I tried out a new (I think) idea when I brewed today. Wanted to see if this of use to people and submit it to the Gadget page if it's something new.
A while back I found a massive roll of stainless steel screen at work and, er, took some. Apart from a new manifold/false bottom I'm working on with it (coming soon), I decided to use some in the boil kettle to help catch hops and trub during the whirlpool. I cut a piece of screen about 2" wide and 24" long, secured it in a ring shape with an office clip, and dropped it into the kettle with the rest of my whirlpool setup. Just that easy. Even Justin could do this. After I transferred the beer, there was about a 3/4" cake of trub standing in the ring, that hardly went anywhere during transfer or when I was moving things around for some pictures afterwards. This was a 6 gallon batch of ~1.040 wort with about 2 ounces of pellet hops, so not that much hops or protein break. For bigger and more hoppy beers, I'm sure a wider ring could be made and dropped in later in the whirlpool, but before the immersion chiller is cooling things down.
I'm not sure if it makes a big difference, but my whirlpool is set up to draw from the bottom of the kettle. It sort of vacuums out the area outside the ring, and shoots it back in higher up in the kettle. That might make a difference in how well the ring world work in other peoples' setups. Anyhow, I think it's a nice alternative to welding in a diverter plate, since I'm avoiding spending money on anything I can't use when I step up to a 10 gallon system.
I'm brewing Tasty's brown ale next week and I'll try this again with bigger wort and even more hops...
Whirlpool setup with ring.
Even with the kettle tilted, things stay in place.
Trub cake after pulling off the ring. On the left edge you can see it's about 3/4" thick and still stickin'.
The ring after its maiden voyage.
