Single pass chilling vs. Recirculating w/ Therminator

[Desert_Sky]

hell, just roll your own for 25 bucks.

But I do roll my own......

Oh you meant the immersion chiller. I may do that, but sometimes you find a smokin deal on one on craigslist

 

[Irrenarzt]

LOL. I just rolled a 25 turn 1/4" copper coil for my randall. Beer from the randall comes out to the coil then to a picnic tap. You immerse the coil in a cooler of ice water and voila, no foaming. I'm a big proponent of rolling your own...

 

[Douglefish]

No I pump using 2 march pumps. Gravity is for the poor and people who like to stand on ladders ;-) I also recirc chilled ice water using my HLT through the bottom circuit of the Therminator. Works great and I've gotten down to pitch temps in 6 minutes once but usually a couple minutes more for 5 gallon batches, about double for 10 gallon ones.

This is a Brutus type single tier and that's a 20 gallon Boilermaker. In all my experimentation, this is the most effective method for keeping hop material out of the Therminator.

I apologize, I think I'm just not getting it. The steel tube that is above your boil kettle is used to strain hops once you start the recirc right? You aren't using it as a hop bag are you?

So you go from the boil kettle (with loose hops and trub) -> Pump -> Therminator -> back into the top of the strainer.

If that is the case don't you clog your plate chiller? There is nothing to keep the hops from going through the chiller right?

 

[Irrenarzt]

The steel tube holds the hop bag in place for the boil and the subsequent chill recirc. The hops are sequestered in the hop bag for both the boil and the chill. I do not have loose hops in my boil anymore. People complain about hop utilization suffering with hop bags but my beers are as hoppy as they were before I started doing this so I'd say I'm doing just fine. This is all pellet. If I want to add leaf (which I also do) I use a false bottom and that separates the leaf hops from the pickup tube.

Getting it now?

 

[cdematteis]

I have a question...why do you recirculate back through the hop bag rather than just back into the kettle? Do you get more hop utilization or increased aroma by recirculating through the hop bag?

 

[Demon]

I have a question...why do you recirculate back through the hop bag rather than just back into the kettle? Do you get more hop utilization or increased aroma by recirculating through the hop bag?

As an extra filtration step. If any particles got through on the first pass they'll get caught before the second.