Whirlpooling not working

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ClayHenry

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Just finished another batch and whirlpooling isn't working worth a darn. I stirred it up and got it moving pretty fast and then let it sit for 30 minutes. When I racked it to the primary the trub was in an even layer at the bottom. What gives?

The only thing I can think of is that my kettle is of the relatively tall and narrow variety. Anyone else have any ideas on what might be causing my problem or how to fix it short of getting a new kettle?
 
I tried whirpooling several times in my kettle, it never worked. Did it exactly as everyone suggests but all the white fluffy trub remains flat on bottom. I really starting to think that whirlpooling only works for folks who throws hops straight to kettle. I use hop spider and this results in really light trub texture, more like egg-soup that just doesn't like to stay together.

Sent from GT-I9100M
 
That sounds like the problem I am having. It looks like break material rather than hop bits. I'm also using a whirfloc tablet, so that might be contributing to it.
 
I gave up on whirlpooling. I tried it several times. With and without whirfloc, the hops free/vs bagged, chilled to 60 (recirculated IC with pond pump through ice bath) and at 80 degrees, 10 minutes of waiting vs 30 minutes, and with 3 different base malts. I can't ever get a good transfer without a big trub layer in the pot. If I used whirfloc I had 2-3 gallons of fluffy break material that wasn't worth leaving behind because it was half of the beer.
 
I went ahead and racked it all into the primary too since it was a little over a gallon. I figure it will settle out and compact by the time I rack it to my keg in a few weeks. It didn't seem to hurt the last batch.
 
Whirlpooling is supposed to happen right after the boil and before cooling, at which point the hot break (i.e. the particles that were already knocked out of solution during the boil) can form a nice clean pile.

After cooling with an immersion cooler, you're going to see a mix of hot and cold break in your kettle. You should let the wort sit 30 minutes+ to let the break material sediment out, but whirlpooling at this point won't make much difference

If you have a counterflow cooler however, you can use a whirlpool to your advantage. Whirlpool the hot wort, let it sit, then draw it off into your CFC. Note that by doing this you won't be able to separate the cold break, as it will all settle out in your fermenter. (The pro breweries can get it dump it out the bottom of a conical FV).
 

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