Hi there, I have a question - or maybe several questions - about the effectiveness of whirlpooling when you have equipment sticking out into the middle of your BK. I currently have a 10 gallon pot with a weldless bulkhead and ball valve, but I'm in the process of building a keggle and will be adding a ball valve, sight glass, thermometer probe, and a separate ball valve port for recirculating post plate chiller (and in the near future a heating element). Will all of these things sticking out into the keggle make whirlpooling ineffective since they would be breaking up the circular flow?
I ask because I attempted my first whirlpool the other night on an American light lager (for the wife … take it easy on me) because I wanted to limit the amount of break material going into the fermenter. I use a hop sack so hop material is not a concern. My process was to drain the entire kettle through my plate chiller and into another clean and sanitized kettle with no fittings. I then whirlpooled it by hand for about 5-6 minutes, then let it settle for 10-12 minute while I cleaned up everything else. I then racked off the side of the pot but when I got down to the bottle there was practically zero cone or much settling at all for that matter. I ended up just dumping the entire amount into a carboy and letting it settle out while sitting in my fermentation box getting down to lager pitching temps. About an inch worth of trub settled out before I racked it off the trub into a clean carboy and then pitched the yeast. I would prefer not to follow this process in future batches because it makes me nervous to let the wort sit and settle out before pitching as that could give wild yeast time to get a head start if my sanitation wasn’t perfect … this hasn’t been a problem in the past but it’s always possible. Plus it’s just an extra step that’s kind of a PITA!
So my next step in improving my brew house is the Keggle, in which I’ll be adding a recirculation port to use when cooling. I’ll be pumping out of the BK, through the plate chiller, and back into the BK in an effort to quickly cool the entire batch as fast as possible. My hope all along was to use the recirculation port as a whirlpooling tool by having the intake angled so that the returning wort flows into the BK parallel to the Keggle wall and at a downward angle. But now I’m wondering if all the bulkheads and fittings at the bottom (especially a large heating element) will disrupt the flow enough to essentially make the whirlpool ineffective? If so I guess I’m left with possibly just draining the BK to the carboy through a paint strainer bag or something like that, but would prefer to not have to use an extra step like that and just be able to whirlpool and drain. My goal isn’t to 100% eliminate hot / cold break material, just as much as possible especially for these lighter lagers. My other thought would be create a fish net type device that would allow me to dunk a sanitized paint strainer bag and hold it over the recirculation port coming back into the Keggle which would catch all the particulate as it comes back into the Keggle. I could let it run for a few minutes with the flow entering that fish net contraption which should catch any particulate.
Am I over thinking all this? Am I too worried about trub in the primary? I know it’s not that big of a deal for ales, but for lighter lagers I’d prefer to keep the wort as clean as possible to eliminate the possibility for trub induced off flavors.
What solutions have you all come up with to tackle these challenges? Thanks for any tips or tricks you may be able to share. Cheers!
I ask because I attempted my first whirlpool the other night on an American light lager (for the wife … take it easy on me) because I wanted to limit the amount of break material going into the fermenter. I use a hop sack so hop material is not a concern. My process was to drain the entire kettle through my plate chiller and into another clean and sanitized kettle with no fittings. I then whirlpooled it by hand for about 5-6 minutes, then let it settle for 10-12 minute while I cleaned up everything else. I then racked off the side of the pot but when I got down to the bottle there was practically zero cone or much settling at all for that matter. I ended up just dumping the entire amount into a carboy and letting it settle out while sitting in my fermentation box getting down to lager pitching temps. About an inch worth of trub settled out before I racked it off the trub into a clean carboy and then pitched the yeast. I would prefer not to follow this process in future batches because it makes me nervous to let the wort sit and settle out before pitching as that could give wild yeast time to get a head start if my sanitation wasn’t perfect … this hasn’t been a problem in the past but it’s always possible. Plus it’s just an extra step that’s kind of a PITA!
So my next step in improving my brew house is the Keggle, in which I’ll be adding a recirculation port to use when cooling. I’ll be pumping out of the BK, through the plate chiller, and back into the BK in an effort to quickly cool the entire batch as fast as possible. My hope all along was to use the recirculation port as a whirlpooling tool by having the intake angled so that the returning wort flows into the BK parallel to the Keggle wall and at a downward angle. But now I’m wondering if all the bulkheads and fittings at the bottom (especially a large heating element) will disrupt the flow enough to essentially make the whirlpool ineffective? If so I guess I’m left with possibly just draining the BK to the carboy through a paint strainer bag or something like that, but would prefer to not have to use an extra step like that and just be able to whirlpool and drain. My goal isn’t to 100% eliminate hot / cold break material, just as much as possible especially for these lighter lagers. My other thought would be create a fish net type device that would allow me to dunk a sanitized paint strainer bag and hold it over the recirculation port coming back into the Keggle which would catch all the particulate as it comes back into the Keggle. I could let it run for a few minutes with the flow entering that fish net contraption which should catch any particulate.
Am I over thinking all this? Am I too worried about trub in the primary? I know it’s not that big of a deal for ales, but for lighter lagers I’d prefer to keep the wort as clean as possible to eliminate the possibility for trub induced off flavors.
What solutions have you all come up with to tackle these challenges? Thanks for any tips or tricks you may be able to share. Cheers!
