The Hop stopper

[redtail28]

I sure you guy's have seen the product and or website.
They did a 26 oz IPA.
http://www.ihomebrewsolutions.com/image ... topper.pdf

[yeastmeister]

Yep, thats what I have been cloning with my filter setup. I don't know what size mesh he is using, but I've tried 100 mesh, 80 mesh, 40 mesh, and finally 20 mesh. Everything clogged eventually with chilling. I discovered that it was the cold break that was clogging the unit, and not the hops. My current one is 20 mesh, and works flawlessly with my therminator (no cold break in the kettle).




This one is my fancy design with compression fittings and stainless stuff for easy removal. The original ones worked just fine by using all copper and a ring clamp to remove. You can purchase everything you need locally for cheaper than the commercial version if you want to. Not much cheaper, but it may give you better satisfaction making it yourself.

The commercial one will almost definitely clog with cold break as well if your using an immersion chiller and a pump. Note the 26oz IPA was using a pump and a therminator like I finally did.

[redtail28]

Is there a mesh above 100 or does it jump up like to 200.
I feal like calling and trying to find out more info. I like
The idea but between Red, Steve and yourself I'm
Sure y'all try just about every combination

[redtail28]

Do you think it clogged because of the thickness of child wort
And a pump? Maybe if we had two valves one for recirculation
And the other for transferring child wort with hop stopper
Into the fementeor

[yeastmeister]

Nope on both accounts. The 100 mesh I first tried during my experiment with reiteratively mash stuff. First mash went through just fine, but by the time it got to 1.060, the wort just beaded on top of the 100 mesh. Surface tension kept it from going through. There are things above 100 mesh, but I don't think you want to go there.

80 and below didn't have that problem, so anything higher than 80 mesh would be a waste for higher gravity beers. 80 was too easily clogged, literally took a pressure washer to get the hop pieces off the screen.

No chance it was because of the wort and the pump. I tried multiple gravities between 1.050 and 1.110 and always the same, it would start out pumping fine, and the colder it got, the slower it got. Amount of hops didn't seem to matter. It always clogged with a thick sludge took pressure to remove.

Eventually, I tried several experiments that led me to the cold break problem, and it turns out to have been correct. You saw my hopstopper working flawlessly with my therminator. That batch would have never flowed if I had used the immersion chiller prior. I know because I tried it.

Without the cold break, the material left on the screen just washes off. Thats why I think the 26 oz experiment worked.

[redtail28]

And i'm sure it would have clogged up just using
gravitiy to flow into the fermentor.
Well I E-mail the copmany with this question.

[redtail28]

Yeastmeister when you right your right
here's the replay from the hop stopper people

Thanks for your inquiry. The performance of the Hop Stopper is not really dependant on the use of pump. However, the issue of cooled vs. hot wort does have bearing. When using an immersion chiller, the resulting cold break can, but not always, clog the screen. As I said, this is not always a problem, but it does happen occasionally. Whenever these occasional problems arise in the use of the Hop Stopper, it is invariably tied to the use of an immersion chiller and the resulting cold break. There are some steps that you can take to minimize the effect of the break, one of which is to slow down the flow rate as the kettle empties. In gravity systems, this slow down is automatic, but when using a pump, this needs to be done manually.

Over the course of selling hundreds of Hop Stoppers all over the world, there have only been an handful of returns where homebrewers simply could not get the Hop Stopper to work. In every case, I have refunded the full purchase price of the product (including the shipping cost) and arranged for the return shipping of the product at my expense. This is the best guarantee available for any product on the market.

I hope I have answered your question adequately. If you have additional questions or need further information, please contact me.

Sincerely,

Dennis Collins
Innovative Homebrew Solutions

[yeastmeister]

Its an awesome product, no doubt, but I will strongly recommend against it if your going to use an immersion chiller with it.

We tend to make big brews that produce lots of cold break, nothing more frustrating than having an awesome brew day only to have it fail at the last step when you can't get the wort into the fermenter. Thats when infections happen.

Use it with a CFC or plate chiller, and you will have no problems.

Mind you, I made plenty of great beers before I even started using the hopstopper, I used to just whirlpool, and if anything got into the fermenter I didn't worry about it. But in my quest for making beers repeatable, I needed a consistent way to control what when into the fermenter.

[redtail28]

what your suggest i do to filter out of the trash?

[aleguy]

you could just suck it through your teeth when you drink it?
Seriously though, I just run a straight pickup tube in my kettle and run it through a SS mesh sink strainer into my primary. This not only catches most of the hops, it aerates the wort at the same time.