Hop Back design recommendations

[Belter]

can someone please link me to a tried and tested Hop Back setup. I'm sure there have been loads of good threads on the subject. I have a 100/80/100 setup.

cheers

Belter

[bigrichlock]

Hello,

Believe it or not Hopback's arn't that well discussed from what ive seen. there is 5 options really;

1 - use a filter housing from B&Q - cheep but small
2 - buy a hop rocket, ive had good sucess using one - 120 quid but you can only get 100g's of hops in it not much good if brewing more than 50L
3 - get a Hop back built, i know a fabrication company that will build one which will prob be comparable in price to the Hoprocket but can be built to any size
4 - this is a bit more interesting, has ur mashtun got a false bottom? if so clean it out after use, sterilise it, put your hops in and then spray the Wort over the hops and then out the bottom drain
5 - try and build a Rolec Hopnik ;-?

Option 4 is pretty much how St Austell brewery (and others i have seen) do it but they have a dedicated vessel, in theory tho it should work pretty well, i here the comments of Hot side airation and all the volatile hop oils escaping, true but the answer to that is the other options but this will cost you money, option 4 in effect is free if you have a false bottom in the mashtun

Rich

[Highlander]

This is mine
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=50312&start=60#p550762
works quite well. Though the interface between the white and clear bits is prone to leak so had to cut a gasket.
Barneey has a stainless triclover one that he got from the states that looks good.

I'm thinking about taking a small 6L vessel and fitting a false bottom to that. want to make it pressure retaining though, so will need some thought.

[Befuddler]

Prepare to be astonished by my incredible, high-tech design solution:



It's one of these, with a tank connector at each end and a bit of stainless mesh edged with silicon tube. Total cost: Seven quid. It holds 50% more than that Blichmann trash.

Probably not much use for very large batches, but you could easily scale it up to a larger container.

Before anyone asks, it's PP, so it's fine with high temperatures. Just don't grab it with your bare hands while pumping hot wort through it.

[greenhouseuk]

It's one of these, with a tank connector at each end and a bit of stainless mesh edged with silicon tube. Total cost: Seven quid. It holds 50% more than that Blichmann trash.

Probably not much use for very large batches, but you could easily scale it up to a larger container.

That's pretty cool - I think I'm gonna make one of those!

[seymour]

Lots of good suggestions so far, here are some more:

I don't have a picture of mine, but it's very similar to this:


Some designs have fancy filters or false-bottoms, but I simply squish a copper scrubby pad on the inside of the out-flow adapter. It works great and you can simply boil it to clean/sanitize.


http://www.pjmuth.org/beerstuff/hop_back.htm
http://homebrew.stackexchange.com/quest ... -a-hopback
http://www.orionhomebrewing.com/2012/05 ... geeks.html
http://leebrewery.com/hopback.htm
http://www.maltosefalcons.com/clubgear/ ... oormanator

[Belter]

Cheers for you help guys. I'll have a think about it and see what I can get hold of. My skin fitting arrived today so I'm ready to start drilling my Thermopot. Need to get a big order in to BES but my Mrs' car has just gone wrong. I'm not sure I have the budget to fix the car and build a brewery so I guess she'll have to walk to work.

[stu-le-brew]

Cheers for you help guys. I'll have a think about it and see what I can get hold of. My skin fitting arrived today so I'm ready to start drilling my Thermopot. Need to get a big order in to BES but my Mrs' car has just gone wrong. I'm not sure I have the budget to fix the car and build a brewery so I guess she'll have to walk to work.

I can't see any problem with that, so long as you have a beer ready for her when she returns home !!

[brodington]

Would a hop back work with a immersion chiller or does it need to be chilled as it comes out from the hop back?

Can I recirculate back into my boiler and them chill?

[stu-le-brew]

in my opinion recirculate back into the boiler would be fine I think a reasonable amount of heat should help extract those valuable aroma's and taste. In my case my pumps are temperature constrained to 80 degrees but I would think that would still be fine.

Personally I use hop bags, which go in at ten mins before the end of boil and another one as I turn off the heat, then both bags go into the fermenter for the first week. I am very pleased with the hop aroma and taste I am getting

[Befuddler]

Would a hop back work with a immersion chiller or does it need to be chilled as it comes out from the hop back?

Can I recirculate back into my boiler and them chill?

I use an immersion chiller and recirculate through the hopback for the duration of the cooling process. It works a treat.

[brodington]

Nice thank you.

[gnutz2]

Would a hop back work with a immersion chiller or does it need to be chilled as it comes out from the hop back?

Can I recirculate back into my boiler and them chill?

I use an immersion chiller and recirculate through the hopback for the duration of the cooling process. It works a treat.

Better than steeping alone?

[Befuddler]

Would a hop back work with a immersion chiller or does it need to be chilled as it comes out from the hop back?

Can I recirculate back into my boiler and them chill?

I use an immersion chiller and recirculate through the hopback for the duration of the cooling process. It works a treat.

Better than steeping alone?

Miles better. Steeping never gave me the aroma I was after, even with 300g in there. With the new process, I jam 150g in the hopback and my hop aroma is up there with the best commercial IPAs.

[gnutz2]

Miles better. Steeping never gave me the aroma I was after, even with 300g in there. With the new process, I jam 150g in the hopback and my hop aroma is up there with the best commercial IPAs.

So it would be a good idea to use this for dry hopping too.

I must admit, i did an ipa a while back with 150g steep and 150g dry hop, a mix of citra, nelson and cascade. To be honest it packed a hop punch but nothing like i was expecting, this could be the anwser.

I have an abundant supply of 4" ss tube in the garage too