Flameout to Fermerter

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brewmastercontrols

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I have been all grain brewing quite a while and have been focused upon the techniques of the mash and boil for quite some time obviously. It occurred to me during the last brew that I have not put much focus on learning what is best and what others do flameout to fermenter. Thus I pose the question, what do you do and why from flameout to fermenter?

I suppose your answer will be based upon what type of chiller you use, please include that in any comments

My steps are as follows using an IC, and no type of hop bag or hop containment during the boil.

1. Start whirlpool, run 5-10 minutes during boil, pull from bottom of boil kettle (converted keg) to pump, then back in a lower port to whirlpool. No pump issues yet.

2. Flame out

3. Run chiller, this generally takes 25 minutes to go from 210 to 70F

4. Remove Chiller, whirlpool still going, cover with lid

5. Let whirlpool go for 15 minutes

6. Stop whirlpool, let rest for 20 minutes

7. Re start pump and use same hose that was being used for whirlpool to pump to fermenter. Pump pulls from below false bottom made of SS with circular holes.

8. Add yeast and go...

Anyone want to share? I am specifically interested in the steps, time, cold break separation, hop filtering, and cooling.

Cheers
 
We use pumps. At flame out, we may add hops if in our receipe. We leave hops in for about 10 minutes, the remove all hops. We use hop bags and pellet hops. We manually whirlpool for about 2 minutes then let settle. We use a hop filter (Brewer's Hardware) and a Hop Rocket (Northern Brewer). If we are not using leaf hops in the Hop Rocket, we use stainless steel scub things (Not steel wool). We have a Blickmann Theminator. In the winter (Dallas area Texas), our tap water is cold enough to get 64-and higher degree at full flow on the wort pump. We have to turn down the cooling flow to get to 67 degrees. In the summer, we use a sump pump and chilled water in a 42 gallon trash can. We have to throttle down the wort to get to temperature. We try not to add any air until we are at pitching temp. This process keeps almost all the brew kettle trub out of the fermenter. We are in the process of getting a new brew kettle from Stout Conicals that has a whirlpool inlet. Once we have that, we will use a pump to whirlppool.

We do pass both hot water and hot wort through the system to sanitize and also pump boiled water to get out all the wort (about a gallon) out of all the lines and chilling into the fermenter. Once in the fermenter, we add oxygen (welding stuff from Lowes) and then pitch our yeast. We are cleaning as we go and backflush the theminator for about 30 minutes with PBW. We also clean all the lines that had wort in them. We can normally do this is two 15 minute batches. That is the reason we do 30 minutes on the Therminator. After cleaning, we flush every thing with Star San then clean water. We also run heated water just prior to the next brew to make sure everything is clean and flushed. This also primes all of our pumps and lines with sanitized water which keeps out air. Also all our pumps are tested for good flow with just water and not live wort. We have 3 pumps but only use 2 at a time so one is always in back up. We normally have one that was only used for Hot water so cleanup is already done, but it keeps us from haveing to change the supply side of the pump. We can start and be totally finished (Fame on to heat mash water to all equipment clean and put away) in just about six hours.
 
25 minutes seems too long to chill to 70F considering you're further north than me, your ground water should be at least as cold as mine, and it takes my 25' IC about 15 minutes in the 'cooler months' to get to pitching temps.
You MUST STIR CONSTANTLY in the center of the chiller or you're not cooling the entire wort.
 
I do not use ground water for chilling. Where I brew now we do not have running water so I have to use a salt brine tank for chilling. I have 20 gallons of brine at 17F. Here are my numbers from the last brew, which was the first time using the brine setup. 1750, being 550 PM. Here are the points I measured. Thermodynamics wise I barely have enough heat removal capacity at 17F and 20 gallons. On the next brew I will pull it lower before the brew, possibly around 10F, as my freeze point should be around 5F. This may help a bit. Here are the notes from my last brew.

1750 counter flow chiller on 17F / 203F

1800 29F brine / 111F kettle - Started whirlpool

1806 90F boil kettle

1818 72 boil kettle

Any thoughts?
 

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