Dry hopping - tap filter

[maxashton]

i haven't tried it with that style tap yet, but i was able to completely dismantle and clean to spotlessness the tap from my king keg. it was stained and nearly ruined from being thrown in a shed after an improper clean last time i used it.

came up lovely.
now its a little stained inside the keg itself, but that's from the iodophor!

[Bigster]

Those drum taps are best as you can clean them - these other sort not dismantable ( well thats my excuse )

[jmc]

Hi

Thanks, this is a very useful topic.

I want to dry hop some Adnams Bitter Clone in a keg this weekend and I like the idea of just adding hops with no hop bag, but I must admit I'd like to reduce the chances of bits of hops in my beer.

I thought I'd see if there was anything I had to hand that I could use to filter out hops in the keg tap.

I'm using a barrel with 4" cap and standard tap with back nut.

I found that a bath tap connector, a bit of 22mm pipe and a pub hop filter (donated by a friendly cellar man) could be fitted together quite snug on their own.
Easy to take apart and clean I thought

Together:


After I did this I was concerned with so much copper inside my barrel.
I thought it this would be OK in a boiler, but would it be OK for weeks, in a barrel with acidic beer?

I think the nut is brass rather that copper and hopefully more inert, so I wondered if I could simplify things by removing the copper pipe.

Unfortunately once I cut off the pipe I found that the pub hop filter would not fit inside the tap nut.

I removed the silicon hop filter edge with snips and some persuasion then found that the stainless-steel mesh fitted well in the nut.





My question is..

Do you think it's safe to have a bath tap nut (brass / copper) inside a barrel?

TIA
John

[Kev888]

If its a UK plumbing fitting made for potable water I understand that there shouldn't be lots of lead in the brass. I don't know how long the nut would last but I wouldn't expect it to be too terrible.

You can get plastic nuts - i believe washing machine hoses have 3/4" BSP nuts on the end (same as a typical bath tap connector) and sometimes even filters such as yours included too; you could get a cheap hose and just cut off all/most of the tubing. In the past I used a 90degree one to make a dip tube in an FV. I believe that you can get food-grade versions too, but I don't know where, I must admit that at the time I just used a standard one.

Cheers
kev

[jmc]

Hi Kev

Thanks for the info and good idea about plastic washing machine BSP nut.
Time short so I've tried out the new barrel hop filter with brass nut as shown.
I'll report on how good it is and any problems it causes.

10g of Goldings added to Adnams Bitter Clone.
Smelt and tasted v.good.

Hops quite dusty so I hope the hop filter works!

ATB
John

[WishboneBrewery]

These any good, same threads http://www.barleybottom.com/menu/product/&ID=279 should work with the http://www.barleybottom.com/menu/product/&ID=153

[jmc]

Hi pdtc

Thanks for the links.

Looks like I've been trying to reinvent the wheel.

Would have been a lot easier (and less painfull on the fingers) to use hop filter from Barley Bottom.
ATB
John