Hop bag in boiler

[alsch890]

Hi there,

These might be silly questions but I am going to ask anyway. I have the problem every single brew that the bazooka on my boiler gets clogged after just 7 or 8 litres have drained into the FV and I have to do a little jig with the spoon to get the rest to dribble out, very time consuming.

So the stuff in the bottom is a mix of particles of hot break material, cold break material and hop pellets right? Could you potentially reduce the amount of stuff down there by skimming the hot break material off the top of the wort before the hot break occurs? Would this impact the taste, gravity, mouthfeel etc? Also, using hop bags or a hop spider would help also and here is my main question. My boiler is the classic plastic tub with kettle elements. My major concern is that if I chuck the hop bags in they will make contact with the elements, the bags would get singed, burned whatever and the brew or worse the boiler ruined?

My boiler bucket is a converted FV and came with the tap holes already bored out. My other idea is to buy a new FV bucket without the holes, if possible and make a new one with the tap higher up so as to create enough gap, but this seems a silly solution to me.

Cheers!

 

[Ciaran12s]

Got the same problem myself, I've only done two brews, the first was drained out to fermenter over a colander with a muslin over it. Wasn't too bad. The second brew had a homemade bazooka type but the May just stopped dead after a couple of litres so it got ripped out and it drained freely pulling all the crap with It, we'll see how am that one turns out.

For my next brew I'm getting a big wide, fine mesh sieve and constructing something to hang it over the edges of the fv. I reckon this should work as well as anything really.

 

[Bigjas]

I too use a plastic FV converted with kettle elements. I use muslin bags for my hops, never had a problem with scorching etc in nearly 20 brews. I let everything go in to my FV after I have cooled. I used to worry about it, trying to catch all the break material etc, but after fermentation has completed I cold crash, and everything just drops to the bottom leaving a nice clear beer ready for putting in to my Corny.

 

[xozzx]

I just ordered one of these today for dry hoping, might be what you are looking for- http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/4-Sizes-Stainless-Steel-Ball-Tea-Strainer-Infuser-Mesh-Filter-Loose-Leaf-Spice/301888412949?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&var=600699146407&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

 

[foxy]

If you go down the bag track make sure its a big one like a paint strainer so the hops can move around. or get yourself a Lauter Helix almost nothing will get past that. One other thing do you give a good whirlpool?

 

[Fil]

Ive not used a bazooka filter but with mesh filters it was always expedient to let the brew sit and rest for 25-30 mins post the active stir of the chill, this would allow flower hops to settle some and form a first level of defence filter, then when it comes to the drain, a gentle and slow opening of the drain to full will minimise the initial suck that can occur if the drain is opened fully to start with.
less effective with pelete hops mind you..

the best 'trick' however is to simply get a suitably sized slightly big net bag and bag the filter, a fine mesh bag will present a larger surface area than your filter, and if it should clog it will respond much better to a bit of spoon handeling than a static mesh filter..

Hop bags work well, the socks brewshops sell also work well but consider them single use , life is too short to fish out all the debris from the tight knit of the tube socking. dont worry if the hop bags float, better at the surface where all the hot liquor is going to than sat on the element or heat soutrce burning/melting..

personally i went with a hop spider

 

[alsch890]

foxy - you could be on to something with the whirlpool as I don't really do it, I wonder how much difference it would make to stir the wort for the last few minutes? I have been worried to do so too much since using the bucket boiler it gets a little "wobbly" after an hours boiling and I'm worried a rigorous stir could cause some structural damage. :-) Also, I do have a leak from one of the elements from time to time that seems to occur when I move the boiler around too much whilst full (hot or cold). Its a fragile system.

What would the other benefits of whirlpooling be? It is not something I've read/heard too much about?

 

[Dads_Ale]

Filtering pellets is always a problem and I have never been happy with using hop spiders or bags as I am sure they restrict utilisation. (unless mixing pellets and leaf)

I found removing the Bazooka filter and whirlpooling worked a treat. Yes you do have to be careful as you get near the bottom of the boiler as the hop cone is easily disturbed, so you need to allow for an extra bit of wastage. I have a fine filter on my chiller outlet into the FV just in case.

Have a look at the attachment in this thread, there is a bit at the end on pellets

http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=69978

 

[IainM]

I found these nylon paint strainer bags to be perfect. The elastic goes round the side of the fv so keeps the bay away from the element, and the hops circulate just as well as when you just chuck them in.

 

[DoctorMick]

I use a hop spider and love it, mostly because it’s a piece of cake to clean with a hose pipe. I was concerned about utilisation from the hops when I bought it but I can honestly say I’ve not noticed a difference since I started using it.

 

[iz_g]

I use a muslin bag tied with food safe string. It floats, so I very much doubt a hop bag would be an issue with your element. If you were worried you could always tie a piece of string to something above the boiler to keep it sinking that low.

As Fil said, floating shouldn't really be an issue - that's where the boil is rolling!

 

[alsch890]

Just thought I would report back that after whinging about this on here I drained from my boiler to FV yesterday without a single issue of blockage at all and with great aeration, right to the bottom where there was a nice pile of slush. I didn't do anything (purposefully) different although I did put my chiller in at an angle and it seemed to cool "quicker" although overall took roughly the same half hour. What I mean is, it seemed to get down to about 30-35 degrees much faster, then the last ten degrees or so took a while. I only one element once I was close to the hot break as well. Also, I must add (and this is likely as much as anything else) it was a brown ale so not a whole lot of hops went in. But regardless, I was a happy brewer, 10 mins after starting filling the FV I was pitching the yeast!