Views on Kettle Screens

[DrumForHire]

My current setup includes a boil kettle with ball valve that I connect to a pump that pushes the wort through a plate chiller and into the fermenter. I use muslin bags for hops and any steeping grains. I mostly extract brew, but just completed my first BIAB. No matter what, I always end up with a bunch of trub at the bottom of the kettle and can't find a way to pump out the maximum amount of wort while avoiding sending excess sediment through the plate chiller. This was especially worrying with the BIAB as there was a ton of trub at the bottom. I ended up with less wort in the fermenter then I wanted and still had a bunch of trub mixed in with it. I'm considering getting a bazooka screen to attach to the ball valve so I can pump without worry. Does anyone have advice on bazooka screens? Do they get clogged easily?

And I hate to be the type of person who asks for advice and then specify what advice I want, but if your post is going to be a simple "don't worry about the trub, just dump it all in!" it's going to fall on deaf ears. I'm seriously worried about clogging my chiller, and I'm a little frustrated with the amount of wort I'm getting out of my boils, so I feel like some type of solution is needed. Alternatives are welcome, as are experiences with the screens. Thanks guys.

 

[jddevinn]

My current setup includes a boil kettle with ball valve that I connect to a pump that pushes the wort through a plate chiller and into the fermenter. I use muslin bags for hops and any steeping grains. I mostly extract brew, but just completed my first BIAB. No matter what, I always end up with a bunch of trub at the bottom of the kettle and can't find a way to pump out the maximum amount of wort while avoiding sending excess sediment through the plate chiller. This was especially worrying with the BIAB as there was a ton of trub at the bottom. I ended up with less wort in the fermenter then I wanted and still had a bunch of trub mixed in with it. I'm considering getting a bazooka screen to attach to the ball valve so I can pump without worry. Does anyone have advice on bazooka screens? Do they get clogged easily?

And I hate to be the type of person who asks for advice and then specify what advice I want, but if your post is going to be a simple "don't worry about the trub, just dump it all in!" it's going to fall on deaf ears. I'm seriously worried about clogging my chiller, and I'm a little frustrated with the amount of wort I'm getting out of my boils, so I feel like some type of solution is needed. Alternatives are welcome, as are experiences with the screens. Thanks guys.

I haven't had any success with the filters I have tried, they all clog. I now (the advice you don't want) whirlpool and don't worry about what I transfer, dumping out the bottom of the conical before I add yeast if I need.

If you're not getting the amount of wort that you want without trub I'd try bumping the recipes by 1/2-1 gallon just to make life easier.

I've also wanted to try one of these https://www.brewershardware.com/FILTER1-Testing.html

 

[rgreenberg2000]

DFH,

For a long time, I fussed over this excessively, too. Tried this screen solution, and that screen solution. None of them ever seemed satisfactory to me. In the end, my solution (that worked for me) was to just increase my batch size by .5 gal. That extra volume meant I didn't have to worry about extracting every precious drop, and I also didn't need to worry about transferring stuff I didn't want to transfer into the fermenter.

Having said that, I can't leave well enough alone, so now I'm messing with a whirlpool set up (though, if I'm honest with myself, I'm more interested in how that will change my hop stands.)

There's my $.02.

R

 

[dierythmus]

Great question, and I'm interested to hear people's responses.

I'm in a similar situation (with a counterflow chiller). I usually end up chilling most of the wort as it goes into the fermenter, and in an effort to not clog my chiller, I literally dump in the remaining warm trub into the fermenter. I don't mind the trub in the fermenter, but the issue for me is that the trub is still very warm, and it takes more time to chill the wort to pitching temps. I've looked at bazooka screens for the kettle, but I'm afraid of clogging, as you are.

 

[Kirbuno]

I tried all of this and finally tried throwing money at it. I have been using the hop filter by Brewers hardware.
http://www.brewershardware.com/Wort-Strainers/
I have the original design. I don't typically brew IPA's but my last 10 gal batch used 10 oz. of hop pellets which is still a respectable amount of hops, and had no clogging problems. I didn't even bother with whirlpooling as that extends the time between flameout and cooling.
Here is a photo of the end result in the boiling kettle of this last batch, I wish I'd thought of a photo of the hop filter, but the hops were compacted in the filter like you wouldn't believe and the kettle still drained all the way.

If you consistently drain many more hops that this you might consider a larger diameter. but this has worked fabulously for me.

 

[Kirbuno]

And I forgot to mention, that I use a sight glass in the bottom of my BH SS conical and the trub is not even green colored, only the protein fallout resulting from the counter flow chilling is apparent.

 

[jddevinn]

I haven't had any success with the filters I have tried, they all clog. I now (the advice you don't want) whirlpool and don't worry about what I transfer, dumping out the bottom of the conical before I add yeast if I need.

If you're not getting the amount of wort that you want without trub I'd try bumping the recipes by 1/2-1 gallon just to make life easier.

I've also wanted to try one of these https://www.brewershardware.com/FILTER1-Testing.html

I tried all of this and finally tried throwing money at it. I have been using the hop filter by Brewers hardware.
http://www.brewershardware.com/Wort-Strainers/
I have the original design. I don't typically brew IPA's but my last 10 gal batch used 10 oz. of hop pellets which is still a respectable amount of hops, and had no clogging problems. I didn't even bother with whirlpooling as that extends the time between flameout and cooling.
Here is a photo of the end result in the boiling kettle of this last batch, I wish I'd thought of a photo of the hop filter, but the hops were compacted in the filter like you wouldn't believe and the kettle still drained all the way.

If you consistently drain many more hops that this you might consider a larger diameter. but this has worked fabulously for me.

Note that this should go after the pump.... not before as pictured.

 

[Kirbuno]

I use this directly connected to the kettle before the pump. Just gravity fed. I don't want my pump to clog up with all of the hops, as it surely would.

 

[jddevinn]

I use this directly connected to the kettle before the pump. Just gravity fed. I don't want my pump to clog up with all of the hops, as it surely would.

Hmm, it doesn't cause a restriction to the pump and therefore pump cavitation? That was my thought! If that doesn't happen then yea right after the kettle is best.

Because of the way that I whirpool with no filter I guess I'm just used to disassembling and cleaning the pumps after a brew.... only takes me a minute or two.

 

[SpikeBrewing]

We did a lot of testing before our new kettle launch on whirlpooling. We've had awesome results with our new whirlpool setup. Below is a recent test using 8oz of pellet hops and a 10min whirlpool. The bottom dome leaves behind about .75gal and of that about .5gal is hop and trub material. The wort from the boil kettle came out almost completely clear!! :rockin:

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

I used a grant, filled with rice hulls, as a chiller pre-filter. More stuff to balance and clean. But it worked every time.

I also did the bulk of my chilling recirculatory (back into kettle) so most of the cold break settled in the kettle and was filtered out by the grant.

 

[Kirbuno]

Hmm, it doesn't cause a restriction to the pump and therefore pump cavitation? That was my thought! If that doesn't happen then yea right after the kettle is best.

Because of the way that I whirpool with no filter I guess I'm just used to disassembling and cleaning the pumps after a brew.... only takes me a minute or two.

It might cause cavitation if you left the pump on full the whole time. I use a clear-ish silicone tube that allows me to see the liquid in the tube from the filter to the pump. I can control the out flow from the pump to make sure there is still enough liquid coming from the kettle to the pump. Towards the end the draining does slow down but still drains quickly enough to have to keep an eye on it.

I use a chugger pump and find that it clogs fairly easily if I get any large particle in it, so forget using any leaf hops without a filter.

I don't use any kind of filter in the kettle now as it will potentially slow down the process. I originally used a filter screen in the kettle but found it tends to clog up before the BH one does.

Also I have sort of a unique kettle where the drain is in the middle. If you use a more typical side drain method it might still be beneficial to do a bit of whirl-pooling to keep the majority of the hops from going into the filter, esp. if you use a huge amount of hops.

The reason I don't whirlpool now is that I want the hop filter to fill up with hops so that I get the aroma hops to be almost Randalized. In fact I have played with filling the BH filter with my aroma hops before connecting it to the kettle to maximize this effect. I'm not sure if it really works though as I think the hops expand too quickly after the liquid hits them and they don't really expand fully as I still had fat pellet shaped hops when I cleaned the filter so I now just add them to the kettle just before I start the draining process and get great aroma from the process as the wort has to filter through most of the hops.

Off topic just a bit but I also use preloaded hops in the BH filter as a true Randal and filter after the fermentation to get a forced sort of dry hopping that seems to work well first pushing co2 to purge. Gives me dry hop flavor without the hassle of actually dry hopping.

 

[Kirbuno]

deleted

 

[Kirbuno]

I used a grant, filled with rice hulls, as a chiller pre-filter. More stuff to balance and clean. But it worked every time.

I also did the bulk of my chilling recirculatory (back into kettle) so most of the cold break settled in the kettle and was filtered out by the grant.

I like to do a one pass to keep contamination down to a minimum, and my chilling process can take the wort from from boiling to 60 deg. in one pass, but the rice hulls sound like a good idea to keep the cost down from buying a filter like the BH Hop filter I spoke of.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

I like to do a one pass to keep contamination down to a minimum, and my chilling process can take the wort from from boiling to 60 deg. in one pass, but the rice hulls sound like a good idea to keep the cost down from buying a filter like the BH Hop filter I spoke of.

Depending on the time of year, one pass was obtainable. But in the heat of summer I found myself needing to recirculate to get the bulk down for a last pass to pitch temp.

If I were to have to buy equipment again, I'd get a hop rocket and load it with the hulls for a closed grant. With the grant I had/have it was a balancing act to keep the grant from overflowing before the pump could push through the chiller.

 

[Kirbuno]

I've heard mixed results on the hop rocket from friends. I like the versatility of the hop filter I got as it works with pellets.

And the Hop Rocket is more expensive.

 

[augiedoggy]

I have good luck with a combination of a hop spider and a long stainless braid in the bottom of my kettle attached to my dip tube... no issues with my plate chiller of green trub in my conicals just yeast.

 

[Kirbuno]

I use this directly connected to the kettle before the pump. Just gravity fed. I don't want my pump to clog up with all of the hops, as it surely would.

I had my first failure with this setup. It coincided with a stuck mash. I used a different brew supply house than usual that had the crush set way too fine. Noticed it seemed like I had a lot of flour. The stuff gummed up everything, wouldn't even go thru my mesh bags I tried to use to salvage the goop.

Lesson learned all the best equipment and filters won't help if you don't crush right. Not going back to them again. Funny thing is they are probably the largest home brew supply in San Diego.

Best,

 

[MaryB]

I did an extract brew last night. I have changed to using hop bags(I have 6, I use a single bag per hop addition so no dealing with boiling hot bags). As I cooled I whirlpool stirred once it was below 120 degrees keeping splashing down until below 90. I use a standard stainless ball valve with pickup tube(Northern brewer) and I had next to zero trub or hop residue enter the fermenter. Had a nice pile in the center from stirring! Maybe left behind 8 oz of material!