How is everyone here keeping hops and hot break from fermenter?

Just wondering how everyone here is keeping hops and break material from entering their fermenter. I have read on Kals site that whirl-pooling doesn't work w the electric kettles because of the element. His screen design on his kettle looks perfect, but I am using an immersion chiller, so I think all the break material will clog it.
Just wondering what everyone here is using.

I run my auto-siphon hose into a sanitized nylon grain bag when I transfer from the boil pot - catches just about everything.

I too have the same set-up (plate chiller) but have yet to brew on it, so i'm not sure how valuable my input will be. I love IPAs so I was really worried about this so I ended up buying a hop spider from stainlessbrewing.com, the one with the nylon bag. I also added an 18" Stainless steel braid connected to the ball valve at the bottom of my BK. This braid was in my Mash Tun previously but I just upgraded that to a false bottom, so had it laying around. I'm hoping that combining the 2 screening methods will keep a majority of the break and hop material out of the chiller and then of course out of the fermenter.
-Corey

I just put an element and whirlpool pickup in my kettle. I did my whirlpool and left just about everything in the kettle. No idea it isn't supposed to work. Also, I use a counter flow chiller.

Mojzis said:

I just put an element and whirlpool pickup in my kettle. I did my whirlpool and left just about everything in the kettle. No idea it isn't supposed to work. Also, I use a counter flow chiller.

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I think Kal said it doesn't work because the element gets in the way, or hinders the whirlpool effect. I plan on adding a large screen type filter over the dip tube in the future. I am just concerned that all the break material will clog it now where I am using an immersion chiller and not a counter flow.
I am a huge hop head, and love to use crazy quantities of pellet hops. The pic of Kals setup doing a Pliney clone was proof to me that his screen design works.

Maybe for now I will just try whirl pooling and see how much material I can keep in the kettle.

Ahh I see. I haven't tried brewing any ipa's yet with my new setup yet. My first batch only called for an ounce...now I know I'm going to run into trouble later on. Does he list where he got his screen?

If you go on his site and look under Kettle Design in the left column, you will see photos of his design. He is selling them via a link at $60, or $90 for all stainless. Essentially, it looks like a dip tube and a large piece of stainless mesh that is shaped to fit the bottom of the kettle. Custom made to order.
If I can figure out the proper gauge screen/mesh, I am sure it would be a piece of cake to build.

I use a cylindrical hop screen in my boil kettle to contain the hop matter, and I have a bazooka screen mounted inside the kettle at the "out" port to catch some of the break material.

Some break matter still makes it into the fermenter, but as I understand it, that's a good thing. It contains nutrients yeast like.

frenchtoasted said:

Just wondering how everyone here is keeping hops and break material from entering their fermenter. I have read on Kals site that whirl-pooling doesn't work w the electric kettles because of the element. His screen design on his kettle looks perfect, but I am using an immersion chiller, so I think all the break material will clog it.
Just wondering what everyone here is using.

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I learned a long time ago that as long as I used powdered compressed hops the hops and hot break I don't get out just settles to the bottom of my fermenter along with my trube. So I let my brew pot settle for an hour or two with the lid on then I transfer over and most of the stuff stays behind.

I don't really bother. BIAB, no-chill, everything goes into a Winpak that I use through fermentation. It all settles to the bottom with time and patience (aided by a cold crash and sometimes by gelatin).

I have a 15.5 gallon keg for a boil kettle and a dip tube going to a valve. Pretty normal. I have started placing a stainless scrubby pad under the dip tube. When the boils is complete, I just open the valve and the scrubby prevents large chunks from getting into my CFC and clogging it up. After a very short time it also seems to filter the output much like a MLT does for a grain bed, and the wort is pretty clear.

Before I started trying this I would just siphon using a siphon tube and after a few minutes of whirpooling I'd start siphoning from the top and lowering the siphon tube as it went. That worked pretty good too, but was a bit too much "hands on". I often got chunks of stuff including tons of hops from IPAs nearly clogging my hoses. I have yet to brew an IPA using the stainless scrubby, but I think it will be fine. I have a 10 gallon batch coming up in the not too distant future to try it.

After many plate chiller incidents trying various whirlpool and pickup tube options I went with this and never looked back. Works fantastic.

http://www.brewershardware.com/FILTER1.html

I bought the one that Kal has listed on his site. I was not able to keep it from clogging when I used my immersion chiller. I now have a CFC and it works pretty well. You can only drain at a slow rate otherwise it will clog, but you end up doing that anyway with a CFC so it isn't a big deal. I have seen a thread in the DIY forum that describes making these.