Braided SS Hose v False Bottom style Hop Filters - Advice Pl

[Addled Jim]

Hi
I'm treating myself to a new boiler soon and been looking at two of the most popular sites for pots, taps, elements etc
Whilst I'm almost decided on requirements I'm yet to choose a hop filter - I've seen that SS braided hose and false bottom style hop filters are available but other than the hose costing considerably less what are benefits/pro's & con's of each style filter?
Advice much appreciated

[Rick_UK]

Hi Jim

My experience is as follows:
Steel braid - simple to fit and cheap but frequent blockages and slow run offs.
False bottoms - expensive to buy or time consuming to make better run offs but not immune to blockages
Hop Bags - simple, cheap, effective, no slowing of run off and less mess to clear up, minimal butchering of boiler required

Despite being the least sexy of the 3 I prefer hop bags hands down. In order to get the filter effect you can just run the wort through one of the hop bags - this isn't necessary though as break material in the FV isn't a prob. Some say there is a slight drop in utilisation with hop bags but I haven't noticed any difference.

At some point I'm planning to build a sort of 'hop cage' that is suspended in the boiler for ease of multiple hop additions. If anyone has built something similar I'd be keen to have a look!

Rick

[newtonsshed]

Hi Rick, I've seen this;
http://www.angelhomebrew.co.uk/en/acces ... -ball.html
£8 or copy it

[Rick_UK]

Hi Rick, I've seen this;
http://www.angelhomebrew.co.uk/en/acces ... -ball.html
£8 or copy it

Thanks mate. It would need to be much bigger than those probably about 15l capacity to allow plenty of room for the hops to move freely. An enormous sieve would probably be a good start!

[Fil]

rick google hop spider, i made one with my old grainbag and 10mm copper tube

heres mine with the boil coming up before the additions.




and with hops added i recirculated into the spider for the boil duration to aid utilisation.

i recirculated to counter the hops n bag floating on top of the boil, the pump management was a minor pita ensuring it didnt overflow, alternatively a Stainless steel or copper weight to sink the hop bag could be used..



My 2p's worth on the original Q, Braid is a fine filter as long as u use flower/leaf hops and let them settle for a good 20-30mins before u attempt to drain as the vegtable matter acts as a primary filter for the break which can clog up a braid, However a cloged braid is easy to fix with a spoon or similar scraping and compressing the braid to work the clogging thru..

FB's if supported over the heat source can wobble move and dislodge themselves with the boil erupting below them.

there is also the 2 x splatter guard and beerline edge option..





2 x ebay £2.50 ss splatter guards with the handles extracted and the mesh extracted from the rim of one and split beerline to keep em together.
i will be trying this out soon

the disadvantage of the recirculating thru a hop spider solution was having to keep the pump speed monitored to ensure it didnt overflow, and adding a floatswitch overide seemed counter to the simple approach

ho

[Rick_UK]

Nice work Fil thats the sort of set up I'm hoping to build. Is there any need for the pump - I would have thought there is enough room for the hops to isomerise without it. (less fun though, granted!)

Rick

[Fil]

without the pump the bag n hops float on the boil, no other reason than that. a weight in the bag would also work i think.

[50quidsoundboy]

i used a drilled copper tube filter but once i started doing fun things like whirlpooling with a pump, it blocked up completely. replace it with a mesh false bottom-style filter from Mr Lard and it's a thing of beauty, it never clogs.

[rob-63]

What about the slotted copper manifold option?

I’ve used this, in conjunction with a flexible (to get under element) stainless mesh sitting above it – as in the two pics below - and it works well. Using pumps and whirlpooling.

In the last photo I have a hop spider in the boiler, but lined with flexible mesh rather than a bag as Fil has. It goes down to about an inch above the element. I haven’t actually used this yet, as I haven’t needed to as the other set up is working well, but may use it for highly hopped brews.

Copper manifold


Flexible stainless mesh


Hop spider – with mesh insert

[Rick_UK]

Nice set up Rob, very interested in your hop spider design if you care to share

Just curious why you would need both methods if the spider works well - seems like more unecessary clearing up!

Rick