Whole leaf hop strainer, SST

[SUDDZIES]

I had a guy at work fab up this leaf hop strainer basket.

4" diameter, 20" tall, 1/8" holes, 304 stainless steel.

Hangs nicely on the side of my keggle and leaves room for the imersion chiller, and it reaches almost all the way to the bottle. I think i will need some type of plunger to hold the hops down, but havent come up with anything yet. What do yall think?

 

[klyph]

Cool, but I've always been worried that hop bags and "tea ball" type setups limit the wort contact of the hops. I'm partial to the false bottom type strainers since they allow the hops to diffuse through the wort.

Although this is all speculation and I bet that your contraption works great. Awesome craftsmanship.

 

[Maltose]

I like the idea, but it seems like a false bottom made out of the same material would achieve the same goal. Hope it works out for you, the craftsmanship looks excellent.

 

[samc]

The plunger idea is good, just have them cut a circle of the same perf metal and screw in a SS rod, kind of like a French press coffee maker.

 

[Catt22]

Cool, but I've always been worried that hop bags and "tea ball" type setups limit the wort contact of the hops. I'm partial to the false bottom type strainers since they allow the hops to diffuse through the wort.

Although this is all speculation and I bet that your contraption works great. Awesome craftsmanship.

IMO, your worry is well warranted. It's been my experience that this type of a strainer works pretty well for early addition hops or for small quantities, but not so well for the late addition hops and large quantities of hops inhibit the flow through even more. I'm currently using a FB with excellent results. I gave up on the paint strainer bag thingy after a few disappointing trials. The strainer pictured may work better as the holes are obviously larger which should provide improved flow through.

 

[wilceaser]

Ingenuity is a mother! I love it!