I built a hop spider a little over a year ago. Similar design to others - 4" PVC pipe, three all thread legs, and hop bag held to OD of pipe with a SS hose clamp. (I use pellet hops)
Problem I have is when I go to remove the spider to insert my immersion chiller it is so heavy and takes forever to drain. Last night the bag even slipped off the pipe!
Any technique or suggestions appreciated.
Thanks,
Mike
Honestly I didn’t know what a hop spider was but Google helped me out on that. I can see where the soggy hops would be heavy. I use mesh bags with a string tied to my brew sculpture and especially with big hooped beers like an IPA they get heavy. Since the bags are hanging toward the side an immersion chiller would be no problem. I also let them hang there while draining the BK so most of the wort drains out making them much lighter of course.
By looking at the photos of a spider I really don’t have an answer short of switching to a counter flow chiller or beefing up the construction of the spider. Very cool brew toy though.
Glue a band of rubber, bicycle inner tube(?), around the PVC for the hose clamp to tighten down on. Will make a non-slip surface.
Cheapest, easiest solution… Lift the spider while holding on to the bag. I too found this an issue before moving to a CFC. I found by doing that and inserting my CFC the last 15 mins the spider bag fit inside the IC.
Edited to add: oh, and tighten that clamp.
I guess I don’t have this problem with my setup (10 gal megapot). I slide the chiller into the pot and don’t need to lift the spider up at all. If the bag pinches a little bit I just use my brew spoon to coax everything into place.
My solution to this was to stop using my hop spider altogether and just drop the pellets right in the beer and let it all drain into the fermenter. I almost never re-use yeast so dirty yeast doesn’t bother me at all
I use a female 4 inch pipe coupler instead of a hose clamp…
