kombat
Well-Known Member
I'm getting a little tired of my usual chilling routine and am wondering if there is a better way. It occurred to me to ask the good folks at HBT.
Currently, I use a cylindrical "hop screen" (a hop spider that hangs on the edge of the kettle) to contain my hops during the boil. Additionally, I have a "Hop Stopper" attached to my kettle's outlet port. It's just a pickup tube that reaches out to the center of the kettle, and is enshrouded in a frisbee-shaped stainless steel mesh to prevent break material from getting to the pickup tube. I chill using a pump and a plate chiller.
This works fine - I don't get any hop or break material escaping the kettle. The problem is it's annoying to have to break down the Hop Stopper and clean it every time. I'd love to remove it from the kettle completely and try simply whirlpooling, but I'm worried about contaminating my plate chiller with those first quarts of boiled wort before the whirlpool really gets going (I recirculate the wort back into the kettle until it reaches pitching temperature, then siphon the wort into a fermenter).
So, fellow plate-chiller owners: How do you prevent break material and hops from potentially clogging your plate chiller? How do you whirlpool without sucking particulates into your chiller and potentially creating a cleaning problem?
Currently, I use a cylindrical "hop screen" (a hop spider that hangs on the edge of the kettle) to contain my hops during the boil. Additionally, I have a "Hop Stopper" attached to my kettle's outlet port. It's just a pickup tube that reaches out to the center of the kettle, and is enshrouded in a frisbee-shaped stainless steel mesh to prevent break material from getting to the pickup tube. I chill using a pump and a plate chiller.
This works fine - I don't get any hop or break material escaping the kettle. The problem is it's annoying to have to break down the Hop Stopper and clean it every time. I'd love to remove it from the kettle completely and try simply whirlpooling, but I'm worried about contaminating my plate chiller with those first quarts of boiled wort before the whirlpool really gets going (I recirculate the wort back into the kettle until it reaches pitching temperature, then siphon the wort into a fermenter).
So, fellow plate-chiller owners: How do you prevent break material and hops from potentially clogging your plate chiller? How do you whirlpool without sucking particulates into your chiller and potentially creating a cleaning problem?