Boiler Hop Stopper Build

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fuzzy

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I just wanted to share my hop stopper filter project with you all in case it helps anyone else.
Its not turned out perfect but it’s a good working prototype I hope, as I’ve yet to use it.

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After getting a plate chiller I wanted to try and make sure it wouldn’t block when chilling the wort. I am using a stainless steel braded hose just now which has worked well with my immersion coil chiller but some of the holes in that are at least 1mm now so didn’t want to take the risk. I would like to go from 5 gallon to 10 gallon batches sometime which means more wort going through the plate chiller so I thought it safer to upgrade the boiler sooner rather than later.

The idea was to create a frame and cover it with a fine mesh. I wanted to make the surface area of the mesh as large as possible to try and reduce the chances of it clogging up. I bought 2 x A4 sheets of 40 gauge stainless steel mesh which has a hole size on 0.4mm.

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To check what size of frame I could use made out of 15mm copper pipe I drew a 2cm margin around an A4 sized piece of card. The 2cm margin would be the amount of mesh I was going to fold over to make the join. After checking this a 2 cm wide section around the copper tee fitting looked a little short so I change that side to a 3 cm margin. This was to allow more room to clamp the mesh to the central pipe that leads to the boilers tap. If I was doing this again I would have made this margin 4cm instead of 3 cm which would have given me more space to work with along that side.

Using the card drawing with the copper fittings laid on it I measured the length of each section between each of the fitting and added 3cm to each pipe as this was to allow the pipe to be pushed into each fitting for soldering. I used an adjustable pipe cutter from Screwfix as it’s a cheap tool and well worth the money as it gives nice clean straight cuts. I used a pipe bender to bend a small length of pipe which will go between the tee fitting on the frame to the 15mm to ½ inch screw tap fitting which screwing on the back of the boilers tap.

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With all sides cut I roughly measured and marked lines 1cm apart a long the pipe, excluding the 15mm from each pipe end as this would be going inside the pipe fittings. I clamped the pipe in a vice a used a hack saw to cut down into the pipe a few millimetres on each marking, I didn’t want to cut too deeply as this will raise the lowest point in the boiler and potentially leave more wort behind in the boiler when draining it. This leaves copper swarf hanging down inside the pipe so a rolled up piece of steel wool pushed up and down the inside of the pipe using a length of rod soon shifted most of it.

With all pipes cut I was ready to solder it together. I used copper solder ring fittings which basically contains the solder in it already and it just needs a blow torch to melt it. After cleaning the pipe ends and inside each fitting with steel wool I coated the ends with soldering flux before fitted them together. After using the blow torch and an old concrete paving slab as a heatproof work surface each fitting was quickly fixed in place. I soldered all the elbows but left the tee fitting so I could check the best angle to allow the frame to sit 5 to 10 mm’s of the bottom of the boiler. With the bent section of pipe (now trimmed to the correct length after a trial fitting) and the tap connector in the right place I finished soldering them. Its not 100% square but the wort won’t know that.

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With the pipe work frame made I started on the mesh. I used a ruler to start off the first fold in the mesh and used the jaws of a vice to help crimp them together tightly which really helped give it a straight edge. I originally thought it might be good to cut a diagonal line into each corner to help when trying to fold 2 sides over where they meet but it turned out that its was not necessary as the vice was able to give a good neat edge on each fold. I found it tricky when trying to fit the mesh around the pipe where it was going to be clamped to the centre pipe. I ended up making 2 cuts, one each side of the centre pipe, and this gave me a little room to clamp the hose clamp round it. Doing this made the mesh a little uneven at this point so, to help seal it and add strength, I applied a little solder around the edges of the mesh here in case it opened during a boil. It should be OK but just wanted to make sure.

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And that its. I have boiled it up twice to clean out the flux and plan to run it thought the dishwasher before using on my next brew, I will post up a note on how I got on with it.

Approximate cost
£12 for pipe and fittings (with extra parts left over)
£12 for the mesh.
Total £24

Shopping list
All the copper 15mm pipe, solder ring fitting and flux was from Screwfix
The 40 gauge A4 stainless steel mesh was from http://www.themeshcompany.com.
The stainless steel hose clamp from an eBay seller.

Tools
I used a pipe cutter, ruler, marker pen, hack saw, bench vice, pliers, screwdriver and wire wool.
 
is the solder lead free also is the flux paste non toxic ie food safe ?????? :thumb:

here is my did hop filter wot i seen people use in usa site working all sweet

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TasUK... please praytell of your source of magic braided tube. (suspects I have some in the house)

By the way I like your build and I think I may follow suit.

D
 
i was on a car boot a guy had loads on there at 50 pence each :D :D :D :thumb:

Darcey said:
TasUK... please praytell of your source of magic braided tube. (suspects I have some in the house)

By the way I like your build and I think I may follow suit.

D
 
its easily bought at places like B&Q, its the flexible hose connection for washing machines etc. Needs the internal plastic removing.
As a result of removing the inner sleeve some folks have found that the braid can collapse under the weight of the water and grains.
 
Darcey said:
TasUK... please praytell of your source of magic braided tube. (suspects I have some in the house)

By the way I like your build and I think I may follow suit.

D

You can buy it HERE without the plastic inner, little bit pricey but looks good. I just bought myself 2 metres :)

Great build Fuzzy, looks really nice and should stop those pesky hops with no probs :thumb:
 
tazuk said:
is the solder lead free also is the flux paste non toxic ie food safe ?????? :thumb:

here is my did hop filter wot i seen people use in usa site working all sweet

Yes, all the fittings / solder is lead free and the flux was non toxic / food safe, I checked all that first. :D

I am currently using the stainless steel hose, like the one in your photo, but some of the gaps in mine, even after taking care of it, are at least 1mm which will increase the chances of it blocking the plate chiller.

I also wanted to increase the filter surface area of the filter, the hose is about 500cm2 (for a meter length) and the new one is now just over 1000cm2, so less chance of the filter its self blocking during draining, fingers crossed anyway.
 
mine is just used in boiler then through plate chiller :D :thumb: :thumb: :D

if used in mash tun i have seen on you tube the yanks wind some steel wire like a coil and place it in the braid to stop it getting squash with grain :thumb:


piddledribble said:
its easily bought at places like B&Q, its the flexible hose connection for washing machines etc. Needs the internal plastic removing.
As a result of removing the inner sleeve some folks have found that the braid can collapse under the weight of the water and grains.
 
Taz. I use a braided hose and blocks everytime! I must be doing something wrong. Do you cool in the boiler first then drain through braided pipe? I do and the crud and the hops block the holes.
 
get a bazooka screen fitted with a half inch socket connector to rear of tap......No problems.
 
how big is your braid most of the time as soon as time up for boil open valve never had a problem yet lets see your filter :thumb:

Hobbins said:
Taz. I use a braided hose and blocks everytime! I must be doing something wrong. Do you cool in the boiler first then drain through braided pipe? I do and the crud and the hops block the holes.
 
piddledribble said:
get a bazooka screen fitted with a half inch socket connector to rear of tap......No problems.

I used a bazooka screen to begin with, changed it to the stainless steel hose. I found the bazooka was still not fine enought as it was still letting too much break and hops into the fermenter, which is ok as it will drop out, but not great for using as a pre filter for a plate chiller. The stainless steel hose I was using was better than the bazooka but, IMO, it could still let too much break and hops through.

I prefer to play it safe and don't want any hassel on brew days with things blocking up, kinda takes the fun out of brewing when you've got too many hassels.
 
I just wanted to update the thread to say that I used the hop stopper at the weekend and it went very well. It was used on a 5 Gallon batch of lager with no slow running issues through the plate chiller. The lager only had 25g of leaf hops in it but I see no reason why it wouldn’t be OK when trying to filter a batch with more hops in it, like an IPA…. I’ll soon find out with the next brew as planning a Caledonian IPA.

cheers :cheers:
 

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