SS Brewtech 20 Gallon Kettle - Trub dam, recirculation and leaf hops?

[secondratemime]

I'm brewing a lot of beer for my wedding next year and getting a new system priced up. I'm pretty set on the SS Brewtech 20 Gallon kettle, but I'll need to revise my cooling setup and all the options have me confused.

I can get 25m (80ft) of 10mm copper coil fairly cheaply, so I thought about building my own immersion cooler. As I'd be DIY-ing it, I'd be keen to add some recirculation/whirlpool functionality to boost it's effectiveness. I'd need a pump obviously, but if I can make good use of it I'm happy to spend some money on a decent one.

However, I've heard that whole leaf hops tend to clog these pretty badly and I can imagine that's only made worse by forcably dragging hops towards the outlet. Does anyone have any experience with generating a recirculation whirlpool with the SS pots and if so, are whole hops going to be a massive headache?

Theeeeanks!

James

 

[PeteNMA]

Whole hops will be a total PITA if you're trying to whirlpool with them added loose

If you want to keep using leaf hops, bag them before you put them in the kettle.

I have a 15 gallon SS brewtech kettle and like it, the trub dam is pretty good but it seems to get a little overwhelmed with eight ounces of pellet hops in flameout and whirlpool additions.

 

[secondratemime]

That's what I had feared. Leaf hops are the most readily available in the UK, so I'd like to figure out a solution, but could probably have a look at pellet alternatives. I've read about people stuffing a stainless steel scrubbie under the dip tube, but wasn't sure how that would cope with a pump. Plus if it became dislodged it would be impossible to rectify mid-boil.

How coarse a mesh are your bags? I've dryhopped with fairly fine meshed bags in the past and always felt I was losing a lot to them.

They have a false bottom that's designed to make it suitable for mashing, but the site says it can be used to filter hops. Anyone have any experience of these?

http://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/index.php?_a=viewProd&productId=653

James

 

[Tartan1]

I've been using a similar setup to the one pictured for about 25 years, its not a SS Brewtech system however. In my setup I use a true bottom drain ( I can drain the kettle almost completely without tipping it) and the perforated screen sits approx 3" above it. I added a re-circulation port up near the top so I could whirlpool in the event I wanted to use pellet hops and works well cooling with my immersion chiller. The screen also provides a nice base to sit my chiller on. The other benefit of using the screen I found was that when the whole leaf hops settled during the cooling process it provided an excellent filter base for a lot of the hot/cold break and never clogged up the pump or the bottom drain.

 

[secondratemime]

I've been using a similar setup to the one pictured for about 25 years, its not a SS Brewtech system however. In my setup I use a true bottom drain ( I can drain the kettle almost completely without tipping it) and the perforated screen sits approx 3" above it. I added a re-circulation port up near the top so I could whirlpool in the event I wanted to use pellet hops and works well cooling with my immersion chiller. The screen also provides a nice base to sit my chiller on. The other benefit of using the screen I found was that when the whole leaf hops settled during the cooling process it provided an excellent filter base for a lot of the hot/cold break and never clogged up the pump or the bottom drain.

Sounds great, shame it's quite a pricey solution though! So you could generate an effective whirlpool with a screen like this? I imagine it would really help filter out all the debris as you describe, but does it limit the flow/put a lot of strain on the pump?

James

 

[Tartan1]

I place the immersion chiller in kettle 15 min before flame out (sterilize chiller) and then start the pump with a slow flow when I'm using 100% whole leaf hops to more or less recirculate wort for effective cooling. Its not really a whirlpool at this point as I don't want to want to disturb the hop bed ( same idea as mashing out to boil kettle and not disturbing grain bed). Then cool wort to desired temp.
When using a mix of whole and pellet hops or 100% pellet same procedure as above except more of a flow to whirlpool the debris on top of the screen.
I find that the approx 3" of space located under the screen provides the pump with enough wort and does not strain the pump at all. I leave the output (bottom) valve wide open to feed the pump, feathering the input ( above the screen) valve to find the happy median of creating the type of whirlpool desired depending on hop type used.
The screen works best with whole hops and is relatively effective with pellet hops and has worked fine for me all these years. As mentioned before mine is not the the one made by SS Brewtech however I would assume the grid spacing would be relatively the same.
Anyway hope this helps, good luck!!