Who uses a Polar Ware 10-gallon brew pot for boiling?

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ark1ebs

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I just bought a 10-gallon brew pot from Polar Ware with the spigot and stainless false bottom. My intention is to conduct my mash in my cooler as always, and use the new pot for boiling the wort.

I've been using a 7.5-gallon turkey fryer with a siphon.

I'm wondering if many people use the false bottom when using the pot for the boil. Did I waste my money? I'm using hop pellets primarily, and now that I'm reading about it, I'm worried the false bottom will do nothing for filtering hop sludge and cold break from my wort.

If you are using the Polar Ware brew pot, what are you doing to filter this crud from your wort before draining to your fermentor? Dip tube? Stainless braid? Is anyone actually using the false bottom for this?
 
Note: I dont have polarware, but I don't think it matters.

I have used both false bottoms and a bazooka tube in my boil kettle. The bazooka tube is more convenient and easier to clean, and the false bottom has a better chance of lifting up and not filtering the hops. I would highly suggest using a bazooka tube or similar.
 
I've been using the 10-gallon PW kettle + screen as a kettle for a few years and it works well for me. I've never used another configuration such as a bazooka screen or simple pickup tube so I can't comment on those.

Its only downside is that going above 5 ounces of pellet hops the screen will plug and you'll have to scrape away at the sludge to get any drainage. But with whole hops or fewer pellets it works great. The trub in my fermenter is always very minimal, just whatever break material managed to get through.

A good example of my screen's filtering ability:
http://www.tracezero.net/Beer/2008/05/11/kettle-false-bottom-demonstration/
 
I've been using a 10 gallon Polarware Kettle for a couple years now with a bazooka screen. While I always tend to use either Irish Moss or Whirlfoc as clarifying agents, I almost always opt for whole hops in the boil. The reason is that as I chill using an IC (stirring the IC rapidly speeds up the process btw), the break material will coagulate and collect on the hops and bazooka screen very well. I'd say that this method removes at least 60-70 of the trub from the wort.
Another idea is to use a hopback, which can be bought (ie. Hoprocket) or made using some simple plumbing parts graded for hot temps. However, if you're really crafty you may want to look into creating a whirlpool. However, whirlpooling can be as simple as stirring your wort vigoursly at flameout and letting the wort settle for 15 minutes before draining out any wort.
With a little research there's lots of ideas to try, but I don't really think that a $80-$100 false bottom is the best/cheapest option for wort clarity.
 
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