Home of the BrewNosers

After a couple close calls with hops almost clogging my pump I'm starting to feel like a hop blocker wouldn't be a bad addition to my kettle. There are plenty of designs around, but the one I'm interested in trying to build is the type that covers the pickup tube. This blog post is pretty much what I'm interested in building, although with some slight size/shape modifications to account for having a side pickup tube instead of a central.

The materials list is pretty basic, just 304/316 stainless mesh in the #28 - #30 range and some 304/316 stainless steel wire at about .015" to sew it together. McMaster Carr has both, of course, but it'll cost me an arm and a leg to get it here. Ebay and Amazon haven't been much better; between the dollar, shipping from the states and customs/brokerage fees I'm looking at doubling the cost of anything I order. I've found some places with the mesh in Ontario, but they sell in quantities that aren't practical for my purposes.

Does anyone know a place either local or at least in Canada where I can get stainless mesh and stainless wire without having to buy in large quantity? I suppose the other option would be to buy in quantity if there were a bunch of people interested in DIYing some hop blockers.

I don't know where to source supplies, but do have a couple of questions:

1. Do you whirlpool? If so, does this not move the hops and break away from the pick up tube?

2. How about going for something like this (a modified tea ball)? <http://www.brewgeeks.com/10-stainless-hop-blocker.html> or a modified bazooka tube.

I've been on a break from brewing for a while now, and didn't whirlpool before, but was planning on adding it in the future. I used a hop bag to deal with pellets hops, but found that the bazooka tube often became pretty clogged with break material, seriously restricting flow, and so wonder whether you'd run into this problem even more so with the lesser surface area in the design you have in mind (or the tea ball example I posted).

Jason

For a 40l batch of hoppy IPA you need a lot of surface area. I will share the shipping with you Aaron if you can source a group buy may be in order.

S

jason.loxton wrote:I don't know where to source supplies, but do have a couple of questions:

1. Do you whirlpool? If so, does this not move the hops and break away from the pick up tube?

2. How about going for something like this (a modified tea ball)? <http://www.brewgeeks.com/10-stainless-hop-blocker.html> or a modified bazooka tube.

I've been on a break from brewing for a while now, and didn't whirlpool before, but was planning on adding it in the future. I used a hop bag to deal with pellets hops, but found that the bazooka tube often became pretty clogged with break material, seriously restricting flow, and so wonder whether you'd run into this problem even more so with the lesser surface area in the design you have in mind (or the tea ball example I posted).

Jason

1. Yes I whirlpool; actually right now whirlpooling is the only usage my pump gets. Last brewday I had a weird brief stall in my whirlpooling. The tubes were full, but wort suddenly wasn't moving very well. Just as I was about to shut down the pump and have a look, it cleared with a bit of a "pop" and things went mostly back to normal. When I was cleaning my pump after the brewday I found there was still a good chunk of hops in the input area of the head (there's a cross of metal there not unlike what you'd see in a bathtub drain and larger chunks must have started a buildup). I use pellet hops pretty exclusively and this wasn't a hugely hoppy beer (85g or so during the boil). I may not need a hop stopper, but I'm going to feel more comfortable if I have one, especially when making hoppy beers.

2. I thought about that alternative (and read that exact link, actually). If you look in the lower right of that page, though, you'll see a link to the original HBT thread about it. And at the bottom of that post is an update that makes it clear that this design didn't work well for pellet hops although it was great for leaf hops. With somewhere around 15lbs of pellets in my freezer I'm sort of committed

Bazooka tubes have proven to be insufficient for hop stoppers: not enough holes. The design I'm looking at is actually quite large (8-10" long) and provides quite a bit of surface area to minimize the impact on flow. Commercial versions are available and are fairly well-regarded, I'd just rather make my own. There's also the more hop-spider style that OBK sells, but I prefer giving my hop additions full run of the kettle during the boil.

GAM wrote:For a 40l batch of hoppy IPA you need a lot of surface area. I will share the shipping with you Aaron if you can source a group buy may be in order.

S

I have some of this mesh at the house that you and mumble are welcome to. I sent him PM trying to convince him to make me one too but he's not buying it

LiverDance wrote: I have some of this mesh at the house that you and mumble are welcome to. I sent him PM trying to convince him to make me one too but he's not buying it

I am totally down for making two, I just haven't responded to your PM yet. I think it's worth continuing the discussion even if I'm sorted

Do you have wire as well?

I have some wire but not sure if it's small enough. I'll try and check everything when I'm home tonight.

FWIW, when I made mine, I took strands of the mesh to use as my wire for threading everything together.

Dericks worked fine but was too small (insert joke here).

I have heavy stainless to make a frame tor the device.

S

Ok, I checked last night and I have 2 (12"x24") pieces of mesh as well as some ss wire from princess auto that may work. I believe that size will work based on the link you sent but couldn't find the actual size of the paper he uses as the template. Let me know your thoughts.

Could you send me the link too or post it.

S

GAM wrote:Could you send me the link too or post it.

S

It's in the first post put up under this blog post

LiverDance wrote:Ok, I checked last night and I have 2 (12"x24") pieces of mesh as well as some ss wire from princess auto that may work. I believe that size will work based on the link you sent but couldn't find the actual size of the paper he uses as the template. Let me know your thoughts.

He doesn't give the paper dimension. He did say he started with one piece of 12x24" and half of it was his "backup" if he messed up. Then he took off a 1" strip from at least one side for the gasket. I suspect it was two sides though because you need to start with a square to do the shape he did. Once a 1/4" or so was folded on each edge, my guess is that the starting dimensions were about 10.5x10.5".

That size should work fine for me so I suspect half a 12x24" sheet is all I need. I'm open to trying something different for you if you figure your needs are different.

I'll ask Derek what size he used as Sandy mentioned it was small. I say we just got with 12"x12" to maximize what we have.

LeafMan66_67 wrote:FWIW, when I made mine, I took strands of the mesh to use as my wire for threading everything together.

What were the dimensions of the mesh you used for yours?

LiverDance wrote:I'll ask Derek what size he used as Sandy mentioned it was small. I say we just got with 12"x12" to maximize what we have.

That would be my thought. Kyle has the device now.

S

I covered the 12" diameter false bottom from Everwood. Couldn't pump through it without pellets clogging it up.

false bottom

I used to use one of the Electric Brewery pancake-style hop blockers, but ended up going back to whirlpooling and a side pickup tube. Had to drain really slow with the hop blocker so that hops and trub didn't compact on top of it, became a real pain.

jeffsmith wrote:I used to use one of the Electric Brewery pancake-style hop blockers, but ended up going back to whirlpooling and a side pickup tube. Had to drain really slow with the hop blocker so that hops and trub didn't compact on top of it, became a real pain.

How high off the bottom of your kettle do you set your side pickup? I don't have mine far off the bottom; mine also comes up about 1-2" short of the side of the kettle, which I may need to address. I'm still going to build a hop blocker though; can't hurt to try a couple of things!

mumblecrunch wrote:How high off the bottom of your kettle do you set your side pickup? I don't have mine far off the bottom; mine also comes up about 1-2" short of the side of the kettle, which I may need to address. I'm still going to build a hop blocker though; can't hurt to try a couple of things!

I have one of these:

https://www.brewhardware.com/product_p/elbarb.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

that is about a quarter inch off the bottom of the pot.