Blocked hop filter

[greenxpaddy]

I have used a braided hose filter as a hop filter for two years and it has been very efficient. Since going to the 400L boiler although I have increased the length of the hose I am losing much more to hops/dead space.

I am going to have to play around with it I think to see if it is better....

- curled round the very edge of the diameter of the boiler OR
- curled into a flat spiral positioned only at the tap area and maybe a hop bag/mesh cover over it OR
- putting a T junction near the tap to create two branches.

I would use a false bottom but i am using elements and it would be some way off the bottom to avoid the elements

[guypettigrew]

I use one of these stainless steel hop filters. For some reason it's called a 'bazooka'!

Fits over the back of the tap in the boiler and works fine for me.

Guy

[greenxpaddy]

I have had a much better result on the last brew after fitting a T splitter at the tap and extending the braided hose another 1m. Also I have shaped the hose using a 10mm microbore copper tubing backbone so it keeps a certain shape. It is designed to go round the perimeter of the boiler so the crud will tend to fall in the middle away from the filter. I also use a large mesh screen on top of the braided hose as a first stage filter for the bits falling as the wort chills.

On the last brew the total loss to hops and deadspace was 15L on a 210L brewlength. Thats using 1kilo of hops. 10L will be lost to hops and 5L lost to deadspace blocked filter at the end. Thats an improvement from around 20-25L.