Beer Forum

TimCA wrote:So what is your method for chilling 10 G. I have a Thermonator, "hop stopper" and a pump. When I tried to chill the, till then ' perfect brewing sesion the entire thing got cloged!!!!!!! I was thinking the hopstopper would filter and the pump would push it threw the chiller and back into the kettel, then I would let it sit for 20 min and drain into the carboy. Not only did this not work, I will be VERY seprised if it is not infected now from all the atemps to back flush and swaping hoses to make something work .....

ANY HOW what is your chilling equipment and proses?

Tim

Are you doing a whirlpool and letting it sit? I pump through a counterflow chiller and have never clogged anything. Are you using any kettle finings?

TimCA wrote:So what is your method for chilling 10 G. I have a Thermonator, "hop stopper" and a pump. When I tried to chill the, till then ' perfect brewing sesion the entire thing got cloged!!!!!!! I was thinking the hopstopper would filter and the pump would push it threw the chiller and back into the kettel, then I would let it sit for 20 min and drain into the carboy. Not only did this not work, I will be VERY seprised if it is not infected now from all the atemps to back flush and swaping hoses to make something work .....

Tim

Sounds like your problem is with your kettle manifold. Do you have a true Hop Stopper? I've had great luck w/ whole hops and a Bazooka-T. It has never clogged my Therminator. I'm guessing you're using pellet hops? Maybe try bagging them.

I've been working on whirlpooling w/ my Therminator. When recirculating back to the kettle, the 12 gal kettle dropped below 140 in about 2 minutes, and then I switched over to standard in-line chilling and dropped it down to ~70 w/ the pump wide open. I chilled and transferred the wort to the fermenter (~135 to ~70) in about 3 minutes. This is all using 60-degree tap water and no prechillers.

I considered retrying the IM chiller route, but I think a plate chiller such as the Therminator is the most efficient way to chill as the temp differential gets closer. In other words, an IMC is great to knock down the temps below 140, but slows as the wort gets closer to your chilling water temp.

Next time I may try recirculating completely in the kettle and leave all the break behind.

Tim, I have the same setup as you do.

I find it's good to runoff a few cups of hot wort before hooking up the pump and chiller. You can just dump it back in the kettle. The first hot and sticky squirts out of the kettle are usually full of hops and trub. It's just like vorlaufing your mash.

Hay all,
Yes I do use pellets, and the bulk of the cloging is the Hop Stopper (the one revewed on TBN.) My plan was to recirc but that did not work. Now Im where I not shure if I want to try it again.
Tim

Hey Push, did you just make that chart up on your own ?

It reminded me of something. I ran across a USB thermometer somewhere and was really considering getting it to make charts like that. You could take the input to timestamp and log the data for analysis.

I was going to chart the mash/sparge, cool, and fermentation.


good stuff

Tim,

Have you tried using muslin/hop bags for your additions? Kind of defeats the purpose of the HS, but if it works...

Interesting info on the Hop Stopper. I was considering getting one, but now that seems less likely. Are you using a converted keg?

calvey wrote:Hey Push, did you just make that chart up on your own?

Hi Calvey,

I remember seeing something like that for taking gravity readings.

No, I just wrote those numbers down in my log and then typed them into Excel to make the chart.

Cheers,
Push Eject