The old one:

Wondered what everyone else was using and if anyone had any ideas?
Cheers,
Cooky
Yep, hard to know how well a basket would work, the balls are a good idea, maybe for late hops. The bags work surprisingly well, no noticable problem with utilisation at leaving to settle really helps to clear up, but they aren't shiny! The bag is certainly a good interim if not final solution.darkonnis wrote:Hops aren't really the problem, the amount of crap that settles during recirculation pretty much clogs the filters the nthe hops form a layer on top which then makes a sludgey hoppy screen blocking the filter completely. I'm wondering how much utilisation you'd get with a basket, might be better with those large mesh tea balls?
Mine is a piece of cake to clean just give it a blast with the hose job donedarkonnis wrote:I did see the deller ring and I had contemplated it, the only reason I haven't is because it looks like a nightmare to clean and if it doesn't clean easily/well then its not really any good unfortunately.
I used to use a bit of copper pipe when i started, its fine for counter flows and IC's but i'd be wary of using it with a plate chiller, the risk of bits getting caught is.... not great.
That said, a combination of what NMH's and orlandos designs could work nicely and I do just happen to have some copper tubing...
Not my experience to be honest, I use a plate chiller as you know, and have never had a problem with it. If using whole hop flowers the manifold is enough to catch the big bits, if using the sock the mesh is so fine even when using pellets it's not a problem. Playing with the amount of protafloc used was the final piece of the jigsaw, less for when I use the mesh a little more when not. It's about getting the hops and trub to form their own filter after it has been "combined" by the protafloc.darkonnis wrote: I used to use a bit of copper pipe when i started, its fine for counter flows and IC's but i'd be wary of using it with a plate chiller, the risk of bits getting caught is.... not great.
orlando wrote:Hi Cooky, a perennial problem and one I have experimented a little with and what I have come up with is a combination of 3 things. As you know the problem is balancing clarity versus speed of run off. I have a slotted copper manifold a hop sock specially made for it and protafloc granules, it's the method of deploying these that makes the difference. If I am using rather more wheat than usual I only use the manifold with no more than 1/2 a teaspoon of protafloc. If a dark beer again I don't worry about using the manifold sock and will use the protafloc as usual. If it is a pale ale I use the sock and a little more than usual of the protafloc granules.
Probably superfluous but here is a picture:
If there is a downside it is that I do leave behind about 1.5 to 2 litres of wort, plus of course hop absorption, but merely adjust the liquour volumes to compensate.
I have an 150mm diameter open area on my set of ringsdarkonnis wrote:How big is yours please deller? something like that would be good if its as easy to clean as you say, but I reckon I'd likely need a bigger surface area