2 Dollar Bazooka T

[BrissyBrew]

Ok the pic below is not a T as such I should call it the $1.00 bazooka I.

The mesh is stainless steel mesh I picked up in Big W for less than $2.00 it is in the camping section used for toasting bread. For $2.00 you get two little stainless steel screens. As you can see the mesh is not that fine, however once wound around itself a number of times it does a good job. Just roll it up, put a worm clamp on the end and hammer the ends over.

I have tested my bazooka I with a mixture of hole and pellet hops, I have a feeling that the full flowers might have assisted forming a filter bed. But no clogging and only a small amount of hop particles appears to get sucked in. It works much better than my steel scrubby I was using previously.

 

[BrissyBrew]

Update I was ripped off, Big W has stainless mesh for 50 cents for camping toasters.

 

[Goat]

I used a system like this (think I paid $2.50 for the toaster inserts tho) for a year or so. It worked for some recipes, but ones that had a lot of hops or a big break it would clog up and stop the flow to the fermenter to a dribble - and that's just the time that you don't want to shove things up the tap to free the flow.

Since then I lashed out and bought some nominally 40mm dia braided stainless steel (hose?) about 500 long. It runs across the bottom of the boiler and up the side. THis works really well now - but the $2 budget went out the window.

 

[BrissyBrew]

Hi Goat

I know what you are taking about the SS braided hose, but I have read reports that they clog easy and some posts where they have been installed to be removed.

With your toaster filter where was it located, I dont know if the pic above shows it but there is a bend in the tube so the wire mesh sits on the outside edge of the kettle. The other thing about it due to the compression fitting it comes off easy but I can also adjust the height, I normally have it pushed to the bottom bottom. I have about 2 to 3 dead space but can adjust this by moving it upwards kind of like a racking arm, which must be preset however.

 

[jimmyjack]

Brissy, all we need to do is make a hop stopper. It looks pretty simple to me.





Looks like a round copper manifile similar to a mashtuns with SS mesh around it. Another great product brought to you by Brissybrew!!


Cheers, JJ

 

[AndrewQLD]

I made one of those hop stoppers and have been using it for well over a year. It works very well and filters out 99.9% of hop trub, and I have never had it clog up to the point the flow stopped.

Cheers
Andrew

 

[jimmyjack]

I made one of those hop stoppers and have been using it for well over a year. It works very well and filters out 99.9% of hop trub, and I have never had it clog up to the point the flow stopped.

Andrew, what size of screen did you use, any ideas where to get some and how did you attach both sides of the screen to each other???

Cheers,JJ

 

[AndrewQLD]

My screen came from my local s/s wholesaler/retailer. It is the leftovers from my false bottom on the mash tun. I simply cut it in a long rectangle and then bent it into a squareish shape. The ends overlapped, this is very stiff mesh so there are no gaps. I will take a piccy tommorrow and post for you to see.

Cheers
Andrew

 

[TidalPete]

I made one of those hop stoppers and have been using it for well over a year. It works very well and filters out 99.9% of hop trub, and I have never had it clog up to the point the flow stopped.

Andrew, what size of screen did you use, any ideas where to get some and how did you attach both sides of the screen to each other???

Cheers,JJ

[post="122503"][/post]​

Soldered (food-grade) TermiMesh?
Got heaps of off-cuts. We're talking pellets here aren't we?

:beer:

 

[AndrewQLD]

Hi Pete,
Everyone should know by now that I am a whole hop and hop plug fanatic so no not pellets, although I do have a finer grade of s/s mesh that handles the pellets fairly well and I wrap this around my usual screen when I do use all pellets (very Rarely).

Cheers
Andrew

 

[TidalPete]

:beer:

Hi Pete,
Everyone should know by now that I am a whole hop and hop plug fanatic so no not pellets, although I do have a finer grade of s/s mesh that handles the pellets fairly well and I wrap this around my usual screen when I do use all pellets (very Rarely).

Cheers
Andrew

[post="122525"][/post]​

Hey Mate,

Know from our brewdays that you are a plugman. Only needed to know if the (double-wrapped) mesh would hold up to a pellet invasion?
As an aside, Ross has supplied me with his "Curtain Mesh" material for my hop bags but I have yet to find a competent seamstress to rattle them up. Still musing over the best way to put that TermiMesh to good use.

:beer:

 

[Darren]

Hey,
Any of you guys pump with one of those screens?. Pellets always blocked mine whilst pumping.

cheers
Darren

 

[ausdb]

Hi guys there was a thread about this sort of thing last year and I posted some pics and results of my home made hop stopper screen.
http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...pstopper&st=30#
Since that time I did a brew with 200g of hops in it which were a mixture of plugs and pellets with no blockage problems.

But recently I got a new kettle with a totally flat base (an 80L stockpot)and the hop stopper seems to have gone into semi retirement as I don't need it. All I do now is whirlpool and put a copper racking cane into the wort with a stainless scrubby on the end and start a siphon. Its that easy that I dont think I will bother putting a spigot on the side of the kettle.

 

[warrenlw63]

Ausdb

I'm using an 80 litre pot as well. I've got a pickup tube on the tap and I must confess that virtually nothing gets drawn into the fermenter in terms of hop and trub.

It must be the wider base/surface area. I'm not sure but they sure leave less muck behind compared to a keg. :beerbang:

Warren -

 

[TidalPete]

Ausdb

I'm using an 80 litre pot as well. I've got a pickup tube on the tap and I must confess that virtually nothing gets drawn into the fermenter in terms of hop and trub.

It must be the wider base/surface area. I'm not sure but they sure leave less muck behind compared to a keg. :beerbang:

Warren -

[post="122619"][/post]​

I use a 70 litre pot & am not having that much success with my pickup tube (See pic). I think it's because of the 1\2" to 1\4" reducer that I need to fit the tube to the end connection. Not enough wort is passing through the line to create a decent suction if you get my drift? Even with a 20 minute wait after whirlpooling, the cone of hop debris is still too liquid to stay in the centre of the pot. Maybe a longer wait would do the trick?
Anyway, I solve the problem by straining the lot (Hops & all) through a ss conical sieve (With an old stocking over it) that sits on my fermenter under the kettle tap. Yes, all the dye is out of the stocking . Might as well just get rid of the pickup tube.

Ausdb, I thought ss scrubbies blocked up when used in conjunction with pellets? Do you know something I don't?

:beer:

 

[warrenlw63]

G'day Pete

The whole thing looks quite sound to me... Why did you reduce to 1/4 inch? :unsure: I'd be trying to keep it 1/2 inch all the way. The reduction in flow rate would be frustrating. h34r:

Here's a pic of mine after the brew's been drained. As you can see all the crud still stays behind. Couldn't be happier with it. :beerbang:

Warren -

 

[TidalPete]

G'day Pete

The whole thing looks quite sound to me... Why did you reduce to 1/4 inch? I'd be trying to keep it 1/2 inch all the way. The reduction in flow rate would be frustrating.

Here's a pic of mine after the brew's been drained. As you can see all the crud still stays behind. Couldn't be happier with it.

Warren -

[post="122632"][/post]​

Warren,

An unimpeded flow of 1\2" throughout is absolutely the best way to go. I couldn't find any 1\2" BSP ss compression fittings so I got the 1\4". Might have made a boo-boo there? As a consolation for straining the lot (It's no biggie) I get almost another 3 litres of wort in the fermenter & don't loose a drop . I'm planning to get a few hop bags sewn up to use in the future anyway. Because the large radius at the bottom of my pot forced me to place the tap higher up I have to factor in a loss of 6 litres for trub & hop debris (37 litre pre-boil for a 23 litre batch).

:beer:

 

[AndrewQLD]

here are the pics of my mesh.

This is the finer stuff

 

[AndrewQLD]

and this is what I use on my hop screen
Slighter courser

 

[warrenlw63]

And it only cost 5 cents. :lol:

Warren -