DIY Hop Filter

[ukbrewhaha]

Hi guys!

This is my first post - here goes...

I'm planning on making my own hop filter (for fun/save money)

I was inspired by this video:

But I'm going to change his design slightly. Using #30 from this website:
http://www.themeshcompany.com/acatalog/stainless-steel-woven-wire-mesh-A4-sheet-size.html

I'm going to cut it out in one of two shapes:

or

Then use old steel guitar strings to patch it together. The final product will look like this:

Can you guys think of any problems/improvements for this project? Should only cost me £6 to make

Cheers!

 

[Larso]

cant see your final product but I found that mesh hop filters handle pellets very badly and get blocked every time. I've moved to a copper maniflod with slits cut in it(which is still pretty crap with pellets)

 

[ukbrewhaha]

have you got a pic of your manifold handy? I've got my tap all sorted, just need to work out how i'm going to filter.

Cheers

 

[IslandLizard]

My 30" SS braid clogs like crazy, and that filter as shown on the YouTube vid has a much larger surface and will likely work much better. It may still clog with larger hop bills. It also looks a bit hard to clean.

I really like the hop baskets, and people who use them have given rave reviews. Here is the main thread:

new-way-control-pellet-hop-gunk

Hop utilization seems to be on par with free boiling them. The 300 micron screens are generally preferred, while the 400 micron ones may give slightly better circulation but also lets finer hop particles through.

I'm ready to order one of the 300 micron hop baskets, and the 4x10 should do fine in my 8 gallon kettle.

I have a plate chiller so I need to filter hops out one way or another.

In that light, I've been thinking of reversing the usage, at least as an experiment. Boil the (pellet) hops free floating in the kettle as usual, and then use the hop basket as the filter when pumping (or siphoning) the wort out. I won't be using the drain valve on the kettle, except maybe as a return when circulating with the pump.

 

[IslandLizard]

cant see your final product but I found that mesh hop filters handle pellets very badly and get blocked every time. I've moved to a copper maniflod with slits cut in it(which is still pretty crap with pellets)

That's a great manifold for a mash tun, but won't filter hop fibers well at all.

 

[ukbrewhaha]

Either I do that, or I have a bazooka filter that I use an S shaped bend to lay it on the bottom of the kettle. I basically want to set up a filter system for as cheap as possible. I only have a small cooking pot and generally use roughly 20-50g of hops per brew, so figured a screen that size might work?

 

[IslandLizard]

If you're using hop pellets the bazooka may or may not not hold enough matter back or it may even clog up. It seems to vary with the brand and fineness of the grind of hops. Not all T90s are created equal. Hard to predict what would happen. If you already have a bazooka screen, try it.

Now with only 20-50g of hop pellets you may get away without clogging the bazooka screen or the DIY screen from the video. The big hop heads are the ones who get the clogging problems.

You can always filter the hop particles out right before the wort enters your fermentor. Run your drain hose through a sanitized fine-mesh hop bag placed inside a large funnel to filter out all the hop debris.

You may not need a (bazooka) screen in your boil kettle at all. Some put a stainless scrubby over their pick-up tube or drain port to hold back hop debris and prevent clogging the drain valve or hose. I've never tried it.

Whirlpooling also helps in hop control, plus it gives you the opportunity to extract extra hop flavor and aroma from the late-addition and flame-out hops. I've been using the whirlpool hopping method lately, and it is remarkably successful. Way fewer hops needed and way more flavor.

 

[ukbrewhaha]

I brewed last night, and I did what I normally do, which is run the beer through a sieve into the fermenter, but this time I held a smaller finer sieve underneath, which caught a load of the smaller bits of hop. Ended up like algae on the small sieve haha.

I shall return to this thread, and post photos of my decision/final filtering set up and its effectiveness.

 

[Larso]

I find this great but still a bit problematic with pellets

 

[IslandLizard]

I brewed last night, and I did what I normally do, which is run the beer through a sieve into the fermenter, but this time I held a smaller finer sieve underneath, which caught a load of the smaller bits of hop. Ended up like algae on the small sieve haha.

I shall return to this thread, and post photos of my decision/final filtering set up and its effectiveness.

Yes please.

I've been thinking about multi-stage filtering and should provide a better solution. If you don't use a pump or plate chiller you can filter or strain most hops and break out right before it goes into the fermentor.

If you want to recirculate with a pump, hops need to stay in the boil kettle, so a filter inside the kettle is needed. The hop baskets (evolved from hop spiders) are a good solution for that.

Whirlpooling at the end of the boil will pull the hops together in a cone in the center and a careful drain-off should leave most of that undisturbed and behind.