30:48 pm »
Not a pain to clean, huh? What about putting in your chiller? I use a hop bag here and there and love that it keeps the post boil trub to a minimum, but hate pulling the bag out to put my chiller in.

I just hosed it down with my sink's sprayer attachment, and it cleaned right up.

The filter I bought is only 4 inches in diameter so it fits in the kettle along with my immersion chiller (I could actually fit a second one in there).
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Offline beersk

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Re: Stainless Steel Hop Flter
« Reply #16 on: March 11, 2014, 02:25:45 pm »
Not a pain to clean, huh? What about putting in your chiller? I use a hop bag here and there and love that it keeps the post boil trub to a minimum, but hate pulling the bag out to put my chiller in.

I just hosed it down with my sink's sprayer attachment, and it cleaned right up.

The filter I bought is only 4 inches in diameter so it fits in the kettle along with my immersion chiller (I could actually fit a second one in there).
Ah, that's cool, My kettle is definitely not big enough to fit both, unfortunately.
Jesse

Offline blatz

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Re: Stainless Steel Hop Flter
« Reply #17 on: March 12, 2014, 07:39:01 am »
[soapbox]

I've bought two of them (a 300 and a 400 micron) - in fact i'd be willing to sell you one if you'd like, that is after you read my opinion.

For me, they suck and I will never use one again...nothing to do with construction as they are well made, more to do with functionality.

the main issues i had were (bear in mind I use an electric element brewery):

there is not an actual boil inside the filter - in fact i measured the temp with my thermocouple reader and found it to be 210-211 inside the column.  not a big deal, but sort of agitating.

the big deal was that the screen quickly gets clogged with proteins from break, which prevent osmosis into and out of the column, which affects many things most importantly hop extraction.  i literally could lift the entire basket out of the boil (mid boil)and have the liquid line remain at the same level as when it was in the pot, with only a slight trickle at the seams for the wort to drip back into the boil.

this was even more comical when i was chilling/whirlpooling which i do via recirculation through my chiller with the use of a pump. i put the output back to the kettle inside the filter and watched the liquid level outside the filter fall whilst the filter filled completely to the top, even despite the fact that the top 2-4 inches of the screen was completely clean and untouched during the boil.

I attempted 2-3 brews, each, with pellets and whole, and then bought the more porous screen to no different results.

the runoff was indeed cleaner, and clean up of the boil kettle was a bit easier (although now I just use a shop vac to suck out the pellet cone which isn't all that difficult).  the cleanup of the device itself was also easy,  but using it was aggravating, and i did feel that my house IPA recipe, which I have made consistently for years, was a bit diminished in bittering and flavor.  i could have adjusted for that, but the benefits did not outweight the aggravation.

YMMV.

[/soapbox]

I use a Blichmann hopblocker now, which after some tribulations works fine for me - I think it really only works best with Blichmann kettles.  If I wasn't using that, a good whirlpool, time to settle and a pickup tube against the side of the kettle works just fine as well.
« Last Edit: March 12, 2014, 07:40:34 am by blatz »
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Offline tommymorris

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Stainless Steel Hop Flter
« Reply #18 on: March 12, 2014, 07:55:07 am »
It sounds like these filters work great at filtering. Maybe too well when using them to hold hops directly in the kettle. Why not add hops directly to the boil then use this filter to remove hops and break material when pouring into the fermenter? I don't have a pump I just pour from kettle to fermenter. Would that work?

Offline dkfick

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Re: Stainless Steel Hop Flter
« Reply #19 on: March 12, 2014, 07:58:35 am »
[soapbox]

I've bought two of them (a 300 and a 400 micron) - in fact i'd be willing to sell you one if you'd like, that is after you read my opinion.

For me, they suck and I will never use one again...nothing to do with construction as they are well made, more to do with functionality.

the main issues i had were (bear in mind I use an electric element brewery):

there is not an actual boil inside the filter - in fact i measured the temp with my thermocouple reader and found it to be 210-211 inside the column.  not a big deal, but sort of agitating.

the big deal was that the screen quickly gets clogged with proteins from break, which prevent osmosis into and out of the column, which affects many things most importantly hop extraction.  i literally could lift the entire basket out of the boil (mid boil)and have the liquid line remain at the same level as when it was in the pot, with only a slight trickle at the seams for the wort to drip back into the boil.

this was even more comical when i was chilling/whirlpooling which i do via recirculation through my chiller with the use of a pump. i put the output back to the kettle inside the filter and watched the liquid level outside the filter fall whilst the filter filled completely to the top, even despite the fact that the top 2-4 inches of the screen was completely clean and untouched during the boil.

I attempted 2-3 brews, each, with pellets and whole, and then bought the more porous screen to no different results.

the runoff was indeed cleaner, and clean up of the boil kettle was a bit easier (although now I just use a shop vac to suck out the pellet cone which isn't all that difficult).  the cleanup of the device itself was also easy,  but using it was aggravating, and i did feel that my house IPA recipe, which I have made consistently for years, was a bit diminished in bittering and flavor.  i could have adjusted for that, but the benefits did not outweight the aggravation.

YMMV.

[/soapbox]

I use a Blichmann hopblocker now, which after some tribulations works fine for me - I think it really only works best with Blichmann kettles.  If I wasn't using that, a good whirlpool, time to settle and a pickup tube against the side of the kettle works just fine as well.
I use one and I have only ever experienced the clogging when I would recirculate back into the filter.  Cold break is formed in the re circulation and that does indeed clog it.
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Offline fmader

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Re: Stainless Steel Hop Flter
« Reply #20 on: March 12, 2014, 08:03:44 am »
Some fancy-smancy filters. I used to bag my hops in a fine mesh bag. But kinda along the lines of what Paul said, I could pick the bag out of the boil and it would hold the wort. If it's holding the wort, then it's also holding in the hop goodness. I find better results of just tossing the hops in the boil. I filter going out of the keg into a bucket. My filters cost 27 cents... and I get two in a pack!
Frank

Offline dkfick

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Re: Stainless Steel Hop Flter
« Reply #21 on: March 12, 2014, 08:09:08 am »
Some fancy-smancy filters. I used to bag my hops in a fine mesh bag. But kinda along the lines of what Paul said, I could pick the bag out of the boil and it would hold the wort. If it's holding the wort, then it's also holding in the hop goodness. I find better results of just tossing the hops in the boil. I filter going out of the keg into a bucket. My filters cost 27 cents... and I get two in a pack!
This also works... I only use the stainless hop spider when I am using my plate chiller though... You want to avoid the hops going into the plate chiller.  I have not noticed any issues with hop flavors or bitterness utilization since switching about a year ago.
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Offline fmader

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Re: Stainless Steel Hop Flter
« Reply #22 on: March 12, 2014, 08:16:20 am »
Some fancy-smancy filters. I used to bag my hops in a fine mesh bag. But kinda along the lines of what Paul said, I could pick the bag out of the boil and it would hold the wort. If it's holding the wort, then it's also holding in the hop goodness. I find better results of just tossing the hops in the boil. I filter going out of the keg into a bucket. My filters cost 27 cents... and I get two in a pack!
This also works... I only use the stainless hop spider when I am using my plate chiller though... You want to avoid the hops going into the plate chiller.  I have not noticed any issues with hop flavors or bitterness utilization since switching about a year ago.
Makes sense with the plate chiller. I have an immersion chiller for now. But changed up my filter system a ton before I decided less is more... I zip tie a sanitized leg stocking on the end of the hose going into a bucket. It's kinda like germ-x... It stops 99.9% of any debris from coming through  :P
Frank

Offline HoosierBrew

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Re: Stainless Steel Hop Flter
« Reply #23 on: March 12, 2014, 08:17:54 am »
Some fancy-smancy filters. I used to bag my hops in a fine mesh bag. But kinda along the lines of what Paul said, I could pick the bag out of the boil and it would hold the wort. If it's holding the wort, then it's also holding in the hop goodness. I find better results of just tossing the hops in the boil. I filter going out of the keg into a bucket. My filters cost 27 cents... and I get two in a pack!
This also works... I only use the stainless hop spider when I am using my plate chiller though... You want to avoid the hops going into the plate chiller.  I have not noticed any issues with hop flavors or bitterness utilization since switching about a year ago.
Makes sense with the plate chiller. I have an immersion chiller for now. But changed up my filter system a ton before I decided less is more... I zip tie a sanitized leg stocking on the end of the hose going into a bucket. It's kinda like germ-x... It stops 99.9% of any debris from coming through  :P

+1.  Works pretty well.
Jon H.

Offline narcout

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Re: Stainless Steel Hop Flter
« Reply #24 on: March 12, 2014, 10:39:12 am »
i literally could lift the entire basket out of the boil (mid boil)and have the liquid line remain at the same level as when it was in the pot, with only a slight trickle at the seams for the wort to drip back into the boil.

This is exactly what was happening to me with hop bags which is why I decided to give this filter a try.  I've only used it once so far, but when I pulled it out of the kettle after chilling all of the wort drained out pretty much immediately which made me think it was providing better wort contact than the hop bags.

I might try using it as a filter between the kettle and the fermentor as well, in conjunction with whirlpooling and a side pickup tube.

I can usually get away with up to two ounces of pellets floating free in the boil.  Any more than that, and I run the risk of clogging the liquid out tube in my fermentor when transferring to serving kegs.  This is the issue I am trying to avoid. 


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Offline Alewyfe

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Re: Stainless Steel Hop Flter
« Reply #25 on: March 12, 2014, 11:02:46 am »
I'm getting better hop utilization with the screen than with hop bags. Next brew day (Sunday) I will measure the temp in the column and see where it's at. When I ordered mine, I ordered it larger so it would fit closer to the bottom of my kettle assuming boiling action and convection action would likely be greater. I recirculate into the filter and have not experienced the kettle level drop that Blatz did. I use pretty much only pellet hops, so I still get a lot of debris in the kettle, but every bit strained out at any point helps. I use a pump and really like not having to clamp off boiling hot hop bags on the side of the kettle to keep them being sucked against the kettle outlet too.
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Offline blatz

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Re: Stainless Steel Hop Flter
« Reply #26 on: March 12, 2014, 11:32:16 am »
I use one and I have only ever experienced the clogging when I would recirculate back into the filter.  Cold break is formed in the re circulation and that does indeed clog it.

i experienced this issue even when not chilling ( I use a CFC).

I like the idea of putting a sanitized hop bag on the output. 

Here's what I leave currently behind - IIRC this was a medium hop bill (9-12oz). 



I just shop vac it out and proceed with normal cleaning.  Not really any better...or worse than the hop spider cleaning routine, but my hops are swimming with the whole wort...
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Offline dkfick

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Re: Stainless Steel Hop Flter
« Reply #27 on: March 12, 2014, 01:22:38 pm »
I guess I should have stated I'm using a plate chiller... My cold wort doesn't go back into my kettle typically... I run it through the plate chiller at whatever speed will get me the output wort at the temp I want.  If I were to recirculate then I could see the possibility of cold break getting into the screen... I have recirculated before with it... If I put the hose into the hop spider it will clog with cold break... if I put it outside it doesn't clog.  One other thing I should note... My hop spider is 8 inches across and 18 inches tall. I have the 50 mesh screen on it.
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