Temperature stratification during chilling

[exploding_monkeyface]

I'm having trouble chilling my keggle setup. I have a keggle with a whirlpool arm setup. After the boil I start the recirculation through the whirlpool arm to get all my trub into the center of the keggle. After a few minutes I'll start recirculating the wort through my plate chiller (with a pre-chiller feeding it) and back into the kettle via the whirlpool arm.

I've noticed that the bottom half of the keggle will get really cool, while the top half of the wort will stay really hot. I've solved this by stirring, but then I lose my nice cone of trub in the middle of the kettle.

I'm wondering if once I notice the temperature difference should I just start sending wort to the fermentor and let the chiller cool things off as they go? I've normally always chilled to pitching temps in the kettle before even thinking of going to the fermentor.

 

[LordUlrich]

I see 2 options worth exploreing,

When using a plate chiller I used to whirlpool and chill until the boil kettle temperature was low enough to stop forming DMS, after that I would finish chilling by pumping directly to the fermenter.

You could look at changing how your whirlpool setup is currently to get more mixing in the vertical direction. How high in the kettle is the return port? Could you aim it upward slightly to get some mixing without sacrificing the whirlpool?

 

[acidrain]

Are your intake and output ports at the same level?
I draw from near the bottom, and return closer to the top of the wort column and have no issues.