Boil kettle with false bottom, how to successfully drain

I've been doing all grain batches for awhile now, and for some reason I'm having trouble with this point in the process. Here's the situation:

- My boil kettle has a false bottom with dip tube going to the center of the kettle.
- I usually use all whole loose leaf hops with no bag
- I use whirlfloc
- After cooling the wort, with hops and trub in the kettle, attempts to drain the kettle into fermenter almost always fail. I have to pour out the wort then clean the dip tube with a pipe cleaner to get all the junk out.

I have read that whole leaf hops will essentially filter out the major trub while draining to the fermenter, but I can't seem to get this action, and I can't figure out why.

Does using whirlfloc, which concentrates the trub in the center (where my dip tube is), create a problem? Maybe it's too much leaf hops (although not likely, my last batch only had 2oz. and this still happened)? Do you have to somehow get the hops to settle down before the trub settles on top of it? I do mix the wort a couple times while cooling, creating a small, mini whirlpool (helps it cool faster), which stirs up the settled hops/trub.

Any tips appreciated! Thanks.

I installed a weldless fitting on my kettle and could never figure out how to get it to drain right. What worked for leaf hops didn't for pellet and vice versa. I just do a quick whirlpool stir, wait 30 minutes, and stick a stainless pot scrubber on the tip of the autosiphon. I try to keep it just under the surface as I siphon to keep it from clogging too quickly.

Bumping... hoping someone will have some insight for me?

I had the same problem and finally just went to a huge hop/grain sack....all problems are gone. I tried braided SS, I tried scrubbies and bazooka screens, they all cloged up with hop residue. Also, if your having trouble getting your wort to drain below the weldless, try pinching or crimping your tube that goes from the ball valve to the carboy. If your drain tube in the keg is smaller then the outflow tube you will lose the siphon.

i had the same problem with every boil. the dip tube was only 3/8" in diameter so i made my own solution. i made a dip tube out of 1/2" copper pipe and fittings and drilled out my false bottom so that it would fit tubing with a flare fitting and used a compression fitting to attach it to the weldless fitting and valve. now i havent had any stuck drains and it drains a lot faster. the only down side is that at the very beginning a bunch of hops and proteins come out. al i do is dump that back into the boil kettle once the false bottom has built up a filter layer

I believe what happens here is that the false bottom, if not totally secured, can get lifted off the bottom during a vigrous boil. Inevitably, hops get under the bottom, and clog the dip tube. I have had this happen 2-3 times out of probably a dozen kettle brews.