$10 Stainless Hop Blocker - by bigljd
Here's my stainless steel DIY hop stopper that I made for $10. It started it's life as a jumbo tea ball from Amazon.com.
I took a phillips screwdriver and forced a hole in the side of the SS screen and stretched it out until it was large enough to fit over my SS pickup tube. I also cut about 1.5" length off the side pickup tube, and cut some grooves into the end of the tube so that if the screen got pushed up against the end of the tube and some hops got sucked into the screen, the wort can still drain out thru the grooves.
I brewed an 11 gal batch of porter today that had 5oz of whole hops in it, and it filtered out everything with no trouble. I could drain with the valve fully open and there was no blockage or hops getting into the fermenter.
This paves the way for me to get a plate chiller now, since I don't have to worry about hops getting stuck in my pickup tube or in a plate chiller. I haven't tried it yet with pellet hops, but I think it would work OK with them too.
Took me about 5 minutes to create the hole in the screen, and 15 minutes to cut the grooves in the tube with a dremel. Don't waste $60 on a Blichman hop stopper - this will work just as well and is ridiculously easy to make.
I took a phillips screwdriver and forced a hole in the side of the SS screen and stretched it out until it was large enough to fit over my SS pickup tube. I also cut about 1.5" length off the side pickup tube, and cut some grooves into the end of the tube so that if the screen got pushed up against the end of the tube and some hops got sucked into the screen, the wort can still drain out thru the grooves.
I brewed an 11 gal batch of porter today that had 5oz of whole hops in it, and it filtered out everything with no trouble. I could drain with the valve fully open and there was no blockage or hops getting into the fermenter.
This paves the way for me to get a plate chiller now, since I don't have to worry about hops getting stuck in my pickup tube or in a plate chiller. I haven't tried it yet with pellet hops, but I think it would work OK with them too.
Took me about 5 minutes to create the hole in the screen, and 15 minutes to cut the grooves in the tube with a dremel. Don't waste $60 on a Blichman hop stopper - this will work just as well and is ridiculously easy to make.
The height of the tea ball looks to be approx 4 1/8" tall, and according to the website it's 5.5" in diameter.
I added a couple more pictures below; the tea ball is fairly sturdy and comes apart which I think makes for easy cleaning. It took about 15 seconds of spraying it with a hose and it looked like new again. The top of it locks onto the bottom, so you shouldn't have to worry about it coming apart in the boil.
When making the hole, I started with a phillips screwdriver to poke thru the screen, and gradually found larger diameter things to stick thru the hole to spread it out and make it larger (insert joke here). I think I used a 1/2" SS barb fitting I had lying around to spead it the final bit.
Hole placement in the tea ball will depend on the height or angle of the pickup tube. My hopstopper sits on a slight angle in the kettle, since the pickup tube holds the hole side of it up off the bottom a bit. You could probably come in thru the top of it too, if your pickup tube is mounted high enough (or if you used a smaller tea ball). The most important thing is getting the screen hole size just big enough to slide over your pickup tube - this will keep the hops and trub out of the ball. Also, make sure the end of your pickup tube is near the bottom of the tea ball so you don't waste any wort in the kettle.
There are alot of different sized tea balls out there, so figure out what size and hole position will work best for your setup and go for it!
I added a couple more pictures below; the tea ball is fairly sturdy and comes apart which I think makes for easy cleaning. It took about 15 seconds of spraying it with a hose and it looked like new again. The top of it locks onto the bottom, so you shouldn't have to worry about it coming apart in the boil.
When making the hole, I started with a phillips screwdriver to poke thru the screen, and gradually found larger diameter things to stick thru the hole to spread it out and make it larger (insert joke here). I think I used a 1/2" SS barb fitting I had lying around to spead it the final bit.
Hole placement in the tea ball will depend on the height or angle of the pickup tube. My hopstopper sits on a slight angle in the kettle, since the pickup tube holds the hole side of it up off the bottom a bit. You could probably come in thru the top of it too, if your pickup tube is mounted high enough (or if you used a smaller tea ball). The most important thing is getting the screen hole size just big enough to slide over your pickup tube - this will keep the hops and trub out of the ball. Also, make sure the end of your pickup tube is near the bottom of the tea ball so you don't waste any wort in the kettle.
There are alot of different sized tea balls out there, so figure out what size and hole position will work best for your setup and go for it!
NOTE: bigljd reports that whole leaf hops work better than pellets for the screen size he used.
