Anyone straining their hops?

[porter]

I am looking at several filter options for straining out pellet hops from fermenter to bright tank transfers. The goal is to maximize yield from our hoppy beers that are dry hopped in the fermenter with pellets. I also have a theory that as the beer is forced through the hops trapped in the filter it may pick up even more aroma.

The filter/strainer would also serve dual purpose for our coffee porter in that I could stop packing the coffee in mesh bags and just filter it out after adding it directly to the bright tank. Thus, reducing the qty and cost of coffee in the beer. Last time, I used 60lbs of ground coffee in 10bbl and found dry spots where the beer had not permeated to the center.

The most promising and cost effective for our 15bbl brewery looks like a sock filter that can be used with 2 different types of filter media.

Is anyone doing this? Has anyone tried? If so, what were/are the results?

Thanks

[gitchegumee]

I'm using a basket strainer as a hopback from kettle pump to heat exchanger. It's got 3mm perforations. I fill it with whole hops though. Wouldn't think of using pellets, but a useful adaptation for me is to use a fine mesh nylon bag in it as a bag filter for CIP the heat exchanger. Takes out the particulate during the CIP as well as being a CIP solution reservoir. The bag needs a structure to keep in intact, otherwise the hydraulic pressure would just rip it apart. Think of your coffee maker without a structure to hold the paper filter. Basket strainers are not expensive and would suit your application fine. Be aware that pellets are ground very fine and will tend to form an impenetrable sludge quickly. Why wouldn't you use the (arguably) finer characteristics of a whole hop? Much easier to filter through.

[mwth0mas]

I like the basket strainer as hopback. What size are you running, and how much whole leaf can it fit? I am estimating a fairly large strainer to get the hop character I want in 10bbls.

Cheers.