valve installation and wort straining

[Pentaquark]

I purchased a SS 1/2" ball valve to make a weldless connection out of my boil kettle but I've been a little stuck on how to screen out the hops and protein break.

I've heard very mixed things about bazooka screens but they are the easiest, cheapest solution. I've heard they work ok for small to mid-sized hop additions but plug easily if you do IIPAs or anything.

I have a very beaten, very non-symmetrical brew kettle so I'm not sure a false bottom or SS mesh dome would work that well. Plus, they're also slightly more expensive.

Talking with Chuck, he uses a compression-fit 90-degree piece of SS tubing that he just adjusts as the wort level drops. I like this solution for its simplicity but I can't find where to purchase a since piece like that.

Any ideas? Any wonderful insights? Any great suggestions? I'm currently whirlpooling and hand-siphoning off the hop bed but this still leaves a lot of protein break in my fermentor.

[toolman]

i use a hop basket from arborfab.com. and a tee shaped bazooka on the valve.
very pleased with the results.

orval

[Matt]

I currently use a bazooka style tube (stainless mesh), that's bent in a circle and connected to two ends of a copper T, which connects to a copper diptube that's connected to my ball valve.

I used to get into problems with really hoppy whole leaf brews if I went "free range," but now I just put my hops into a couple of nylon hop sacks and haven't had a problem since. The hops in the sacks stay afloat and keep the majority of the hop material away from your screen. I know some people say they notice a loss of IBUs when they use sacks, but if you make sure they get good and saturated, and dunk them with your spoon a few times to move the liquid through them during your vigorous boil -- well, I'd be hard pressed to noticed any losses personally.

Orval's solution looks awesome, and if I have the spare scratch, I'll have to look into that further (the dry hopping canisters for corny kegs look particularly cool), but the nylon hop sacks are a poor man's solution that works for me.

I'll also always take nylon over the muslin bags though. The muslin sacks are good for maybe one or two uses before they start to fray. The nylon ones last forever, especially if you reinforce the stitching on them a bit.

Matt

[ParkerBrew]

I use a straight bazooka screen and nylon hop bags. My screen clogs up pretty badly when using a lot of pellet hops, wheat, or rye. Whole hops seem to work alright with the screen. The nylon bags are a big hassle saver for me with hoppy brews, recommend using a different one for each addition. That way you can line them all up at the beginning of the brew and toss them in as needed. I dunk and swirl them around during the boil, and haven't noticed any significant hoppiness decrease over just tossing them in the kettle.

To combat the protein goop, I've tried recirculating the wort through the counterflow chiller and back into the kettle. Using the bent pipe off to the side makes a nice pile of stuff in the middle of the kettle.

[Blktre]

I use two different things to filter depending on if Im using whole or pellet. I have a brass union inside the kettle these things can be switched out quickly. For whole cone I use a rounded false bottom. The same FB that is used in the Rubbermaid cooler Mash Tun's. I can use this same FB with pellets as long as there is one charge of whole cone in there with it. For all pellets I have a copper diptube that comes in and 90's back to the side of the kettle. I use the whirlpool method with this setup. I pump through a plate chiller and never once have I had a issue with clogging using these techniques....

Here are some pics during the construction phase...





Steamy pic of a trub cone from whirlpool and the diptube....