I was thinking......

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WortMonger

"Whatcha doin' in my waters?"
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I saw this after reading a thread and going to the Sabco site.
sabco_1974_405790


I haven't been using my Therminator lately, and have had great success in cooling my wort to 70*F with my IC. I am planning on getting into lagers really soon and I would also like my ales to start at about 60*F. So, I have been debating on a setup with a separate pump recirculating ice water through the IC and then I could chill below the 70*F I am now getting. That being said, the only reason I have not been using my Therminator is because I have no current way to keep the tiny hop pellet pieces out of it when cooling. I have enjoyed the remarkably clearer wort that chilling with the IC affords me by leaving all that trub behind in the kettle. However, I would really like to restart using my Therminator and pump/grant combo to chill and wonder if with my setup what I can do to filter out the trub. My last beer had a ton of hops go into it (all pellets this time) and after IC chilling and whirlpool I had a significant amount of hop residue and trub at the beginning and the end of transfer to the primary. I would like to remove all the trub I can from the kettle via capturing it pre-pump and chiller so I can recirculate it back into the kettle and achieve a whirlpool effect causing more heavy solids to go toward the center/valve siphon location. If all the solids in the kettle didn't get removed into a filter type system in the grant, it would be ok. Once to temperature the chilled wort would go through the same filters on it's way to the fermenter. The whole time I would be secure in knowing I don't have gunk in my Therminator that takes twelve cleanings to remove (reason why I don't use it right now). I was thinking of something simple like a combination of different sized sieves that fit the opening of my "corny" grant. Something I could stop transfer and simply remove and dump, then replace to restart transfer. I honestly have no idea how small I would need to go or how large at first to pre-strain before removing the smaller particle. The only information I have is from the threads about bazooka tubes and hop stoppers. Some have even used cheese cloth and others paper towels.

Now comes the thinking out loud part: I am thinking (by reading various threads) I am going to start with a larger mesh screen like the bazooka tube that would catch anything larger than hop pellets in the case I use plugs or whole hops and they make their way into the kettle-out tube. Also, by using such a large screen I can use as a hop back. Next, I was thinking of a finer mesh screen like they use on the hop stopper. I figure the second screen will clog up the fastest and will probably lay the courser first level directly on the second finer sieve. Under this sieve is one more, even finer mesh, to catch anything that goes through the second one while also removing anything to small to gunk up my Therminator. I have only used a normal kitchen sieve/colander before on my mash wort to clear it and think it would work as my first screen, but would appreciate any input as to what may work best for my application. I'm sure I am not thinking of everything. I would really love to have a unit similar to the Sabco.
 
IIRC, it may be really difficult to maintain sterility and troubleshoot your filters if they clog. You stated in the very first sentence you've had great success with the IC, so why change it? You don't need fancy filters, cleaning regimens, etc. If you want to get your wort to 60F or less, try recircing icewater with a pump after you get to 100F.
 
I just really hate using the IC because stirring sucks and it is messy when you pull it out of the wort. This last beer wasn't so clean on the transfer either. The first runnings out of the kettle and also the dead last were really hoppy. I was actually thinking of buying one of those conical sieves regardless to stop that from ever happening again. I just figured I would reuse my sidelined Therminator, make sure with the sieve nothing gets into my chiller, and collect a little more wort than I do now. It would just be really cool also to have all that on one carrying station. I love my grant/pump station.
 
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