Beer Forum

I just bought a copper whirlpool attachment and a march pump (morebeer H315) for my immersion chiller and tried it out last night. I've been using a stainless steel mesh "sock" on the inside of the boil kettle ball valve to filter out hops when transfering the wort to carboys. This system has worked well for me on several recent batches, but as soon as I started recirculating with the pump and WIC, hops were sucked into the filter and the filter completely clogged, resulting in no whirlpool action. Yes - very disappointing. My main questions are:

What is the best method for filtering (or otherwise preventing) hops and trub from leaving the boil kettle? Hop bags, diverter/maximizer, bazooka screen, etc?

How much whirlpool action can I expect from a standard high temp march pump from B3? (i.e. revolutions per minute, time per revolution)

Should the whirlpool arm be inside or outside of the copper coils on the wort chiller? All instructions and photos I've seen suggest putting the whirlpool arm on the inside of the coils, but I seem to get a more active whirlpool with the whirlpool arm placed between the outside of the coils and the inside wall of the kettle. Any suggestions?

I think the main advantage of Jamils WIC is quicker cooling (not necessarily a perfect cone in the center). You should let the trub and hops settle out for 15-20 min after chilling but before transferring. Also you can increase your batch size to leave 0.5-1.0 gallons behind in the boil kettle (to leave trub). If you follow this technique, a boil kettle screen may not be necessary.

Quin,
Cooling is precisely the problem. If the outlet from my boil kettle gets clogged as soon as I start recirculating (which is a few minutes before the end of the boil with lots of hops in suspension), there's no whirlpool and chilling is the same as with any standard immersion chiller. I think hops bags would be the safest bet, but I'm having a hard time with the idea of constraining hops to a nylon bag rather than letting them swim freely!

Go Commando. You won't go back.

If you can get a good whirlpool, you shouldn't need a filter. I know it's hard to make that jump, but you should be fine.

try putting a stainless pot scrubber on the kettle diptube like this one http://www.austinhomebrew.com/product_i ... s_id=10882

thedrake wrote:Quin,
Cooling is precisely the problem. If the outlet from my boil kettle gets clogged as soon as I start recirculating (which is a few minutes before the end of the boil with lots of hops in suspension), there's no whirlpool and chilling is the same as with any standard immersion chiller. I think hops bags would be the safest bet, but I'm having a hard time with the idea of constraining hops to a nylon bag rather than letting them swim freely!

I had similar issues when I switched to a WIC when brewing hoppy beers. My solution was to use hopsacks for all but the final hop addition. I figure the benefits from going sackless apply most in the late kettle. My setup will clog with 6 ounces of hops roaming free, but not one or two.

use a paint strainer bag (5 gal) for the hop sack. they can swim plenty free but you can still put your intake outside the bag