Beer Forum

I am doing an all-grain next weekend with my shiny new 15 gal Sanke keg. I made a whirlpool-style immersion chiller (50' of 5/8" OD copper) that I will be circulating ice water through via an immersible pump. I use a March pump to circulate the wort from the keggle to the pipe on the chiller to create the whirlpool while it cools.
My question is, should I use a SS braid in the kettle around the outer edge of the chiller to filter the wort before the pump, or should I buy a false bottom?
I can't seem to figure out if the false bottom is a wasted expense with the whirlpool or not. But I know I will have more wort left in the bottom of the keg if I go with the SS braid solution....
Ideas anyone?

I have a similar setup except that I use a 15g mega pot. I don't use a false bottom or a screen in the boil kettle. The break material and hops will both pass through the pump. My recipes are for 11 gallons of wort, and I leave about a gallon in the kettle when the fermenters are filled.

So you aren't really worried about trying to get most of the break out before transferring into the fermenter?

I'm a big fan of using a kettle false bottom w/ whirlpool, and have excellent results leaving all the "junk" behind in the kettle. I use a plate chiller instead of an IC, but I don't think that makes any real difference.




Here's my first yeast harvest from using this method. You can see that it's pretty much all yeast; no green hop layer and no grey trub layer. Pretty good evidence that everything undesirable got left behind in the kettle.

I am assuming that you are a whole hop guy, eh? Pellets are going to get through that false bottom.


Mylo

Very interesting! I was thinking that with a false bottom, the break material would trickle right through and be transferred with the wort even after whirlpooling because the pickup was right under the "poop mound".
I already have a bazooka t-screen just looking for a home. I am now wondering if it would work acceptably well with the whirlpool. Hmmmmm....

MyloFiore wrote:I am assuming that you are a whole hop guy, eh? Pellets are going to get through that false bottom.
Mylo

As for myself, I use pellets, but I am going to use one of these to contain the fallout and just snatch it out before I turn off the pump so it doesn't affect the whirlpool.

Meh... I never bothered. I get some hops and break in my fermenters. One day I'll have a conical so I can pull that stuff off.


Mylo