I use this hop spider both for brewing beer and for steeping loose leaf tea for kombucha. For hops, it's great at keeping the bulk of the pellet hop matter out of the wort. It allows some smaller particles into the wort, but I take that as a sign that the hops are being well utilized - I didn't notice a drop in bitterness when starting to use this spider. The 800um mesh seems to be a good compromise between hop utilization and trub reduction.For tea, the mesh is a touch on the large side: I get a lot of small bits of tea debris in the bottom of the kettle. The tea leaves have discolored the SS a bit, but I'm not concerned. Overall, excellent product.