Whirlpooling, trub and Blichmann kettles

[zacster]

I have the Blichmann 10 gallon kettle, a nice piece of equipment (let's not argue about that here). But the one thing I am frustrated with is the ability to whirlpool, and that no matter what I do, I still get most of the break and hops into my fermentor.

For whirlpooling the problem is the thermometer. It sticks out so that it is hard to stir and get a good whirlpool going. I try doing it above the thermometer, but only have moderate success. The other thing is the dip tube. Even if I could get a nice conical mound in the center as I've seen in pictures, the dip tube is going to suck it all into the carboy anyway.

I've thought about not using the valve, but that defeats the purpose of the kettle, and taking the thermometer out does as well.

So what do you do?

 

[fartinmartin]

Can't you put a bazooka screen on the valve on the inside, that's what I have in my kettle, forget all about whirlpool, boil then cooler in, let it sit 30mins, then drain out slowly, this sets up a trub filter on the screen, it works great.

If you are mad about whirl pooling simply drain to a round bucket , then whirl away at will.

 

[Smellyglove]

You don't need to stir at the edge of the kettle. If you stir more towards the centre you'll get a more vigorous WP if compared to using the same amount of force at the edge of the kettle.

If you do this and leave some time to settle, you should be good. I don't use my 10gal for boil, but if if the trub is left with enough time to settle after a WP they will compact in the middle, the more time the more trub gathers in the centre.

 

[zacster]

Since I dumped it all into my 6 gallon carboy, trub and all, I let it settle overnight before transferring to my twin 3 gallon better bottles. It still had a few inches of trub at the bottom, so I siphoned the top very clear portion into the first bottle, then put a paint strainer bag into the second and tried straining it this way. Well, lets just say it made a big mess. At some point nothing would go through anymore, and I still had at least a gallon if not more liquidy sludge. I ended up with only about 4 gallons of beer of a 5 gallon batch. Next time I take it all and let it settle during cold crash.

 

[Cyclman]

I let my kettle settle for 30 min. after chilling, it dramatically reduced trub in the fermenter.

I just got a hop blocker, I know they have a bad reputation, but it can't hurt, I figure.