Blichmann Hop Rocket as a Filter

[Buttwidget]

Hi, Gary, please report back on your success. I'm too scared to be the guinea pig on this one

If this works, then I feel like I could still use my Jamil chiller and put the Therminator (with a Hop Rocket as a filter) in the recirc loop of the whirlpool.

Seems this would chill the wort even quicker, let me whirlpool and give me tighter control over my temp before I pump into the fermentor.

~widget

[gwk453]

This Sunday, I am going to brew a Citra IPA with 2 oz. Citra & 1 oz. Amarillo in the hop rocket. I will use some filter floss on the input side of the hoprocket. Will let you know!

Gary

[BierTodd]

A stainless steel 'scrubby' is what I used to use on the output of the boil kettle, I was planning on trying to incorporate one into the Rocket. It's relatively coarse, but pretty easy to reuse.

[gwk453]

Just got done cleaning up. I changed my mind on the hop backing and just used my HopRocket as a filter with the polyestyer fiber. Bought a 20oz bag from Walmart arts and crafts dept., enough for many batches.

I had 250 grams of loose pellet hops in 18 gallons preboil vol. The trub pile was big.

The unit was run in stock configuration. The fiber was packed over filled and compressed to assemble.
After filling the unit with StarSan, I let it drain for 1/2 hr., then shook it to get more out.
It worked well, with the wort easily flowing through the unit. When I disassembled the unit for cleaning there was a lot of trub buildup on the inlet side. Next brew I am going to remove the domed perforated can on the outlet screen to provide for more uniform packing.

This was by far the cleanest wort transfer I have ever done. The layer on the bottom of my carboy is probably 20% of what it was without the filtering done by the HopRocket.

Thanks to Alan_Marks' two cents, I'll be adding this proceedure to my brewing!

Gary

[Buttwidget]

I ran my new configuration today (brewed a Mexican Lager) for the first time, and can report excellent results. I had a theory, and am proud to say it stood up and worked extremely well.

The History:

I use a JZ whirlpool immersion chiller and love it. The only problem is that in the summer, SoCal groundwater is so hot that I can't get down to lager pitching temps. Today it was over 80 degrees here, so even though its fall everywhere else, its still summer here.

In the past I would use groundwater until I hit about 90 degrees, then use a submersible pump to recirculate ice water through the immersion chiller until I got it as cold as I needed. The total process could take anywhere between and hour and an hour and 20 minutes.

The Solution

I added a Therminator and a Hop Rocket to the recirculation loop of the JZ whirlpool immersion chiller. I used regular groundwater through both the IC and the Therminator to chill everything down. I had the wort down to 75 degrees in 20 minutes, then I shut off the ground water, attached my submersible pump (in an ice bath) and ran that through the Therminator as I pumped into the fermentor. I ended up with a 52 degree wort dead ready for lager pitching and was all done in ~30 minutes.

Some Details:

I used 6 oz. of rice hulls in a hop sack, in the hop rocket, that acted as a filter upstream of the Therminator to ensure I didn't have any clogging issues. I used a total of 4 oz of pellet hops in hop bags for a 10 gallon batch and had a 120 minute boil. I also used whirlfloc. I have a bazooka screen in my keggle that held a lot of protein material after everything was said and done. I soaked the rice hulls in the HLT at 180 degrees for about 30 minutes prior to adding them to the hop rocket and wound up making quite a rice hull tea (glad I soaked them). Using this configuration allowed me to recirc boiling wort through the whole thing for 20 minutes and remove any sanitization concerns that I might have had regarding the plate chiller. Finally, the plumbing is as follows: Keggle -> Pump -> Hop Rocket -> Therminator -> IC Whirlpool Arm -> Keggle

A picture of the hop rocket/Therminator (Rockinator) plumbing is below (sorry about the quality):



This worked excellent for me. I'm going to tweak the process a little bit for a few more runs and then make a more permanent mount for everything.

~widget

[gwk453]

I ran my new configuration today (brewed a Mexican Lager) for the first time, and can report excellent results. I had a theory, and am proud to say it stood up and worked extremely well.

Yahoo! Glad this worked out for you!
Gary

[Buttwidget]

Thanks, dude. I have to give a lot of credit to Tasty, he helped me work through a few things that helped make it a success.

Great community here, its fun to try new things and have them work so well

~widget

[vortex]

I know it's not a Hop Rocket, but have you guys seen the Brewers Hardware trub filter? http://www.brewershardware.com/FILTER1.html

I got one of these last week, and while I'm yet to use it, it's a dedicated trub filter designed to sit before your plate chiller, and it also has a couple of different filter nets as well to really filter out the tiny stuff. I've had a couple of issues with a blocked plate chiller, so hopefully this will fix that problem

I have a blichmann hop rocket too which I will put inline after the filter; personally I'd rather let the hop rocket do the hopping, and a filter do the filtering