whirlpool woes

I recently switched to all grain and have about 4 batches under my belt. But after chilling the wort with my immersion chiller, whirlpooling and letting the cold break/hops fall to the bottom, I still wind up with the bottom gallon of my carboy full of cold break/hops. Is the only solution to brew a larger volume and leave the last 2-4 L in the kettle, or could I strain it through something?

I usually never have luck with the whirlpool method. A couple of times I have gotten the nice cone shape from whirlpooling but never consistently and it was more like a "hill" than a "cone" lol.

I just plan normal batches with 2-4 ounces of hops at 6.5 gallons and leave a gallon in the boil kettle.

You could try the paint strainer bag over the immersion chiller method and siphon from the center of the chiller. I did that a few times. It worked great.

I whirlpooled for a while, but it was inconsistent for me. And I could never get it to work when I used whirlfloc.

Now most of the time I clip a paint-strainer bag to my fermenting bucket before I pour the wort in. Then after I pour the chilled wort in, I lift the bag out. Gets all the hops n' stuff out plus helps to aerate the wort. Don't know if that'd work with a carboy or not, though. But that paint-strainer bag over the IC method sounds good, too.

I strain through a fine chinois to get rid of the hops, but I don't have enough time in my life to wory about how much trub i get. I have my system set to 5.5 gallons into the fermenter, 5 gallons out.

cold crash, cold crash, cold crash

I always plan on losing a gallon to the hops and cold break. I think whirl pooling helps a little but the cone always collapses as the wort level drops below the top of the cone. I think I get me maybe an extra quart but that's probably about it. Losing a gallon isn't a big deal to me though and would rather not have to deal with strainers. I mean your only losing about 2# of grain worth of sugar.

whirlpooling is a waste of time to me, after I chill my wort down I run my cooled wort through a fine metal strainer to catch sediment and also aerate the wort. I almost always end up leaving a gallon of beer in the bottom because of all the hop sediment and cold break as well.

Cold crashing is a technique to clear yeast in suspension from already fermented beer if I am not mistaken.

Been a bit of discussion on Aussiehomebrewing site on whether whirlpooling is relevant to most home brew systems. The concensus without anything more concrete than brewers observations is that whirlpooling isn't really that effective. The theory is great but it seems the exception rather than the rule that you get to pour off clear wort leaving the trub behind. As others here have said, if you don't want a lot of trub/break material in your fermenter, some simple filtering is a good thing. I no chill to a cube and in goes a lot of trub (leave behind a litre or two in the kettle) and strain the wort when it goes into the fermenter using a hopscreen or hop bag.

It must be remembered that whirlpooling has an added benefit that has nothing to do with clear wort. Even after turning off your boiliers / burners, a lot of heat is still going into the wort from the kettle and stand. Whirpooling helps reduce that heat. However do not overstir as this will suck air into the wort.

From what I have read, and I'm beginning to whirlpool, is you need to wait about 20 min. after pumping/stirring, etc to get a cone.

I whirlpool to chill faster...trub is unavoidable. My problem is that with 10+ gal batches, there's no pouring that keggle out into the fermenter as I did with 5gal batches. That made straining out the trub super easy...then I found cold crashing prior to kegging.

Hello clear beer.

i recently started whirlpooling in my keggle using the a JZ chiller attached to my march pump. I bought the JZ Chiller (its just a couple feet of bent copper pipe) from Austin Homebrew. The resulting whirlpool I get is weak to say the least, just some circular circulation. Although It is helping chill faster with my immersion chiller, I am not seeing very effective trub campaction in the bottom center. Based on the rave reviews I was expecting a more dramatic result.

Is anyone else able to generate a strong whirlpool with a JZ Chiller and a March pump?

I'm using a similar set-up, just going through a Shirron Plate Chiller with a dedicated return fitted onto the keggle. I found that crimping, or flattening the outlet end of the copper tubing adds some velocity to the whirlpool. I guess mine is working as well as can be expected due to the plate chiller restrictions. I'm getting most of the hop residue to settle out in the center and I draw from the side. Still not patient enough to let it whirlpool for all of the cold break yet though.

I brew inside on my stovetop. So at flameout the kettle goes onto the counter next to the sink, and I turn on the immersion chiller. The wort chills to 22 degrees in about 20 minutes, at which point I whirlpool and let it sit for 20 more minutes. This always gives me crystal clear wort when first racking to the carboy, but the trub is never compacted and the last gallon full of cold break and hops winds up in the carboy anyway.
Since I am usually sucesfull in collecting the first 4 gallons of beer clear and trub free, I will pour the last gallon into a sterile bucked through a nylon strainer, then pour the clear wort back into the carboy. This seems like a good compromise for me, as I am limited in my boil size on the stove top. Anyone else use a method like this?

Jamest22
Make sure your pump is not restricted by small fittings or excessive hose. The return end, however, needs to be restricted, either by flattening (what I do now) the return like reelale mentioned or using a 3/8" tube on the end (what I am going to do next). When I had my pump flowing through the RIMS when recirculating (to monitor the temp) my flow was reduced a lot.

bendavanza said:

Jamest22
Make sure your pump is not restricted by small fittings or excessive hose. The return end, however, needs to be restricted, either by flattening (what I do now) the return like reelale mentioned or using a 3/8" tube on the end (what I am going to do next). When I had my pump flowing through the RIMS when recirculating (to monitor the temp) my flow was reduced a lot.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice, I think it may help me. My return hose is currently about 5 feet of 1/2" tubing. So, if I can reduce the length of the return tubing by a foot or two and add on a small 3/8" tube at the end of the 1/2" whirlpooler, I may see some improved pressure and a stronger whirlpool.

I started whirlpooling and found that it's pretty effective for me. Not as effective as I think I can do with straining, but until I perfect my straining system, it leaves most of the gunk behind. I strain the rest through a fine SS mesh strainer.

I stir gently in one direction, then set up the chiller. By the time I get the chiller plugged in, I can start siphoning from the top of the wort. I lower the siphon against the side of the kettle until it starts to pick up more stuff, then back off. After a couple of minutes I can pretty much get to the bottom of the kettle. As the cone of stuff starts appearing, I tilt the kettle a little bit to help the wort collect in a pool. I can usually get almost all of the wort out this way.