Have to whirlpool and siphon from kettle?

[Beau815]

I am brewing my first AG. After reading papazians books I am wondering if I missed something. I heard people talk about whirlpooling and all. My past malt extract full boils i just dumped the kettle into the bucket after the hour boil.... hot/cold break and all. Do you guys all whirlpool then siphon out from the sides of the brew kettle? Would I be ok dumping it all in the bucket or is it a MUST to whirlpool and siphon AG batches?

 

[scinerd3000]

nothing with brewing is a must. I tend to end up with a cleaner cold break and my beer clears quicker. Some hops are bound to get in but its debatable wheather it affects flavor. I have done both and have yet to have problems or difference in flavor with either

 

[Rhoobarb]

I do b/c it's a pain to stand there and pour a full five gallons (or ten when I'm doing ten gallon batches) of wort into a carboy. 2-3 extract gallons is no problem, but try holding roughly 50 lbs. and it gets tiring.

However, if you're tough enough, then go for it, Popeye!

 

[profarm]

I don't, I use wirlfloc or irish moss to clump the protiens, cool it down and dump the whole thing in. the cold break will clump back together and fall to the bottom again...

 

[Beau815]

I do b/c it's a pain to stand there and pour a full five gallons (or ten when I'm doing ten gallon batches) of wort into a carboy. 2-3 extract gallons is no problem, but try holding roughly 50 lbs. and it gets tiring.

However, if you're tough enough, then go for it, Popeye!

Its a 5 gallon not 10 and yes I can lift that. Doesnt take popeye lol 50 pounds isnt much and it doesnt get tiring because it takes a whole 30 seconds to pour it into the fermenter.

Profarm thats what i was kinda hoping to hear, i use irish moss too. Just wasnt sure if even with that i had to siphon off the top from the kettle.

 

[mcjake]

You will end up with a lot more sediment in your fermenter than you would otherwise. It was kind of a shock to us last month when we did our first all grain batch. Next time we will end up whirl pooling and siphoning. But my understanding is that you wont ruin your beer by not doing it.

Extract just doesn't seem to have that problem. I'm sure someone can technically explain why. I'm sure it's something about proteins and enzymes and junk.

Good luck! All grain is a lot of fun. Start early and plan on a really long brewing day!

 

[HomebrewJeff]

No, as others have mentioned, it's not a requirement. Some people prefer to leave as much of the hot/cold break/hops out of the fermenter as possible. It's pretty easy to add a valve to the kettle, and it makes things a lot simpler.

 

[Edcculus]

Extract just doesn't seem to have that problem. I'm sure someone can technically explain why. I'm sure it's something about proteins and enzymes and junk.

The extract producer has already partially done the hot break for you. They have to boil the wort down to make a concentrated syrup. Although they do it under vacuum, a lot of the proteins are coagulated so that extract buyers get nice clear wort.

 

[iXanadu]

Its a 5 gallon not 10 and yes I can lift that. Doesnt take popeye lol 50 pounds isnt much and it doesnt get tiring because it takes a whole 30 seconds to pour it into the fermenter.

And only 5 seconds to knock the bucket over.

 

[Malticulous]

I've whirlpooled and siphoned before but now I just dump--even with ten gallon batches. My siphon is just too slow. Maybe someday I'll get a fancy ball valve.

 

[Beau815]

i dumped slow watching for anything on the bottom, only thing i saw was my teaspoon of irish moss... wasnt that supposed to stay in anyway?

 

[Yooper]

I've never seen the Irish moss after I've added it, but I'm sure that's fine. I just dump most everything right into the fermenter. I siphon the first half, then dump the rest, but only because I'm a wimp and have trouble lifting that much heavy wort and pouring it.

 

[Beau815]

Are you using the powdered irish moss? Mine are like finings... like little hard chips.

 

[Bowtiebrewery]

If you must siphon you can always get a larger Diameter racking cane and Tube... I did that and my keg would empty pretty quick... But i don't do this anymore...

I have ballvalves on mine and will be installing qd's for my March pump and use a Whirlpool Immersible Chiller...

 

[Rhoobarb]

That's another reason I siphon - I use whole hops whenever possible and I hate using hop bags. I want every hop cone to get wet with wort! But I want to leave all that behind when I take it to the carboy. Lately, I've been trying to get my lighter colored ales to be as clear as possible. So, I've been careful to thoroughly vorlauf and leave the break material behind, as well as adding gelatin in secondary and crash cooling.

I've been meaning to add a ball valve to my keggle, but siphoning isn't hard, so it hasn't been a priority.

 

[SchizoFilly]

If you are using a bucket, I use nylon screening bag with an elastic band that fits over the top of the bucket. Pour in the wort then pull out the bag. Most everything comes out with it. If you use a whole lot of pellet hops it does tend to get clogged and take a little while to drain all the liquid into the bucket. A combination of whirlpooling to leave what you can in the kettle and then straining the wort in the bucket gets most sediment out.