Ghetto Ssball Hop Screen

[reVoxAHB]

I've had a few people PM asking how to build my little pick-up hop screen.
Here it is, as requested.

Ghetto Pickup Arm/SSBall Hop Screen:

If you have the tools and copper off-cut, it's a $10 D.I.Y.

Tools and parts required:

Tools (as shown from left to right)
Pipe cutter ($7-$10)*
*You could get away with using a hacksaw to cut your copper and filing ends flat; cutter is cleaner.
Flaring Tool ($15-20)
Blade (fine scissors, etc.) to cut circle in screen
Other Tools
Hammer to flare copper ends
Spanner or wrenches to attach ball and arm to valve (finger tight would likely be fine, too)

Parts (as shown from left to right)
Bit of 1/2" copper to desired length depending on your choice of installation *see Final Thoughts
End fitting (thread size to fit your valve $2)
End fitting/coupling (1/2" $4)
2X rubber washers (these come in different widths and are about .25 each, so grab a couple of each- I reckon the one shown and used is 2mm by estimate)
Stainless Steel Tea Ball ($5-6) available here, or Asian supply, Tea stores, etc.
Plumbers Tape (as desired .50)


Start by marking a hole using the inside of the coupling end, as guide. I pierced the mesh (it's quite strong, which is good!) with a razor blade (mesh inverted and flush with wood), then cut the circle out nicely using SWMBO's nail scissors. You basically want the hole slightly under the 1/2" thread size; it allows you to thread the ball onto the coupling good and tight.

Next, wrap the internal coupling threads with plumber's tape, and roll a rubber washer down. This should be snug. Screw it to the inside of your hop ball so looks like second photo. Roll the next washer down on the outside of the ball - you should now have a washer on the inside and outside of SS mesh (which will allow a nice compressed grab of the mesh when cranked down).

Time to bend yer copper. If you don't have a pipe bender (as I didn't) get creative; use a corny keg, etc. I used the base of my pistil and mortar. Palms on each side and a bit of weight and you're there. Next, get the two end fittings on the copper with threads pointed out, away from each other. Each end into the flaring tool. If you've never used one before, leave 2-3mm of overhang as shown in pic at right. Bang on.

The ball can now be fitted to one side of your arm. The SS mesh should be snug (no play) between coupling fittings. You may have to play with various rubber washers to achieve desired grab, but as I say, it should be snug with no travel. Alternate side of arm next fitted to valve.

Done.


Additional notes:
Chain from ball was removed as is no longer required.
The retaining pin on the locking clip is piss weak. It has been noted in other threads that this is likely the only non-SS part in the ball, and therefore susceptible to corrosion, etc.

I clamped the locking pin tight (on both ends) using needle nose pliers, then wedged it onto the ball assembly (shown below). Alternately, you could run a small screw into the hole, omitting the clip (probably better)

In action:

Final Thoughts:
Plenty of superior commercial offerings are available and alternate setups like warren's false bottom filter, which also has it's benefits.

I reckon a repositioning of arm is in order to fully drain the kettle. An S like approach in arm, so that the arm wraps the side of kettle to ball would be better (allowing tipping/gravity to work effectively).

Another variation would be to reverse the couplings attached to ball, allowing you to mount the ball directly to your valve, omitting the pick-up arm. In that way, you could whirlpool, and pull directly from the side with filter.

Simon W had a great suggestion to utilise 1/2 the ball running the arm and ball to the center of keg as shown:

so that it works much like Warren's false bottom setup where flower hops create a bed harbouring break. If using a CUB keg as your kettle, I reckon the fit would be perfect to the little circle dimple in the bottom

Not sure where this project will land. Built it on a whim for a one-off brew as I'm between gear atm.

Other Ghetto Projects:
Ghetto Carbon Water Filtration

Open to suggestions and feedback, as always.


Have fun,
reVox

 

[Pumpy]

Excellent post Revox a picture is worth a thousand words

Pumpy

 

[eric8]

Another variation would be to reverse the couplings attached to ball, allowing you to mount the ball directly to your valve, omitting the pick-up arm. In that way, you could whirlpool, and pull directly from the side with filter.

Simon W had a great suggestion to utilise 1/2 the ball running the arm and ball to the center of keg as shown:

so that it works much like Warren's false bottom setup where flower hops create a bed harbouring break. If using a CUB keg as your kettle, I reckon the fit would be perfect to the little circle dimple in the bottom

Thanks reVox that's a great how to. This will be a good little project to try out. I had wondered if attaching it straight to the valve would be any good, and now that you have mentioned it it could be the go. SimonW's idea is great as well, and I can see that it would fit nicley in a converted keg.

But which one to try :unsure: , guess I will just have to try both .

Eric

 

[Cortez The Killer]

That's a brilliant how-to

Top work

Cheers

 

[brettprevans]

A++ ther reVox. inspiring me to go out and do it. surely a post worth airlocking?

Simon W had a great suggestion to utilise 1/2 the ball running the arm and ball to the center of keg as shown:

so that it works much like Warren's false bottom setup where flower hops create a bed harbouring break. If using a CUB keg as your kettle, I reckon the fit would be perfect to the little circle dimple in the bottom

re this approach. I had wondered why a hop sock couldnt be put in front of say an esky outlet and used as a screen? would it be likely to create a stuck sparge becuase its too good at filtering?

 

[Julez]

I built one of these "ReVox Ghetto Hop Screens" last week and tried it out today - it worked great and was dead easy to make. Great idea and great post, ReVox!!

The only thing I didn't like about it, was I had about 4L of wort left in the bottom of my kettle, because my pickup tube was so far from the kettle base, due to the size of the spherical screen. I'm going to see if I can mod it somehow, maybe by just using half the spherical strainer and sit it flush on the base of the kettle. Failing that, is there any reason I can't just use hose braid attached to my pickup, fastened by way of a hose clamp?

Cheers and once again, great idea! :icon_cheers:

 

[Prawned]

Failing that, is there any reason I can't just use hose braid attached to my pickup, fastened by way of a hose clamp?

Cheers and once again, great idea! :icon_cheers:

I would also like to know the answer to that, the keg i got in the weekend came with a hose braid already in it.. Want to keep things as cheap as i can to start out.

 

[SJW]

How would this thing go with pellets?

 

[Steve]

How would this thing go with pellets?

I reckon it would be fine as people (including me) use them to dry hop in kegs. I dont get hops leaking out into the keg so I image you wouldnt get hops leaking in when its in the bottom of the kettle.
Cheers
Steve

 

[warrenlw63]

No Steve they won't leak in but that becomes part of the problem. They form a coating against the mesh and impede the flow of liquid.

I seriously wouldn't use them for pellets only. Pellets in conjunction with flowers and plugs are OK. The whole hops act as their own filter bed against the pellets then.

Warren -

 

[SpillsMostOfIt]

Do you think that might be why I get a better response from my other half when I give her flowers than when I give her pellets?

 

[Hutch]

It is possible Steve, with pellets as well.
You need to use a very long length of hose braid, and make sure it is laid out around the perimeter of the base of your boiler.
Last 2 brews I tried this, using a 1m length of braid, curled around the outside rim. When you whirlpool, the gunk remains in the middle until there's only a few litres left in the boiler. Up unti this point there is no chance of the braid clogging up. The last few litres start to run more slowly, however you can get most of it out without the braid clogging up.

Obviously flowers present less of a problem, however I think this system is still useful for pellets as well. Obviously 1m hose braid was not cheap ($30), though still cheaper than a SS false bottom.

If I remember, I'll take a photo tonight to show what I mean.

 

[eric8]

I made one these hop screens. I have some pics to add as well. It worked rather well, although I had some stuff missing from my p/u tube so it didn't get all the wort out. The next brew it should work a treat, and I will be using pellets and flowers.

Great idea reVox

Eric

 

[The7]

This looks like a good idea.

when I do it I think I will se if I can get a compression fitting to work rather than flare the pipe

 

[reVoxAHB]

Alright fellas, knocked out MKII of the Ghetto SS screen:

In spirit of the thread (and project) you'll require:

-1 X Elbow w/1/2" male threads on each end. It will come with compression fittings- you'll note I removed one at left, as it's not required and to demo the end(s).
-2 X hexagon 1/2" back nut- these are fairly thin, 3mm approx.

If building this from scratch, refer to post #1 on how to cut the hole in your screen.

Installation's straight forward. Run the first backing nut up the elbow thread, screw on the hop screen, follow it with the second backing nut so that a nut secures the screen on each side like:

The fit is good and snug so no tape or washers are required. Just an easy crank down with your wrenches.

Next, to the arm. Don't be too concerned with the downward angle at this point. Just tighten the fitting on each end keeping the bottom of the screen (the flat part) level with the bottom of your kettle.

Now find a hard object (head of hammer, flaring tool, etc.) that's roughly the height of the underside of your valve. It just so happened my flaring tool was perfect to my rig, so that I could slip it under the arm as shown. Note the position, where it's closer to the valve than the screen:

Give it a quick bend down with your weight on the elbow, careful not to flatten the ball too much. The flat bottom of the ball should now be good and snug to the kettle. If the screen does collapse too much as you're bending the arm down, not to fear, just pull the arm back into a better position while popping the screen back into place. The screen is quite resilient; you won't hurt it.

I was able to get it good and snug, first go:

Final Thoughts:
Screen was installed to the center of my vessel as I want to encourage the filtration of trub via hop bed, as much as possible (I will not be whirlpooling).

The inlet valve is now 5mm (approx.) from the bottom of my kettle, minimizing wastage as compared to the ball with inefficient bend as before. If you really wanted to push it, you could use the compression fitting in place of the hex nut, in the underside of the ball- I found it was 1, maybe 2mm from the kettle bottom. With heat expansion, I reckon it's just too close. I don't think I'll be leaving much behind now, anyway.

And what about the other 1/2 of the ball?

A quick retaining screw (sharp tipped PC screw) and it now resides on the underside of my false bottom in tun:

The ball fits perfectly in the keg bottom indentation. And done at right :icon_cheers:

I'll be brewing this weekend (flowers and pellets), will post pics. The following weekend I hope to brew a pellet only batch. Again, will post pics and result.

All the best and thanks to Simon, Warren and the rest who inspired this project.

reVox

 

[sathid]

Just a thought - is it worth (in the MKII model) building it so that the opening in the fitting (inside the screen) is closer to the bottom of the pot?
Looks like you'd miss out on a bit of wort doing it in the manner shown?

 

[browndog]

Love your work there Revox and your post is a ripper. I have a question though, everyone seems to be concerned with hops, how about the break material, does the teaball let it through or does it stay behind in the kettle ?

cheers

Browndog

 

[reVoxAHB]

Just a thought - is it worth (in the MKII model) building it so that the opening in the fitting (inside the screen) is closer to the bottom of the pot?
Looks like you'd miss out on a bit of wort doing it in the manner shown?

I took this into consideration at the build. By estimate, it's approx. 5mm from the bottom of the kettle and you're right.. I would leave a little wort behind. If I used a compression fitting, instead of the bottom hex nut, it left only 1mm approx. (and as I was saying, with heat expansion I could see it quickly becoming stuck to the bottom of kettle). If it really bothers me, I reckon I could grind the tip of a compression nut flat adjusting the pickup as desired. If you think about the height now, it's probably comparable to the pickup (underside) of a SS false bottom which others use to achieve similar result.

Love your work there Revox and your post is a ripper. I have a question though, everyone seems to be concerned with hops, how about the break material, does the teaball let it through or does it stay behind in the kettle ?
cheers

Browndog

Thanks Browndog

Basically, the screen (and false bottoms) create a hop bed when draining. The break material sits on top of the hop bed, thereby filtering your wort clear. I'm guessing the fine mesh of the teaball further resists break, etc. My main concern with this rig, not having brewed long term with it, is the screen clogging and the drain becoming stuck. MKI (ball) and all flowers drained without issue. All pellets could prove a pita.

Cheers,
reVox

 

[reVoxAHB]

Well, this:

was the dumbest idea in the world. Failed miserably. Had a stuck sparge in 13 seconds flat... granted my crush was milled@ gap setting of 1.1mm (fine), but would likely gum@ any setting. Avoid this mod, folks!

Hey, but the MKII hop screen worked very well. Better than expected:

66g Centennial (pellet)
30g Amarillo (pellet)
25g Cascade (flower)

Runoff was clear and bright - I'm using a plate chiller and had no blockage at all, whatsoever. The amount of trub in the bottom of carboys (after settling) was minimal. The amount of wort left behind in kettle is minimal- 2 to 3L by estimate (whereas the ball at side left 4 - 6L behind.. so it's halved now). In actual fact, I'd hit my target volume in carboys so stopped the runoff (photo above); hard to guesstimate exactly how much the setup will allow you to run off (I should've thought to keep running it to a collection bucket, etc. for testing).

Overall, I'm very pleased with this mod and approach. I'll have a feeling I'll be using it for sometime .

I'll be brewing a pellet only batch next weekend. Will again, post result.

Cheers,
reVox

 

[warrenlw63]

Well, this:
was the dumbest idea in the world. Failed miserably. Had a stuck sparge in 13 seconds flat... granted my crush was milled@ gap setting of 1.1mm (fine), but would likely gum@ any setting. Avoid this mod, folks!

reVox... My guess is that a lot of the fines and flour can migrate through and under the false bottom as you mash in. Would have basically put a layer of mud around that secondary teaball screen you inserted underneath.

I've found with S/S false bottoms that you'll always need some degree of recirculation to set up the grain bed. When I used the 12 inch in my mash tun it took around 8-10 litres to achieve clarity. With the 9 inch I only need around half the amount.

Sure hope it wasn't the crush... The Craphaus gives no money back guarantees. :lol:

Warren -