Does a hop spider work well with pellet hops? I am thinking the paint strainer bag wouldn’t be very effective at holding back the sludge and/or that holes in the bag would clog and limit flow of wort in/out of the bag.
Even with a solid whirlpool and time to settle, I find that siphoning the last 1-2 gallons from the kettle is a real PITA when using pellet hops, but I want to stick with pellets.
The paint straining bags work great for pellet hops.
Yes, they don’t do anything for sludge. That would be hot/cold break. Unless you whirlpool the wort into the bag. Then it will do a good job of filtering the proteins out.
Thanks Nighthawk. I just finished building one. I figured at $15 for materials it was worth the risk, and I could use it with whole hops even if it didn’t work well with pellets. Good to hear it works with pellets too.
I made one and used it for a couple recipes that have massive amounts of pellets. I used it kind of like a tea bag every so often, lifting it out to let it drain. It seemed to drain well each time. Definitely reduces the mess although for a batch with not much hops I wouldn’t bother.
I look forward to finding out first hand when I brew my next batch in a couple weeks.
Now if I could just find a hose clamp with a thumb screw I’d be all set. Couldn’t find them in the plumbing or hardware sections of Home Depot or Lowes. Will just have to make due with a normal one for now.
