Any ideas to prevent blockages whirlpool

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

warpy55

Supporting Member
HBT Supporter
Joined
Jul 13, 2019
Messages
3
Reaction score
0
Hi, I like hoppy beers and I would like to whirpool the wort after boiling. Attempts at this have led to blockages with the pump not pumping wort.
If I filter the outgoing outlet it would lead to blockage of the filter medium. Are there any strategies to achieve a whirpool of aroma and flavour hops?
My outlet is 12.7mm (1/2""). I am using a chugger pump.
 
I can whirlpool a heavily hopped beer in my grainfather. It has a filter on the outlet that looks like this:

1679552927277.png


No problem with blockage or slow flow. You get a lot of hop matter built up against the filter but it still flows just fine.
 
When I'm post-boil whirlpooling with many ounces of pellet hops in the kettle "commando style" if I run my march 815pl wide open it will eventually suck in a clog of hops that knocks the impeller free of its magnetic coupling, forcing me to shut off the pump motor, wait until everything inside stops spinning, then turn the pump motor back on with the output valve maybe 30% closed. For whatever reason I can run the pump at that setting indefinitely but if I turn the valve wide open again the impeller will eventually decouple again...

Cheers!
 
Last edited:
I bag as many hop additions I can to prevent my Brewzilla clogging. On the hoppier beers I'll sometimes have 3 bags going, but will often just throw upwards of 3oz loose pellets in "naked" to whirlpool once the pump is running wide open. I also employ a drain strainer on the inlet of the pump inlet.
 
The instructions for the HopBlocker focus on post-boil lautering and make it seem incompatible with constant recirculation through it. I would say the same thing for the Electric Brewery's HopStopper as I've owned both Gen 1 and Gen 2 and they are quite useless for recirculation.

Between that point and others (primarily, a gas fire kettle) I added a dedicated "recirculation port" to my kettle and only switch in the HopStopper after the wort is cooled and ready to lauter. In that fashion it works great, just have to keep the pump throttled a bit as mentioned earlier...

Cheers!
 
The instructions for the HopBlocker focus on post-boil lautering and make it seem incompatible with constant recirculation through it. I would say the same thing for the Electric Brewery's HopStopper as I've owned both Gen 1 and Gen 2 and they are quite useless for recirculation.

Between that point and others (primarily, a gas fire kettle) I added a dedicated "recirculation port" to my kettle and only switch in the HopStopper after the wort is cooled and ready to lauter. In that fashion it works great, just have to keep the pump throttled a bit as mentioned earlier...

Cheers!
I don’t own one so I don’t know. Just one of those products I was aware of
 
Back
Top