Building whirlpooler w/Therminator and pump

[bobbytuck]

I've been reading a good bit about whirlpooling after the boil. I've looked at Jamil's whirlpool chiller.

I'm using a pump to move my wort out of my BK to my Therminator and then through an inline oxygen injector and finally into my fermenter. I'm usually able to get the temps down to 68F or so with my normal garden hose through the therminator.

This week, I plan to attach an old immersion chiller submerged in a bucket of ice water pre-Therminator to cool my wort down even farther. I've been using Safale-05 @ 60F and would like to cool the wort to exactly my pitching temperature (instead of letting it sit in my swamp cooler chiller and cooling itself down.)

Anyway, what I'd like to do is temporarily redirect my therminator wort-out back into my BK at an angle via silicon tubing (and a big clamp on the side of the BK) to return the wort and start a whirlpool in the BK for whirlpool hop additions. I've tried experimenting with a Hopback, but I had a heckuva time getting a steady flow through the hops due to the fact that the hopback wasn't airtight and had no seal for my pump to adequately pump through the wort.

Anyway, would this kind of therminator/BK whirlpool work? Is there any reason why I *wouldn't* want to whirlpool the cooled wort back into the BK and essentially recirculate the whole 5 gallons for 30-45 mins? (I realize it might be tricky to angle the tube in the BK to get a whirlpool going.)

At the end of the recirc, I'd simply connect the recirc tube to the oxygen injector/thermometer and fill up my fermenter -- and that'd be the end of it.

Does this sound like it'd work?

 

[mikefromcu]

I think I'd line it up with the cooled wort going through the immersion chiller in the bucket - you'll get far more cooling than you would in trying to cool rushing hose water.

I used to recirc my Therm output back into the kettle, but that was because I couldn't chill it single pass (I'm in San Diego and hose is about 85*). Since you can do it in single pass, just do it.

One other thing, if you can get your wort single pass to 68 in the fermenter without any more gizmo cooling (i.e. the immersion chiller), according to the White's, pitching at 68* would be fine because during the first 12ish hours the yeast isn't producing anything (beer wise), it's replicating.

So, let me restate - if I were you, I'd do just what you are doing and call it a day. Unless it takes more than 12 hours for your swamp cooler (what the heck is that?) to chill it to 60.

Mike www.hessbrewing.com

 

[bobbytuck]

Thanks.

But what about the recirc'ing for the hop aroma (as opposed to cooling)? My understanding is that whirlpool is for chilling and hop aroma (and less DMS). Is there any advantage to whirlpooling like I describe for the added hop aroma? Or could I just drop the hops in the BK at knockout and leave them sit for 30 mins or so?

I use hop bags, so I'm not too worried about the trub and stuff.

Just looking for a way to ramp up my hop aroma a bit.

 

[Bentpirate]

Thanks.

But what about the recirc'ing for the hop aroma (as opposed to cooling)? My understanding is that whirlpool is for chilling and hop aroma (and less DMS). Is there any advantage to whirlpooling like I describe for the added hop aroma? Or could I just drop the hops in the BK at knockout and leave them sit for 30 mins or so?

I use hop bags, so I'm not too worried about the trub and stuff.

Just looking for a way to ramp up my hop aroma a bit.

Have you researched 'First Wort' hop addition, this adds to the aroma, and really ballances the hop profiles IMO. Or, dry hop in a secondary. I would think a lot of the aroma you are wanting would disapate during primary.

 

[wyzazz]

You can back up your "whirlpool" hop additions by 10-20mins to get the aroma and flavor of the "whirlpool" additions that the big boys get. They talk about it all the time on Can You Brew It podcasts.

 

[mikefromcu]

Yea BobbyT, you can recirc to create and maintain your WP and do your final WP hop addition. This has the added advantage of sanitizing your Therminator so you don't need that extra step.

About 10 minutes before flame out, turn on a recirc loop consisting of:
kettle out > Pump > Therminator > Kettle return and let it just run

At flame out, kill the heat, drop in your final WP hops. Let 'em sit in all that hot wort, spinning away (depending on your kettle configuration, volume and pump's power, this may be a gentle WP or one that is actually effective).

After your designated time, 10, 15 or 30 minutes (whatever), turn on your chill (hose) water and realign your Therminator output to whatever you're catching and fermenting the wort in.

If you don't think the speed of your WP was fast enough to be effective, you can also supplement what your pump is creating (via the return line) with your sanitized spoon, boat oar or whatever you use to get the rotational speed up to something that will be effective (effective in creating a trub pile in the center of the kettle, not getting the hop goodness into the wort, that doesn't depend on the speed).