Well! Long time no Post!
9 Years since i have joined this forum and while i havent been active i have visited on occasion to extract knowledge held withing these walls! I am still Biab brewer - proudly after all these years and continue to produce pretty fine beers. I tell you what, it is satisfying to have been apart of the evolution of BIAB into a legitimate and accepted method of brewing award winning All Grain beer!!

Anyhow... i have a question regarding whirlpool and chilling with an immersion chiller. Who does it? How do you do it? Do you see enhanced results by whirlpooling? I simply cannot get a whirlpool going in my vessell as my chiller is just too large. I am thinking maybe i can put the chiller in the boil 20 mins before flame out to sterilise , remove chiller at flame out (sit on a clean sanitised surface), whirlpool, let sit for 20 minutes then put the chiller back in (gently) and begin the chill process.

Thoughts?

RL

I don' brew that often now, and when I do I no chill so cannot help with experience.

I originally thought that others had success with drill attachments but that may be hit and miss too.

See this thread if it helps https://www.biabrewer.info/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=3918

Great to hear from you @redlegger . You may have been gone but you haven't been forgotten . I've been very lazy of late so today I'll try and add to answers that top members like @mally have given.

Trying to create a whirlpool with an immersion chiller in is pretty much impossible. I know this from first-hand experience so forget that. Before I go into how to avoid needing a whirlpool, for readers who don't have an immersion chiller let me say, if you do want to create one, don't use a drill - it's too fast. A large spoon that you gradually rotate around the edge of the kettle until you see a hollow at the top centre of the wort is what you want. A drill just creates a specialised whirlpool that throws everything away from it rather than into it.

But, you don't really need a whirlpool at all. There are a few easy ways to reduce the transfer of kettle trub into the fermenter. One way is to simply do a gentle transfer, gradually lowering a syphon hose into the bottom of the wort with your eye being able to see how much trub you are sucking up. And/or use your BIAB bag as a hop sock. And/or modify the end of your suction (syphon hose or inflow to a tap/faucet) so as the surface area is increased - so as the wort is gently drawn into the transfer hose - imagine an upside down funnel.

Probably one of the biggest dissatisfactions we brewers have is transfers. We try to rush them but a good transfer relies on gentleness. So, maybe part of any brewing plan should be to savour a beer, read a little of a book, or look at the sky. In other words, let some stillness and thoughtfulness in on your brew.


PP

PistolPatch wrote: ↑

4 years ago

Probably one of the biggest dissatisfactions we brewers have is transfers. We try to rush them but a good transfer relies on gentleness. So, maybe part of any brewing plan should be to savour a beer, read a little of a book, or look at the sky. In other words, let some stillness and thoughtfulness in on your brew.


PP

A slight addition to PistolPatch’s comments about giving it more time... As little as 30 minutes to start the transfer allows much trub to settle at the bottom of the pot. I use an immersion chiller. Always have things to start cleaning up and putting away...and like PP said am not in a huge rush to get the wort into the fermenter.

If trub is the issue, cold crashing after fermentation before packaging takes care of most trub, if you have this ability.

Another thing I have done recently... After transferring and with a decent amount of trub in the pot, pour the trub from the brew kettle into a smaller kitchen pot that can fit in the refrigerator. Cold Crash the contents and after it is chilled there will be nice looking wort at the top and heavy trub at the bottom. The clear wort can be either added to your fermenter after some hours (or the next morning), which creates additional beer later. Or if fermenter does not have room, dilute to 1.040 and measure out yeast starters. (I put in 1 gallon zip-lock bags marked with the OG, contents and date, then freeze these for later use). This harvests around 1/3 of the nice looking wort from the trub before discarding the more concentrated wort.

This works well for me... It gives me more beer, or ready made starters - both of which are very useful.