Ghetto Siphon Hop-Blocker

[Richard]

So I did my Hop Bombardier IIPA yesterday... the trick I use to filter out hops and other gack without using any hop-sock is just a 5ft length of braided hose with the first six inches pushed over the end of a racking cane. You whirlpool the wort with this thing to get the braid around the outside of the pot, then just siphon as normal.

11oz of hops went into that brew; ten minutes after starting the siphon and the pot is drained with absolutely no stoppage.

Eventually looked at the braided hose and it looked like a hop-snake. I pulled off a chunk of what was wrapped around it and the thing had literally doubled in diameter with hop-pellet matter coating the outside -- but no stoppage.

So this rambling leads somewhere... don't bother with hop blockers, socks, whatever. Just make sure the first thing your wort is passing through on its way out of the fermenter is a metric shitload (5ft) of braided hose. For once I think the ghetto solution is superior to many of the "premium" ones.

[Chris Craig]

I'm banking on this working.  I'm attaching a braided hose to two hose barbs at the bottom of my kettle.  It'll be about 4' long and allow the wort to move in both directions toward the valve.  I'll whirlpool before I drain the kettle, and because the keggle is concave, I'm hoping the hops will settle a bit in the middle.

[Richard]

I'd be real surprised if that didn't work.

One thing though - don't stretch the hose - try to compress it such that it has the maximum diameter.

[Chris Craig]

No worries.  I have 5' to work with.