Ghetto Ssball Hop Screen

[reVoxAHB]

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.

Yep, you're spot on Warren.

We brew and learn :excl:

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

Warren -

Hehe! You mean the Craphaus crush that gave me a 5% gain in efficiency?
I'll gladly take that, anyday.. no refund required

Cheers,
reVox

 

[reg]

I look forward to seeing the result of an all pellet brew.
Just starting out and looking to get best efficiency from others experiences.

Oh great info and instructions on building

 

[Inge]

To bring up this old chestnut one more time...

After a blocked pickup tube ruining the end of a perfectly good brew session two nights ago, I decided to scrap whirlpooling and go for a false bottom. Then, I saw this thread. ReVox, you good thing, this teaball hop screen is excellent!

I found that due to the concave shape of the bottom of a keg kettle, the hops tend to congregate in the middle settling to form a thicker layer. I was worried that the thickness of this layer may impede flow if I used a MK II in my system, so I slightly altered Simon W's / your design.

It uses a whole ball to maximise flow, but the pickup tube is situated low (a short length of copper tubing coming out of a brass compression fitting). The screen is held in place with a brass nut butted against the compression fitting on the thread of the elbow.

I gave it a whirl earlier and found that pellets tend to clump to the top half while the bottom half remains clear, flow was excellent from full to empty. All that was left in the kettle afterwards was that which had been soaked up by the plugs. Pretty happy with the result, and at a fraction of the price of a false bottom why wouldn't you be.

Cheers again ReVox.

How did it go with all pellets?

 

[eric8]

To bring up this old chestnut one more time...

After a blocked pickup tube ruining the end of a perfectly good brew session two nights ago, I decided to scrap whirlpooling and go for a false bottom. Then, I saw this thread. ReVox, you good thing, this teaball hop screen is excellent!

I found that due to the concave shape of the bottom of a keg kettle, the hops tend to congregate in the middle settling to form a thicker layer. I was worried that the thickness of this layer may impede flow if I used a MK II in my system, so I slightly altered Simon W's / your design.

It uses a whole ball to maximise flow, but the pickup tube is situated low (a short length of copper tubing coming out of a brass compression fitting). The screen is held in place with a brass nut butted against the compression fitting on the thread of the elbow.

I gave it a whirl earlier and found that pellets tend to clump to the top half while the bottom half remains clear, flow was excellent from full to empty. All that was left in the kettle afterwards was that which had been soaked up by the plugs. Pretty happy with the result, and at a fraction of the price of a false bottom why wouldn't you be.

Cheers again ReVox.

How did it go with all pellets?

Inge,

I think this is what I will be trying next time, My brew last night finished at about 11:45pm. I did have problems with draining and there was a fair bit left in the kettle.

I think having an extra piece of tube will be very helpful as well. I used pellets and flowers, but i did whirlpool and used a half tab of whirlfloc, so this may have been my problems with the flow.

Eric

 

[reVoxAHB]

Hey Inge, glad to hear your mod worked for ya specific to your kettle. Interesting to read the pellets clumped to the top of your ball while the bottom remained clear. The fluid dynamics are clearly pullling top down, causing that clumping and filter bed of sorts. Nice one B)

How did it go with all pellets?

My all-pellet brew is postponed until next weekend. It's a wit, too with 40% raw rolled wheat, spices, flour in the kettle.. If this one doesn't stick, clog-up or otherwise, I think we have a winner.

I was potting around my brew room last night and noticed a bit of condensation on the walls of my kettle where the hop ball is installed (it hasn't been used in 6 days, and was cleaned and dried thoroughly after brewing - but not disassembled).. it told me there's gotta be gunk somewhere..

Pulled the arm out to found a good deal of pellet gunk around the underside backing nut, not to mention a fair bit on the ring where the ball meets the kettle.. quite a few tannins in that ball area, as well. A quick removal of the backing nut, good scrub and into the iodophor.

Point is, you want to remove the MKII for quick cleaning after each use - I do the same with my hard plumbed false-bottom in tun, only takes a second.

Cheers,
reVox

 

[Inge]

Just put on a batch of APA, using chinook pellets, cascade plugs and northern brewer pellets. (40g pellets in total, 45g plugs). I used whirlfloc too.

Flow was a little lower this time, but still managed to get 19L out of the kettle, leaving 2.5L behind. What was left was so concentrated with break material and pellet gunk, it wouldn't filter through the screen. Also, I got a stuck sparge and in the process of clearing it ended up with some grain debris going into the kettle, which contributed to the gunking up. So, all in all, could be much worse :lol:

Either way, I'm interested to see how much of an effect break material has on flow rate. My next batch will be an Oktoberfest, which will use Hersbrucker plugs only, used with whirlfloc. Then I'm going to do a hefeweizen, which will use hersbrucker plugs with no whirlfloc.

What we do in the name of science... :beerbang:

 

[reVoxAHB]

Finally got around to an all-pellet brew over the weekend - 23L wit - 26g E.K.G 18g Saaz.

Very pleased to report the screen performed well, and did not clog or stop flow .

Drained boiler:

This is the normal amount of liquid I leave behind in this vessel.

What I found interesting was after dumping the remaining wort (off the top of kettle) a nice ball of pellet gunk remained- a filter bed which adhered to the ball and bottom of boiler. This was clearly formed (and compacted) at draining:

Wort was pumped thru my ChillOut plate chiller to fermenter. Plate chiller was back-fushed immediately after use and NO hop debris was present.

Cheers,
reVox

 

[reVoxAHB]

Another all pellet-brew 100g hallertauer here:

Screen is fine, no clogging or issues otherwise.

reVox

 

[browndog]

That is pretty amazing Revox, how long did the kettle take to drain?

cheers

Browndog

 

[troydo]

WOW! i used a similar setup to the original, just a ball attached to the tap out, and all 3 times ive used it it has blocked after only a few liters...

 

[Kleiny]

i have seiously got to make one of these ive had nothing but trouble with my previous screen setup to the point of no flow thanks guys for all the tips

 

[reVoxAHB]

That is pretty amazing Revox, how long did the kettle take to drain?

cheers

Browndog

20 minutes, give or take. I'm using a pump tho with valve on output partially closed to restrict flow thru my plate chiller. I reckon if I just opened the valve dumping to cube or ferm, it would drop in mins, or at regular gravity flow rates as I'm not getting any restriction .

Cheers,
reVox

 

[Inge]

I think the pump makes the difference when using all pellets, especially when you get down to the last couple of litres and there isn't enough pressure to force the wort through the hop gunk. If draining with gravity alone, I'd be inclined to include more plugs or flowers than pellets in order to maximise flow.

 

[browndog]

I think Inge most likely has something there Revox. With the pump, even throttled, you are still sucking it through.

cheers

Browndog

 

[troydo]

hmmm

 

[Sully]

Sorry to revive an old post.

I was wondering now that 6 months has passed if anyone is currently using this nifty contraption and what are their thoughts.

Just doing some research for my transition into AG and exploring alot of different avenues.Out of most of the solutions I have seen and read up on, this one has really appealed to me, simple, elegant and looks professional.

Cheers

Sully

 

[troydo]

well i removed mine but im not using a pump and i think thats the key..

 

[Sully]

ok, I maybe way off base here but just a thought...

if this was somehow fashioned like the image below, feeding from the bottom, would that be effective without the need for a pump? bearing in mind that I am starting from scratch with a fresh keg no holes. I will need more than likely need a stand for underneath it, but not an issue as I am going electric.

apolgies if i plagerised anyones images, forgive me, but its all in the name of brewing.

and dont take notice of what fittings are represented also. thats a detail for later.

cheers

sully

 

[troydo]

the problem i had was the hops and break created a screen that the wort trickled through... so i think your placement would be worse than a side mounted one, like i had..... maybe a false bottom would work.. not sure have not tried it...

 

[reVoxAHB]

I was wondering now that 6 months has passed if anyone is currently using this nifty contraption and what are their thoughts.

Just doing some research for my transition into AG and exploring alot of different avenues. Out of most of the solutions I have seen and read up on, this one has really appealed to me, simple, elegant and looks professional.

Thanks mate

A dozen batches on, give or take, and I continue to use a hard plumbed 1/2 hop screen ala:

It works exceedingly well in my setup, with pump which I do think is required for all pellet batches. I've just never tested the rig without a pump, but I'd err on the side of it clogging or flow-rate becoming restricted to a trickle. As mentioned previously, my runnings hit a plate chiller where again, a pump is required imo.

if this was somehow fashioned like the image below, feeding from the bottom, would that be effective without the need for a pump? bearing in mind that I am starting from scratch with a fresh keg no holes. I will need more than likely need a stand for underneath it, but not an issue as I am going electric.

Really, the core principle of the 1/2 ball design or false bottom in the kettle is the formation of a hop filter bed. As you pull your runnings, the filter not only blocks hop debris, etc. it also creates an external organic filter layer keeping subsequent layers of hop, trub, etc. at bay (in the kettle and not your beer)!

Like this: pic was snapped after dumping kettle, hop filter bed adhered to 1/2 ball

Enter your design:

When I think of flow rates, I picture wort taking the path of least resistance and (in this case I'd speculate) it will be the underside of your ball. I would imagine a filter bed will establish itself around the ball, but will it do so uniformly? Will the underside of the ball build an effective bed, if at all? Bear in mind, I could have this backward.. you won't know until you try.

It's pretty hard to speculate, and I guess that's the fun of a project like this. It's cheap and relatively straight forward to implement or mod. Drilling the underside of your keg, doesn't necessarily mean you're committed to this one method - you can convert to 1/2 ball, install a false bottom, run a pickup tube to the outside edge for whirlpool technique. Lots of options.

If you do go the full ball mod, post pics and follow-up as might benefit those w/o pump .

Have fun,

reVox