Review on Ultimate Hop Spider: 300 Micron Mesh Stainless Steel Filter & Strainer for Home Beer Brewing Kettle by Tonya Connors

Filtering fruits like plums for jelly is critical to the clarity of the end product. The problem is that once cooked, the plums turn into a fibrous mush. This mixture easily clogs the filters and significantly reduces the flow of juice through the filter. Gauze is traditionally used; however, it becomes easily clogged with puree. This year I used a three-step process to filter cooked plums. First, I used a wide slotted spoon to scoop out large chunks of skin and flesh. I then poured the juice through a coarse mesh strainer and swirled/rotated the strainer (in the pot opening) to let the juice through. Then I pass the strained juice through this steel hop strainer. This process still takes a long time; However, the juice that went through the hop filter was clean enough that I no longer had to filter the prune juice. The filter mesh will still clog; However, due to the capacity of the filter, I was able to pour all of the juice at once. The secret lies in multiple filtration stages to clean as much pulp as possible. The age of gauze is over.