2mm or 4mm holes for copper hop stopper?

[ECLIPSE]

Hi guys. As the title says, which should I go for? I have 2mm and 4mm drill bits. And how far away should I space them?

Cheers

 

[danb]

I used an l shape piece of copper pipe with 100 2mm holes which was painfully slow and could block easily.
I've made a bigger filter with a tray and that has 400 2mm holes.
Used this 3 times and the run off is loads quicker and drains to the last drop.
Do as many as you can. :thumb:

 

[danb]

Total cost about £5.

 

[ECLIPSE]

Looks good Dan! So you don't think 2mm holes would be enough in a single length of copper pipe? I'm guessing 4mm ones would be too big right?

 

[danb]

I think 4mm may let too much through but never tried so ccan't say for sure. Depending on the length of pipe as 100 holes didn't work for me.

 

[ECLIPSE]

Cheers mate. Planning my 1st Bree with my boiler since adding elements and a tap /hop filter this Friday so think I'll go with a lone of 4mm holes down the middle of the copper tube and see how this goes. Of it let's a lot of debris through I'll just have to make another 1 for my next brew

 

[LeithR]

Why don't you limit the amount of hop debris by using a hop sock or some form of small cotton/viole bag and put your hops in there then into the brew weighed down with marbles. I've been doing this for years and it works a treat.

 

[graysalchemy]

I would get a piece of flexible tap connector pipe

and strip off the Stainless steel mesh. Make a copper pipe with a t piece and a little bit of pipe either side and loop the SS mesh around fixing onto the ends of the pipe with SS jubilee clips. Works a treat, never had a problem since using it even with 60L and 300+ g of hops, were as before using 2mm holes in a pipe took for ever to drain and constantly got clopped. :thumb:

 

[ECLIPSE]

Cheers GA.

Will the 15mm braided tap connector pipe like the one in the pic fit over 15mm copper pipe?

 

[graysalchemy]

yes it should do it is quite flexible. :thumb: :thumb:

 

[Daveg]

Sorry don't mean to hijack the thread but has anyone used this with a solar pump? (Braided hose I mean)
I've just made one to use instead of a hop spider and I'm a bit apprehensive because a couple of years ago I used a bought a ready made hop filter which was made from a short length of stainless braid and it blocked up something chronic on my gravity system. The one I've made goes round the inner circumference of my boiler but now I've got to pump the wort into the fermenter using a solar pump. I was hoping the increased surface area would work better.

 

[jonnymorris]

Cheers GA.

Will the 15mm braided tap connector pipe like the one in the pic fit over 15mm copper pipe?

Yes. As you compress it the cross-section diameter increases so it'll easily fit over 15mm copper pipe. p.s. you can buy just the braid on eBay so no need to butcher a connector.