Kettle Valve - Bazooka Screen and Pellet Hops

you could probly rig a toilet braid to work pretty well

 

I use a setup like you describe but only for leaf hops. I use pellets only occasionally and remove the bazooka screen for them because they do clog.

 

Like Drew said, the bazooka screen can clog with pellets. I use it with leaf and it works. Small particles can make it through but you leave the big chunks behind.

 

I am a big fan of kettle valves, bazookas, and hop spiders. I use pellets, used to just toss them in a paint strainer bag and only minor hop debris escaped. My bazooka did a good job keeping it in the kettle. I now use a ss filter for the hops and debris is slightly less. My experience is the bazooka can do the job if you make an effort to contain the hop pellet debris. My first two attempts clogged, but after minor adjustments I have been clog-free for a dozen+ brews. If all fails, you auto-siphon from the brew kettle. Your other option is to let the hop debris transfer to the primary and wait for it to settle with aging.

Once you get a kettle valve you'll start looking at quick-disconnects. The difference between a man and a boy really is the price of the toy.

 

Look into a SS mesh hop spider. I have a 300 micron I think it is. Works well.


Appears that the temp is lower in the screen than the boil, but I took a temp with my thermapen and it's 1-2* less than the hard rolling boil outside of it.

I stir it around and I'm not quite sure I have any less hop extraction from it.

Keeps everything clean.. I might put a bazooka on my kettle though for all the whole leaf I use. I like to float leaf hop as I feel I get more from it if it's free. Pellets, I think do a better job even if they are contained.

 

I used a bazooka screen for a while but switched back to using hop bags. My bazooka screen clogged as well.

I may give the toilet braid try as even hop bags after a while can get pricy.

 

Brewmasters Warehouse doesn't sell leaf hops.

 

I could see a toilet braid clogging worse, IMO..

 

I've got a kettle valve + bazooka screen on my brew pot. It works great when using leaf hops. If I use pellet hops, which I regularly do, I always put each addition in a mesh bag.

 

I have just a kettle valve and just use a hand held strainer when transferring to the primary, after whirlpooling I only get a small amount of hops out of the valve, but then I only use pellet hops so that wouldn't help if your using whole hops.

 

I had a bazooka screen on my kettle and stopped using it due to clogging. Whirlpooling keeps most of the hops in my kettle but like others have mentioned, I just let them settle out in primary.

 

I have a bazooka screen as well and have tailored my recipes to be cone hops in the boil, and pellets in dryhop additions.

 

That was my thinking too, that why i haven't tried it.

I filter my wort through a colander when transferring from pot to fermenter. It gets rid of a lot of hop residue and aerates the wort. Great multi-purpose tool.

 

Straining does indeed help aerate wort. But I wouldn't rely on that solely (not that you necessarily do).