recirculating wort at the end of the boil to separate hops using brew bag?

[twd000]

I'm struggling with getting clear wort out of my keggle into the fermentor. I have a March Pump 809 which is rated to 250F max fluid temperature. Was thinking of putting the BIAB bag back into the kettle after removing the wort chiller. Then recirculating all the wort from below the bag, back into the bag. Then hoist the bag on my ratchet pulley and let it drip while I runoff clear wort to the kettle. Will this work?

 

[eric19312]

I tried doing this with a large metal hop spider. The hot break plugged the spider immediately. Pretty sure a brew bag would do same thing.

Easiest solution to get very clear wort in the fermentor is to build your recipes big enough to leave a fair amount of wort in the keggle, do a whirlpool, let it settle, and then carefully rack off the trub into the fermentor.

Even easier is to get comfortable with letting some of the trub make it into the fermentor. Then whirlpool like above, let it settle or not. Then use your pump instead of careful racking ... you can probably still leave 80-90% of the trub in the keggle. The trub will all settle out in the fermentor anyway. Do make sure your pickup tube is pulling wort from the corner where the wall meets the floor of the keggle.

 

[twd000]

I tried doing this with a large metal hop spider. The hot break plugged the spider immediately. Pretty sure a brew bag would do same thing.

Easiest solution to get very clear wort in the fermentor is to build your recipes big enough to leave a fair amount of wort in the keggle, do a whirlpool, let it settle, and then carefully rack off the trub into the fermentor.

Even easier is to get comfortable with letting some of the trub make it into the fermentor. Then whirlpool like above, let it settle or not. Then use your pump instead of careful racking ... you can probably still leave 80-90% of the trub in the keggle. The trub will all settle out in the fermentor anyway. Do make sure your pickup tube is pulling wort from the corner where the wall meets the floor of the keggle.

so you reckon I'd be hoisting a bag full of wort due to clogged material?

I've failed miserably at creating a whirlpool. I have an ULWD wavy-bend electric element in the base of my keggle, and it just doesn't allow any sort of organized whirlpool vortex.

Maybe I'll just drain all the sludge into the fermentor and deal with it when racking to the serving keg. I have floating dip tubes with mesh screens on the intake

 

[odie]

clear or cloudy wort will not matter. It all settles out in the fermenter. There are guys here who dump the whole kettle into their bucket and make nice clear beer so it's obviously not an issue.

IMO, unless you are harvesting yeast, I would not care how much trub gets into the fermenter.

If you care to harvest yeast then yes, clear wort if a big plus. I use a bucket strainer. I get super clear wort and no trub. I effectively get all of the wort into the fermenter. It can take a day or so to completely drip through if there is a lot of hops. It just sits and drips while it's dropping to pitch temp in the fridge. You can even pitch your yeast while it's still draining. After a couple days at peak krausen you can dump it and put a lid and airlock on.

 

[twd000]

that is hideous and beautiful at the same time

I ferment in kegs rather than buckets - I tried using a paint strainer bag in the mouth of the keg but it clogged with 4 oz of pellet hops and wouldn't drain through so the wort was left sitting in the kettle until I could yank the bag free. Hadn't thought of letting it drip overnight but I'm not excited about leaving it exposed to contaminants for that long either

 

[odie]

you let the kettle sit a couple hours. After you are done with your wort chiller, put the lid on the kettle and don't touch nothing...let it sit a good hour, two, more...depends on how much hops and other adjutants went into the kettle...but you want it all to drop below the spigot.

After a couple hours or so, you place the bucket with a strainer inset (not a strainer bag but an actual bucket strainer insert). It has it's own "frame" and holds about a gallon. Get a 100-200 micron one. Open the spigot slowly and keep a slow steady flow on the edge of the strainer. You don't want the flow so fast that it starts to pick up all the dropped trub. It might take 30 minutes, maybe an hour, until the spigot runs dry. But you want the strainer to stay empty and not clog up.

Optional...if temps are good you can pitch your yeast.

Once the spigot runs out, you should still have an empty/clear strainer if all the wort has passed thru. Take your kettle and dump all the dregs into the strainer. I mean dump everything...sludge and all. Leave nothing behind. The strainer will hold a good gallon plus. It will clog up super fast and fill up quick. Then you just place your bucket lid on top on the strainer and leave it alone. There is a lot of good wort in all that sludge. it will work it's way thru the strainer and into the bucket. A good 3-4 pints extra or more.

After a day or so...depending on what's all in the trub clogging the strainer...remove the lid and marvel at your dry and tight "mud cake". There is maybe less than a shot glass of wort left in there. Congratulations...you have basically gotten 99.9% of total wot into the fermenter with no trub. You will have to adjust your recipes DOWN to maintain target ABVs.

I would suggest taking a second bucket and cutting the top portion off to make a spacer. With a typical 6 gal fermenter bucket, the insert will sometimes touch the wort below once it's fully strained. The insert can up a gallon or more space depending on how deep it is.