Beer Forum

Diverter Plate Design?
I recently built my interpretation of Jamil’s Whirlpool Chiller. As a chiller, it kicks ass. I go from boiling to 95˚ in 5 minutes. Last night I brewed a Mai Bock and had a great cold break, probably my best ever, but the break didn’t drop out very well and I wound up transferring quite a bit into the fermenter. I am thinking of converting my current chiller which is 50' of 1/2" copper tubing to a counter-flow that re-circs to create the whirl pool bc having the chiller in the kettle slows down the effect of the whirlpool.

I think I am still going to have a problem with getting my trub to settle out bc the intake for the pump is pulling break out of where the cone should be forming. Maybe I'm doing something else wrong but I really don't want to have to go back to leaving it in the fridge over night and racking the bright wort the next day when I'm sure there is something I can do to be able to pitch the yeast right after I brew. I am able to get it down to 50˚ in 1/2 hour which for me is fine to pitch lager at. The most logical solution I can think of is a diverter plate. I just don't know what the best way to do one in my kettle would be. It's a polar ware kettle and the thermometer port has been converted to the return port/whirlpool. Do I do a full circle of metal and tack it to the bottom with some welds? Or can I just put a plate for a few inches in from of the drain so it's drawing more from the sides?

Would a ring of sheet metal placed in the bottom (like from duct work - I could get that at Home Depot and it's easy to work with) or is that going to leech some weird stuff into the beer?

Thought? Suggestions? Pictures?!

I intend to brew a Märzen and a Kölsch next week and if I can't separate my break well I may have to post pone them.

Thanks for your input...

Paul

I can't comment on the diverter plate design. But, as for whirlpooling, I don't worry about the trub forming a cone in the bottom until I shut off my pump. Then I let the wort sit in the kettle for another 15-30 minutes. This is when the trub cone forms for me...

I took my JZ chiller through it's paces last week. My coils are tight enough to hold back the break and hop material - but it doesn't "mate" tight to the bottom - so some of the trub cone was able to float out and get sucked into the kettle spigot output. Someone here beat the shit out of a copper pipe until it was flat and made a "diverter ring". I was going to do the same and attach it to the bottom of my WIC.


Mylo

I bought a 12 in sheet metal ring for ductwork at Lowes over lunch. I'm going to give that a try

I wouldn't do that if I were you. Galvanized metal contains a lot of zinc which can be toxic to yeast at a certain level. Wort is acidic, and you will probably extract some zinc from that ring. I would stick to the copper and/or stainless.


Mylo

see I wasn't sure if sheetmetal was galvanized... not my area of expertise... If it is I'll try something else

SHIT!

Wikipedia says modern ductwork is made from galvanized steel...

hammering out some copper seems the best option right now...

any other suggestions?

Try restricting your pump with a ball valve on the out side to reduce the sucktion.

For a diverter plate, look for a small cheap SS kettle at the store or gar. sale and cut the top off and use that for your ring.

My ring sits around my dip tube w/small notch on the bottom that faces the wall of the kettle. The majority of the wort comes over the top of the ring during the pick up. When the wort gets below the top of the ring (as the trub to wort ratio increases) the wort come in from the back notch at the farthest point from the center of the pot (where most my trub settles).