Mesh screen insude BK

Question: why not put a "screen" inside the boil kettle like you do in the mash tun? I have a 1" stainless steel mesh screen approx 16" long in my mash tun as my "false bottom" . Why couldn't you do the same thing on the bottom valve of the boil kettle to filter out some of the garbage before it goes into the fermenter? Anyone else try this? just a thought I guess, thanks everyone!

dp

I haven't tried it yet, because from my boils I get sludge at the bottom. I suspect that a lot of it would end up going though the screen before the entire thing clogged up.

I haven't started all grain yet but in my partial mash I have a bazooka screen on my kettle and it work nicely to keep the crap out of my primary. I planned on doing similar with all grain.

Wouldn't you get a lot of sludge from the cold break and protien rest if you pulled it from the bottom? If you rack from the top and go close to the side the sludge will stay in the BK, especially if you stirred it vigourously to pyramid the junk before racking. Just a thought.
Wheelchair Bob

Rbeckett said:

Wouldn't you get a lot of sludge from the cold break and protien rest if you pulled it from the bottom? If you rack from the top and go close to the side the sludge will stay in the BK, especially if you stirred it vigourously to pyramid the junk before racking. Just a thought.
Wheelchair Bob

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This may seem dumb but don't you HAVE to rack from the bottom since that's where the liquid is?

As far as sludge clogging the mesh you just need it to be a big enough surface area that it's able to drain completely before becoming clogged. In my 8 gallon kettle the bazooka screen extends approx 4/5 of the diameter of the kettle. I'm able to drain the kettle down to the dregs with no problem.

What do you use to rack to the fermenter? (newbie here) I can use my march pump, but how do you get prime to the pump? Or do you just use an auto syphon? Sorry for the dumb questions, like I said , newbie, almost have my system ready to fire up. Haven't done any all grain yet, going to break myself in real good, going from all grain from extract and on a new system at the same time, can't wait!

On my setup the wort comes out of the kettle, into the pump, thru the chiller, then it hits a t fitting in my copper pipe. both legs have ball valve shut offs. The first one leads back to the kettle for continuing cooling the wort. The second leads to a down spout that goes to my fermentation container, usually a bucket. I just close the valve going to the one I'm not using. That keeps sediment from getting to my pump or chiller and keeps me from having to do crazy stuff to get from kettle to bucket.

deadboy said:

This may seem dumb but don't you HAVE to rack from the bottom since that's where the liquid is?

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Are you confusing the Boil Kettle for the Mash tun? The boil kettle shoud be 99.9% liquid with some sludge from the different rests and the cold break. If youre swirling the pot then all of the sludge should be near the middle of the BK when done with the chiller and ready to transfer to the primary fermentor. If you use a dip tube or plumb into the bottom of the BK, you should still draw from as close to the side of the vessel as you can and do it slowly enough to not disturb the sludge as much as you can. The less sludge you transfer the better your final product will be as far as taste and clarity. You can use a March, just be carefull to not agitate the wort if you can avoid it. Hope this helps...
Wheelchair Bob

No, right now I only do partial mash kits so I don't have a mash tun. Everything is done in my kettle. But I guess my confusion is just relating to gravity making heavy liquid be at the bottom of the kettle and sludge generally floating on top. When you say pull from the side I guess I'm not clear what exactly you mean. Even pulling from the side, as I picture it, you're still pulling from a tube on the side that leads down to the bottom. Am I wrong? It's possible as I'm very new to all this (6 or 7 months).

As for the chiller, I've only done 2 batches in one session with this and did notice a lot more foam and agitation on the surface of the wort. How do you cycle the wort thru the chiller in a way that still rapidly cools the wort but isn't so disruptive?

I'm setting up for all grain with a 3 vessel HERMS and will be using a half barrel sized keggle. I still think it's a good idea to have some manner of mesh screen on the drain valve to prevent dregs from entering the pump/chiller/fermenter but where are the optimal places to put the ball valve for draining the kettle and the return for coming back from the chiller to minimize the disturbance this causes to the wort?

I have a Sabco Brew Magic.

It's borm with a filter screen and a dip tube that takes the wort out below the screen trough a center hole.

Works perfect. It filters a lot of hops and trub from the wort. My plate heat exchanger havn't ever vejen blicked.

God kick

Lars

Larsen said:

I have a Sabco Brew Magic.

It's borm with a filter screen and a dip tube that takes the wort out below the screen trough a center hole.

Works perfect. It filters a lot of hops and trub from the wort. My plate heat exchanger havn't ever vejen blicked.

God kick

Lars

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Is this in your MT or Kettle? I thought once the kettle was involved the heat exchanger was done. The OP and I were talking about mesh/screen for the kettle

The screen is in the boil kettle. You might find sole pictures at Sabco's Web site.

The heat exchanger is my wort chiller.

Ohhhhhh, I was thinking in terms of a HERMS set up where you cycle your mash thru a heat exchanger to keep it at the appropriate temp. OK, yeah, that makes sense then.

I circulate fresh cold water through my chiller and set it in the wort. Then I stir the wort pretty vigourously so the sludge pyramids near the center of the kettle. Thats a whole lot easier and cleaner than moving the wort through the chiller and trying to cool it in something else. Less likely to leak and pick up an infection from something inside the chiller coil. I am saying that if you stuck a siphon into the BK you should go near the bottom as close to the side as you can to avoid the sludge piled up in the middle from swirling the wort. If you plumbed in a tube, it shold be directed as near the side as possble too so that as liquids flow in and out the will help swirl the wort and help avoid the sludge too. You cannot or should not get every drop out of the BK, leave the sludge and hop flakes behind and the beer will be much clearer when you bottle ot keg it later.
Wheelchair Bob

So you have an immersion chiller versus the counter flow type? I know I don't want to take ALL the wort but with the drain being an inch or so above the kettle floor it's going to suck out sludge and hops that I'd prefer were filtered out before they reached my pump/chiller plate/fermenter.

I guess one thing, of many, that's confusing me is that the term side is of course relative on a round kettle. With no flippancy intended, every side is the side. Anywhere I add an in valve for the wort return from the chiller is going to shoot it straight to the center because that's how circles work. What if I had it coming from the top into a copper down spout that went about half way down the side and angled it to go along the sides to facilitate the whirlpool you mention? Can you foresee any issue?

A curved pipe or a bend in the copper to direct the flow so it ultimately goes in a circular motion is what I was getting at. You could plum it in just about anywhere near the top or bottom and just direct the flow around the rim of the round kettle. That will cause a natural swirl and help move the boil sludge toward the middle so you can get pretty close to the bottom before you start sucking it up. I really wifh I could draw an example because it is really a simple thing to accomplish and really helps the quality of your finished brew. Here is a link to what I am describing. The item comes from Bargain fittings and really helps.

http://www.bargainfittings.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=151

Bob

Ok, that's kind of what I was picturing. Since I'm largely going with copper I'll likely just add a 45 degree elbow to the inside of the fitting I use to return the wort from the cooling plate. It should serve the same function.