Hop Port Sizing - What size ports do you use?

[leehammerton]

Hello,

I already have a post on making the decision when buying our 25hl Conical FV's as to whether we choose side or top man ways. If we go side manways we would have a top hop port in order to add hops at any stage during Fermentation.

The size we have been suggested is 102mm, this seems really small to me. For those of you that have hop ports I was wondering what size you have? I am based in the UK but I know in the US a lot of breweries have hop ports. Is 102mm too small? as surely if your putting a lot in then bigger would make sense.

[Nate Jackson]

Our ports are only 135mm and with the dry hop that we do, usually on the order of 200+ pounds, it works out just fine. Just be sure to get some sort of cone or funnel to make things easier.

[porter]

4" which is about 102mm

We had 4" ports put into our new 30 and 60bbl fermentors. They work pretty well for dry hopping with pellets and of course the bigger the hole, the bigger the risk of dropping things in and depending on your method, for bacteria in the air getting in.

The biggest concern you should think about is how will you get the hops in? Nate's suggestion about a funnel is a good one.

We use a flexible container and sort of pinch it and pour the hops in.

Putting 60+ lbs of hops in the 30bbl FV's is no sweat, but getting 120+ lbs in our 60bbl FV's is a bit tougher.

[Bainbridge]

We use 4" ports, and you can carefully pour from a bucket without spilling.
But it started to get a little precarious up there on the ladder. So I took a 4" TC ferrule, cut the bottom off a large plastic funnel, glued it to the ferrule and BAM, a funnel you can clamp onto the tank for about $20. You could also have someone weld up a steel one for, well, not $20.

[leehammerton]

Thanks for all your replies chaps, very much appreciated.

[Ted Briggs]

I find 2" is fine on a 15bbl tank, Dry hopping 10lbs or so. A bit bigger would be nice and a funnel with a TC connection would be awesome. That's on my list for welding projects, though I'm surprised no one sells them.