Hop Filtering
I usually toss the hops pellets loose into the boil to get maximum contact with the wort and better hop utilization, but I ended up with a tremendous amount of hop sediment in the brew kettle when I recently did a heavily-hopped session IPA, so am considering getting some type of hop spider/filter/basket. What do people think of the stainless steel mesh cylinders that hang on the side of the brew kettle? How fine should the mesh be? Most common seems to be 300-400 microns, but there’s probably some trade-off between wort circulation and filtering. I also read that one person throws the hops into the boil loose, then puts the mesh cylinder-type spider in the kettle and the racking cane inside the spider when transferring the wort. Whirlpooling the wort to concentrate the sediment in the center of the kettle and then siphoning from the side helps some, but isn’t too effective when there’s a lot of sediment.
How do you deal with hop sediment in your wort?
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I always just threw them right in my kettle (converted keg with a screen false bottom). I ended up getting a clog on a brew day so I added a second screen made out of a fine mesh colander that I run the tube coming out of the valve through which seemed to help some, but now I use a nylon hop bag. It’s pretty large so I think the contact/utilization with the wort is pretty solid and it definitely makes cleanup easier. I’ll probably get around to building a hop spider for it one of these days.
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