Hole Size For Hop Filter/screen In Kettle

[reVoxAHB]

Hi all

I stumbled on these Lavazza powdered chocolate shakers in the coffee section of Coles ($8.00/ea):

Now, initially I was thinking they'd work great for dry hopping in the keg, being stainless with no hinges like many tea balls.. have a decent weight to them where I'm guessing they'd sink, and the filter screen seems fine enough to properly retain pellet debris.

However, I plan to build a hop screen for the kettle similar (and clearly not as flash) as beerbelly's offering.

Wondering, what do you reckon is a suitable hole size for drilling? I was thinking 2mm?

Considerations:
Screen will be used at the kettle wall.
Pickup tube will drop inside of unit to where a SS scrubby can be inserted at tip for further filtration.
Wanting to block all-pellet brews.
Will be used in conjunction/before a plate chiller.
Using a March809 to pump output of kettle to in on plate chiller.
I do not whirlpool (I want immediate chilling for maximum aroma uptake).

Have been experimenting with various kettle screens over the years. 9" falsies in kettle, teaballs like this:

and have been relatively satisfied with my latest job of:

But, had a 200g (or so) all-pellet brew on Sunday and my flow thru PC crawled to a halt (confirmed restriction was at hop screen in kettle). I've done all-pellet brews with the above rig on several occasions with no dramas. Not entirely sure where the variance has come from, but it's prompted *shitted me enough to try another method.

In effect, if I come up with something suitable with my rig, I'll likely drop the $95 for beerbelly's screen as a permanent solution. The $8 jobber is a tester, so to speak.. but I like the added benefit of opening the lavazza unit for ss scrubby inclusion.

What do you all think before I drill? 2mm? Anything else I should be looking at? Open to all suggestions and cheers.

reVox

 

[glaab]

maybe you could get a piece of perf and roll it into a short tube so it fits into lid and pop rivet with ss rivets then cut off 20mm of the bottom of the canister and rivet that to the other end.

 

[devo]

I'm gonna try using the ball of stainless steel wool over the pick up tube in the next brew to see how it goes.

 

[OLDS2006]

This guy does cut to size.
Got this link from here somewhere.
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/STAINLESS-STEEL-PER...=item5ad4358807

 

[yardy]

g'day revox, got some dimensions on the canister ?


cheers

Dave

 

[Barley Belly]

I'm gonna try using the ball of stainless steel wool over the pick up tube in the next brew to see how it goes.

That's what I use
Buy em in a pack of 6 for $2 @ the cheap shop
1 per brew and throw away
Does the job for me

Had one stuck drain so I modified pickup with some slots

 

[reVoxAHB]

maybe you could get a piece of perf and roll it into a short tube so it fits into lid and pop rivet with ss rivets then cut off 20mm of the bottom of the canister and rivet that to the other end.

Great idea! It might actually finish nicely, too. Moving in this direction if I can source the perf at an acceptable price.

This guy does cut to size.
Got this link from here somewhere.
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/STAINLESS-STEEL-PER...=item5ad4358807

Cheers OLDS2006. I've contacted him. Awaiting quote; will report back.

g'day revox, got some dimensions on the canister ?


cheers

Dave

Hey Dave, the canister has a 60mm diameter, 85mm length with lid on. 185mm circumference.

I'll require a piece of perf@ 185mm x 100mm. Will sure finish a lot nicer with perf over mutant randomly drilled holes.

 

[eric8]

Will sure finish a lot nicer with perf over mutant randomly drilled holes.

I was wondering if you where going to do more holes in it, because if you left it as is, it would surely get stuck like the ball has. What you going to call this one? Ghetto canister?

 

[reVoxAHB]

I was wondering if you where going to do more holes in it, because if you left it as is, it would surely get stuck like the ball has.

Yep. Forsure.

What you going to call this one? Ghetto canister?

Haha. Yes, let's roll with ghetto canister :lol:

If the perf works cheaply, I'll shoot pics of the build, test and draw conclusions.

 

[reVoxAHB]

Cheers OLDS2006. I've contacted him. Awaiting quote; will report back.

$5.00 + shipping (or can collect in Box Hill)

This project's shaping up.

 

[Hutch]

$5.00 + shipping (or can collect in Box Hill)

This project's shaping up.

Hey Revox,
What about the Stainless FB you've got? I presume you're using it in your MT, but you can easily use a braid or slotted copper manifold in the MT (better IMHO), and put the FB to use in the boiler.
Just another option for you.
Cheers,
Hutch.

 

[reVoxAHB]

Hey Revox,
What about the Stainless FB you've got? I presume you're using it in your MT, but you can easily use a braid or slotted copper manifold in the MT (better IMHO), and put the FB to use in the boiler.
Just another option for you.
Cheers,
Hutch.

Hey Hutch, I use the 9" falsie in kettle with all-flower brews. Works a treat (as does the 1/2 tea ball mod). Used the FB over winter a fair bit in lauter where I went back to small-batch brewing on the stove top, as couldn't be bothered setting up outside, brewing in 7C drizzle. I did find the FB gums right up with all pellet brews to where I have to run a paddle over the surface to break it up, which is not ideal as I prefer lid on during runoff/chilling (not to mention, I'm kinda pushing crud through the FB). That's partially why I'm looking at other solutions atm.

Cheers

 

[yardy]

Hey Dave, the canister has a 60mm diameter, 85mm length with lid on. 185mm circumference.

I'll require a piece of perf@ 185mm x 100mm. Will sure finish a lot nicer with perf over mutant randomly drilled holes.

Gday Revox,

pity you're not closer mate, i've got some nice ss mesh you could have to cover the drilled body.

cheers

Dave

 

[reVoxAHB]

Gday Revox,

pity you're not closer mate, i've got some nice ss mesh you could have to cover the drilled body.

cheers

Dave

Thanks for the kind offer, Yard :icon_chickcheers: Looks like I'm sorted atm with OLDS ebay link. Cheers tho.

 

[reVoxAHB]

Hey fellas, sorry to those who PM'd in my delay at getting pics up. Finished the build a few weeks ago. Have brewed twice with it, and am quite pleased with the result:


This pic more or less sums the build. Pretty straight forward:


I started by hacking the bottom from shaker at 15mm, to match the lid in size. Next, rolled the ss perf. It rolled quite easily. Just did it by hand being careful not to kink or flatten any part of it. The perf arrived cut to size@ 185mm x 100mm, which works exactingly (with shaker). Took the project to my welder buddy to have him tack the butt in a couple of spots.. He'd never welded perf like this before and used too large of a rod which pretty much instantly burned a hole (the size of rod) at the butt. So, we took a bit of extra perf and ran it down the join, pop-riveting in 4 places to secure. Works absolutely fine. I then riveted the perf to the shaker bottom (in 2 places/opposing sides). Next, used tin snips to cut out the circle for lid (obviously, removing the insert screen that came with the shaker) and grinded the perf to a snug fit. It just pops into the lid and holds very well. If you overcut/over grind this you would need to find a way to attach it to the lid, so the advice would be to work it slowly and check how it pops in, every 5 seconds to ensure proper fitting. The lid then snugs onto the body.. You can see opposing dimples on the lid. They work well to secure it without the need to rivet, etc. And in that way, I can pull the cap to clean the inside, and so on.

First brew, I wrapped it around the kettle wall with pickup tube at lowest point, internally:


Worked fine, but didn't really like the tipping of kettle to left side to pull remainder of wort (and I'm sure I don't fully understand the fluid dynamics behind wort flow, and pickup orientation, etc.). So, as it sort of shit me, I went with a stubby pickup, and optional SS scrubby pushed into/around pickup tip:


Worked a treat, and as the kettle was just about empty, it was a no brainer to tip toward valve and pull every last bit of wort (I'm normally not fussed at this, but had overboiled :icon_drunk: on the day, and I guess a side-benefit was that I could test the effectiveness of placement).

Anyway, she's done. Total cost: $13.00
$8.00 shaker
$5.00 perf

Had the rivets, various plumbing parts around (for pickup). It might run you another $5'er.

I do intend to go stainless pickup/hardware and bolt it to the filter, like BeerBelly's unit (I had loaned my 20mm SS bit to a mate, so only drilled it to 1/2" where I literally squeeze/push it onto the pickup.. could probably just leave it as is, it's not disturbed in the boil, but I do like the Idea of knowing it's bolted proper).



Thanks all for the ideas and direction on this one! It exceeded my "fun factor" expectation (in the build) and I now have a solid solution for all-pellet batches. I did notice the flow rate was greatly improved through the plate chiller where my old system was "sucking" through the hop screen, and was no doubt impeded due to the fine mesh.

Cheers
reVox

 

[Cortez The Killer]

Top work!