Question on Whirlfloc and sediment

So I decided to use a Whirlfloc tablet in my latest batch. This was the first time, so I was not sure what to expect with it. I must say I was very VERY surprised at how much material was separated out.

Now here is the issue. I have a Blichmann boil kettle, and I find that the downspout for the ball lock valve and the probe for the thermometer make getting a really well developed whirlpool going next to impossible.

As a result of poor whirlpooling the sediment from the boil kettle pretty much all made it into my primary. Since I have not used this stuff before, can someone tell me how well it well settle to the bottom of my primary? I have sort of stopped racking into secondary, but all this stuff in the primary is making me itch.

I am going to let the krausen settle down a bit and then I am dry hopping, but I am not wanting to leave all this gunk in the beer.

I think my boil kettle is similar to yours - I do end up with a fair amount of crud going into my primary. My previous system was a home-made RIMS, and the wort going into the primary was absolutely crystal clear. However, as far as I can tell, the quality of the final beer is just as good, if not better. So, I do try to compensate for the large amount of break material going into the primary by doing a fairly quick secondary, but I'm not sure that's really necessary. Which is a long way of saying, don't worry about it.

Cheers!

it'll settle out fine, don't worry about it

Some break material (proteins) is necessary to help the yeast do their job. I always make sure to get some in the fermenter but sometimes I'm not paying attention and a LOT goes in. No big deal, it will settle out in the Primary, but I would definitely suggest a secondary.

May I ask why you don't use a secondary anymore?

Allowing hot/cold break in the fermenter has been discussed many times over. It's a matter of preference and won't impact the clarity of the beer.

People have done informal comparisons between beers fermented with/without break material and most people prefer the beer fermented with break material.

Personally, I ferment with break material and I like the way my beers taste.

lamarguy said:

Allowing hot/cold break in the fermenter has been discussed many times over. It's a matter of preference and won't impact the clarity of the beer.

People have done informal comparisons between beers fermented with/without break material and most people prefer the beer fermented with break material.

Personally, I ferment with break material and I like the way my beers taste.

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Interesting. I have never worried about it as I like the way my beer tastes to begin with. Do you end up with hoppier beer leaving the break/sediment in the fermenter or are boiled hops, even for two minutes, pretty much shot?

SOB said:

Some break material (proteins) is necessary to help the yeast do their job. I always make sure to get some in the fermenter but sometimes I'm not paying attention and a LOT goes in. No big deal, it will settle out in the Primary, but I would definitely suggest a secondary.

May I ask why you don't use a secondary anymore?

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I had stopped using a secondary on the majority of my brews when I found that there was not a huge amount of sediment being pulled out of the beer after racking. I had just started letting the beer stay in primary for several weeks, and then just moved it into the kegs.

Some things I do use a secondary for, meads and a braggot I am working right now needed more time to clarify and settle out; but most of the other brews seem to do just fine without it.

joety said:

Interesting. I have never worried about it as I like the way my beer tastes to begin with. Do you end up with hoppier beer leaving the break/sediment in the fermenter or are boiled hops, even for two minutes, pretty much shot?

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I use a large pellet hop bag to avoid plugging my CFC, so I've never experimented with allowing hops into the fermenter. But, like you said, I would imagine the hop aroma is spent after a few minutes in the boil so there would be little, if any, effect on the beer.