New Syphon/Hop strainer

Not wanting to drill my copper and fit a tap I have been thinking of making a Sypon/hop strainer. This is what I came up with.

Here's all the parts stripped down. I soldered the bends on one end only and slightly ovaled the other end so they were a push fit when put together. The tube is 15mm and the holes (268 of them) are 3mm.

This is the hopstrainer square put together. I wanted it to be free standing so I opted for a square shape.

And here is the whole thing.

I used it today when brewing a stout and it was great. I put it into the boiler at 15min to go along with the cooling coil. I'd previously sanatised the long arm and tap.I start the syphon with a short piece of sanitised tubing lightly pushed onto the tap. Once syphon is started its easly pulled off and the wort flows into the FV. I used the tap to control the flow. The first 4L were recirculated and it then ran clear until the last couple of litres.

Here it is in action. (outside in the dark )

And this is what it left behind..

I suppose I've got to brew a light coloured beer next to see how good it really is




Yeasty

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olaboss wrote:What an impressive setup! You are a plumber or
Do you always use whole hops? I just use pellets in a smaller nylon bag that I lift out at the end.
I got to pick some wild (semi-wild) hops from a friend that I still haven't used. I was thinking of using them for dry hopping. They are Cascade hops and the guy stopped brewing years ago but still have the hops.
Boy you could build a commercial brewery with your skills! I love it!
Cheers Ola

Thanks olaboss, I'm no plumber ( I'm actually an Electrical Fitter ) but I've always been good at making stuff.

I always use whole hops loose in the boil, putting them in a hop sock doesn't seem right to me somehow. I just love watching them in the boil, I don't feel like I'm made beer until I've put the hops in. Those cascade hops will be good, I made a SMaSH with cascade and it was a fine tasty brew

Building a commercial brewery !! that would be a dream



Yeasty

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Yeasty, I'm lost for words which speaks volumes . I have never seen this idea before anywhere .

I've got heaps of questions but will restrain myself ... When's the pellet test? (I reckon it will work with pellets.) Were you chilling or no-chilling?

I love this sort of thinking. Thanks Yeasty...

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Cheers PP you don't know what an honour it is to render you speechless

I've mulled over the idea for quiet a while wondering if it would work or not, then decided there was no reason why it shouldn't so gave it a go. To be honest I'm well chuffed with the results. The main thing was it needed to be stable once the syphon was started hence the square shape. My original design was a round hop strainer that fitted tight to the sides of the pot but this was difficult to make without proper bending equipment. (i've only got a spring).

I will try it with pellets when I can get some, perhaps a lager of some kind, that will be a real test.

And it was chilled although it will work no chill if your carefull starting the syphon. I'll post some pictures later of it in the kettle when its empty.

Yeasty

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LOL on the speechless bit. Seriously though, I love this and you have my brain going at a hundred miles an hour but I'm meant to be working on something else .

Here's one quick, and I think probably useless thought,... if you had a wider copper tube you could sleeve over the 'exit' part of the tube, you could turn this into an auto-syphon as well. (I think )

Gotta go but thanks again Yeasty. Made my day

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Hi Lambert.

After I made it I tested it with plain water in the kettle. I then heated the water and boiled it for a bit to dissolve any flux, I then syphoned this into a FV and recirced it a couple of times to flush it all through.

As for sanatising, the Square was going in the boiler for 15min, for the long arm I filled it with videne solution. After brewing I have gave it a good flush through, I might put it in the bath for a good clean with Oxy. Before the next brew I intend to put it all in the oven for 1/2 hr at 100*c.

Can you not block one end of your syphon and fill with cleaning solution ?

lambert wrote:I've been trying very hard to make a copper auto syphon - a 15mm tube running inside a 22mm pipe will work - the only problem is finding "something" that will fit on the 15mm pipe and also run snugly inside the 22mm pipe...

I've thought about this and have the same problem. I was thinking the other way around and looking for something to fit onto the 22mm that would run up the outside of the 15mm and still provide a seal. I'm going to look for a large stuffing/cable gland. perhaps two 25mm glands back to back joined by a couple. One that will take 22mm and one smaller that will take 15mm. I'll be in the wholesalers tomorrow so I'll have a look at what they have. Not that its abig issue as I don't no chill so there is no danger when I start the syphon.

Sorry for the long post

Yeasty

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Re Oxy and copper:

I've done a bit of research and had a piece of copper in some oxy overnight ( 2 X Recommended strenght for stubborn stains). From the searching it seems oxy is ok on copper and the piece soaking backs this up. It is not suitable for Ali though.

lambert wrote:Interesting your approach on the syphon. Wouldn't you need to fill the 22mm pipe with wort/beer before the flow will start?

My thinking is that you would have to keep the discharge end of the pipe sealed, (I'll close my little tap) then by pulling down on the 22mm extending it to its full length would create a vacuum that would pull wort up and over the kettle lip. Opening the tap would start it flowing. Another idea was to fit one of those little one way Vvs that you can get for aquariums to the discharge end. This way you could pump the 22mm until you got flow then just pull it off.


Some thing like this One way Valve + tubing would do. If you sanatise the tubing so you don't contaminate the tap things should be ok.

lambert wrote:Finally, you've said in the first post that you recirculate the first 4L of beer our of the strainer/syphon. Do you actually syphon that quantity into a jug/container and add it back into the kettle?

I used a 2L sanatised jug and just gently poured it back into the kettle so as not to stir things up too much. I did this twice then just let it flow into the FV, I couldn't really see if it ran clear after 2 jugs as I was in the dark but I took a sample after a couple of litres into FV and it looked really good.



Yeasty

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Hi Guys

I finally got around to taking some pictures of my syphon when brewing a light coloured beer. I left the wort to settle for 20 minutes after cooling, I didn't whirlpool and no irish moss. The first 6 Litres were recirculated with a jug, it wasn't perfectly clear going into the FV at first but by the time I had grabbed the camera it looked clear. Not bad considering that I only had 29g of leaf hops to filter through.

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Very nice work and pictures there Yeasty! That gave me an idea, I might resurrect my copper manifold I used for batch sparging. Now why did I put a valve on my keggle for?

12/11/2010 by Mad Scientist Brewhaus, on Flickr

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