Best gauge mesh for a hop spider?

[Doive]

I have a large hop spider with 300 micron mesh, and definitely haven't found it to restrict either the bittering or flavours of the hops.

 

[Old_P]

I use a helix or some patience and a dip tube

Okay, thanks for the reply and photos.
I use a hop sock and ss braided hose for filtering. The hose does a reasonable job, but gets quite clogged, so have been thinking of alternatives. I would like to put my hop pellets straight in to my kettle, but would need to remove or change my filter. Since I’m using a plate chiller I don’t think removing my filter completely is an option.
I’ve thought about changing to a helix, but not sure it would be much different from my braided hose? But looking at your photos, it looks like it does an excellent job.

 

[Clint]

I use a bazooka filter and get very little transfer. Most of the debris falls to the side of the filter.

 

[Old_P]

I use a bazooka filter and get very little transfer. Most of the debris falls to the side of the filter.

Do you also use a late chiller, since bazooka’s look like they will let a lot of funk through?

 

[Clint]

I use an immersion chiller...if you let the wort settle after chilling some obviously settles on the bazooka but most settles around it and at a lower level. The trick is to just crack the tap,this punches a few holes in the debris and starts the flow,then gently increase. I probably don't get it half open,the holes in the material remain letting wort through and the filter furs up keeping the rest back...

 

[Old_P]

Sounds good and a bazooka would be a less expensive option.
Thanks Clint

 

[AdeDunn]

Bazooka won't work with a plate chiller Old_P, you won't be able to get the flow you need to get the right flow through the chiller for the right temperature out the other end, without the bazooka clogging up almost instantly using pellet hops, you'd be ok probably using whole hops though as they form a filter bed over the bazooka.

You need either something with a much larger surface area, or to use something like a spider. I went with the spider as they're cheaper. I DO use a plate chiller. These look amazing, expensive though: Brew Builder

There's these too, but to my mind that's a lot of money for a lauter helix.....

 

[nickjdavis]

I have an 800 micron spider and still find this gets blocked by pellet hops. The problem with most hop spiders is that they are too narrow, restricting the space for the hops...especially if using leaf. If someone could produce a 12-15 inch diameter spider that could sit in the centre of the brew vessel with a coarse mesh...maybe even 1200 micron it would allow plenty of space for leaf hops and still trap the vast majority of the hop debris.

 

[Galena]

My original idea was to have a mesh basket that completely fills the volume of the kettle, this would mean there should be no restriction to hop utilisation, the immersion chiller would fit inside it and it could be removed if required prior to decanting into the FV. It looks as though the only way would be to custom build one though.

 

[nickjdavis]

Id thought about a flattish mesh cone....with a long tube that could slide over the centre shaft of my Braumeister....imagine something similar to an upside down umbrella. Wouldn't need to be a tight fit to the BM diameter....5mm leeway would ensure that the vast majority of hop matter would get caught and allow for easy removal at the end of the boil (my wort chiller usually sits in a bucket of StarSan solution whilst waiting for its turn to be used in the brewing process so doesn't need to go in 15 minutes before boil end to sanitise.

This allows hops totally free reign to roll around where they want and they effectively get dragged out at the end like fish in a net.

 

[Pennine]

Id thought about a flattish mesh cone....with a long tube that could slide over the centre shaft of my Braumeister....imagine something similar to an upside down umbrella. Wouldn't need to be a tight fit to the BM diameter....5mm leeway would ensure that the vast majority of hop matter would get caught and allow for easy removal at the end of the boil (my wort chiller usually sits in a bucket of StarSan solution whilst waiting for its turn to be used in the brewing process so doesn't need to go in 15 minutes before boil end to sanitise.

This allows hops totally free reign to roll around where they want and they effectively get dragged out at the end like fish in a net.

that's a good idea, I had a company make some replacement screens with a hole for the braumeister I bet you they could do the cones as well. will post a link when I find it again.

 

[Old_P]

Bazooka won't work with a plate chiller Old_P, you won't be able to get the flow you need to get the right flow through the chiller for the right temperature out the other end, without the bazooka clogging up almost instantly using pellet hops, you'd be ok probably using whole hops though as they form a filter bed over the bazooka.

You need either something with a much larger surface area, or to use something like a spider. I went with the spider as they're cheaper. I DO use a plate chiller. These look amazing, expensive though: Brew Builder

There's these too, but to my mind that's a lot of money for a lauter helix.....

The restricted flow through the plate chiller is not a problem, providing there is some flow. My concern is getter the plate chiller blocked with debris. But I appreciate your thoughts and suggestions.

 

[Baz Chaz]

Wow, two ideas/tips from one thread !

Hop spider and pellets, instead of putting them in the spider during the boil etc, chuck the pellets in and let them do their thing, use the spider as a colander when draining boiler into FV? I have a copper pipe manifold with slits, not a bazooka, worth thinking about.

Sit chiller coil in bucket of sanitiser instead of putting it in brew for 15 mins, I like that as well !

 

[nickjdavis]

Sit chiller coil in bucket of sanitiser instead of putting it in brew for 15 mins, I like that as well !

I just have a big tub that I fill with starsan sanitised water and anything that is likely needed to touch the beer post boil just sits in it...chilling coil, spoons, whisks or devices for aerating wort...tubing to transfer to FV....anything...it just all gets dumped in there.

 

[AdeDunn]

The restricted flow through the plate chiller is not a problem, providing there is some flow. My concern is getter the plate chiller blocked with debris. But I appreciate your thoughts and suggestions.

You won't get ANY flow through it after a few seconds if you use pellet hops, as the bazooka will just clog completely. Been there, done that, had to keep scraping it off until I gave up and transferred using an auto-siphon.... Switched to using whole hops after. Use a larger mesh size on the bazooka to try to avoid clogging, and that hop matter will just go into your plate chiller instead. Normal bazooka filters just don't have a good enough surface area to be useful with pellet hops in my experience. They're fantastic with whole hops though for sure. Sorry if I wasn't clear enough and gave you the impression that I meant flow would be reduced, when I say clogged up, I mean utterly, you might get a drip out of the tap (if you didn't have a hose on it).

Go ahead and try it for yourself though.

 

[Old_P]

Sorry if I wasn't clear enough and gave you the impression that I meant flow would be reduced, when I say clogged up, I mean utterly, you might get a drip out of the tap (if you didn't have a hose on it).

Okay, got it. Then I’ll stick with my braided hose for now.
Thanks for clarifying.

 

[Galena]

I tried my last brew with no hop bags or spider, straight into the kettle. It did create a bit of a problem when dropping to the FV though, not in the kettle, that ran fine, but the funnel and filter I was using was blocking up badly for the last few litres. I need to find a better way of filtering so as not to keep blocking but stopping the hop debris getting through.
It may be a false impression but the hop aroma seemed much stronger whilst decanting the the FV than I normally get.

 

[DocAnna]

One of the things I've not seen mentioned here is that a hop spider filter flow and permeability to suspended particles will vary with temperature, partly due to change in fluid viscosity and mesh pore size with temperature.

I've been recirculating during cooling with the recirculation hose through the hop spider, as it cools I hit a temperature where the fluid level will rapidly rise in the spider (as caught out the first time) and I have to move the recirculation tube back into the wort, which I think is due to finer cold break proteins being filtered out that weren't caught in the lower filter screen which is a win in my view.

Anna

 

[AdeDunn]

One of the things I've not seen mentioned here is that a hop spider filter flow and permeability to suspended particles will vary with temperature, partly due to change in fluid viscosity and mesh pore size with temperature.

I've been recirculating during cooling with the recirculation hose through the hop spider, as it cools I hit a temperature where the fluid level will rapidly rise in the spider (as caught out the first time) and I have to move the recirculation tube back into the wort, which I think is due to finer cold break proteins being filtered out that weren't caught in the lower filter screen which is a win in my view.

Anna

Yeah, I've had to whip the recirc pipe out of the spider fast before it overflows hop matter into the boiler, defeating it's purpose completely, twice now... lol Last brew day though, the wort into my FV was crystal clear.