Best solution for hop pellets

[phil.dadd]

I use a stainless steel scourer. Actually really good, and strains pellets well too.

[phatboytall]

I've posted my review of the the Lautehex here as I figure its probably worthy of its own discussion thread.
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=74133

Short answer though? It was an absolute disaster! never more than a tickle out of it from start to finish.

Going to change the fitting and try again, but not optimistic.

[Hanglow]

I use a stainless steel scourer. Actually really good, and strains pellets well too.

how do you attach it?

[phil.dadd]

I have a 90 degree elbow pointing to the bottom of the pot, so it's about 4mm off the bottom. The scourer simply fits around it (you can open it up into a torus, and slide underneath, it'll open up and completely surround the elbow). It's obviously single use, but at about a £1 for 6, they're cheap. I did have a T going to two elbows for two scourers at first, but didn't notice any difference in flow between that and just one.

You do occasionally get a small amount of matter through when you first open the tap, but not much, then it filters like a dream.

[Hanglow]

Belated cheers for the reply. I'm going to try the scourer method this weekend

[Jocky]

Pics and a write up please!!!

[Hanglow]

My recipe only called for hop leaf, 160g of it so a fair amount

worked a charm




I''ve got a bunch of pellets too so I'll report back on it next time I use it with them

[Hanglow]

Well I added an elbow to the pipe so I could get a bit more out of the fermentor and tried it this way with about 200g of pellets. Unfortunately it slowed to a trickle halfway through and I had to jug it out. Next time I''ll try a mix

[Hanglow]

Another update, 150g leaf hops and 50g pellets were dealt with without a hitch. Next time I'll try 50/50

[beerbeerbeer]

I brewed yesterday and as i was using pellets i tried the no filter approach with my march pump. The pump worked fine with the pellets. The flow through the heat exchanger was v v slow... but overall it worked. Starting to believe i need to move to an immersion chiller.

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[MTW]

I have an unusual solution, probably no use to most of you, as it involves the twin pots I use to boil. For all the downsides compared to a single kettle (high boil off rate due to high proportion of surface area; twin coil chiller necessary for cooling; utilisation may be unequal and harder to calculate across the pots - I jug between pots to even out the runnings)... there are upsides (rapid heating via two separate burners; rapid cooling, though it involved building a twin coil chiller; I can stick the first coil in an ice bucket in the summer when the mains water is warm and chill each pot down hard with the second coil) ...and now, my hop pellet solution. I stick any leaves in the first pot with a braid filter. Pellets go in the second pot. After chilling, I remove the chiller, stand for 10 mins or so, drain the first pot with any leaves in it. Then decant the second pot (which has now stood for a good 20 mins+) into the first, which gets all but the last 2L or so out fairly cleanly, with minimal transfer of pellets. Whirlpool and allow to stand again before draining through the braid. I can live with a 2L loss for the rapid, trouble free transfer that follows. A little slow, but worked well at the first attempt last week, on a hoppy brew. I don't think I could do a similar thing with a single pot, without greater losses.

[Jocky]

I've come to a final conclusion on this - if I'm in a hurry on brew day I bag hops and add some extra to compensate for loss.

If I'm not in a hurry I just leave the wort to stand for an hour after chilling, and then when I run off I make sure there's no suction on the kettle end - it has to drain under its own steam until the end.

[alexlark]

In the kettle loose, pellet and cone. Syphon as much as possible then tip the rest through voile. Let it drip through whilst you clean up. No filter, tap etc. Job done.