A couple questions about whirlpooling and how to avoid siphoning trub.

[thehopbandit]

After doing quite a few batches without doing so, I decided to try my hand at whirlpooling the wort before transferring to the fermenter. I usually just cool it with the wort chiller and dump it in through a strainer into the bucket. I should note up front that I do partial boils and extract brewing.

This time, I cooled the wort to about 75-80F, removed the wort chiller, stirred for 1-2 minutes, and let it rest for 15 minutes or so. I then siphoned the wort into the fermenter. The beer was exceptionally clear and I was pleased with the results.

As the liquid level dropped I tried to get as much as the wort as possible. However, when it got near the bottom the siphon started sucking up parts of the trub cone, even though I had it near the side of the kettle. Not wanting to suck all that up, I figured I would just leave that bit in the kettle.

Well, when it came down to it, I realized that I left way too much wort/trub in the kettle and I missed by OG by literally about 4-6 points (targeted 1.043, hit 1.037) because it got too diluted when getting topped up with water. I have never had a problem hitting my OG, so this was somewhat upsetting. It's obviously because I left too much wort in the kettle (roughly 3.5 quarts).

So, my question is: What is the best technique to avoid this? How much trub do you allow to be siphoned up when you get towards the bottom? Any tips on what to do here? Thanks!

 

[JLP]

It sounds like you did everything right. My two suggestions are to either tip the pot on it's side once your able and let the trub settle out to the bottom, or just bump up your recipe to accommodate the 3.5 quarts of trub loss. If you are going to bump it up, I would recommend bumping up your recipe to account for the trub loss in during your fermentation process too.