Whirlpool

Hi,

I recently visited a microbrewery and watched their process. After mashing they pumped their wort into a intermediate whirlpool tank and then from there it went into the boiler. I know they do this to rid of any sediment however, I have been reading that this should be done after he boil and before going into the fermenter. Any thoughts on this?

Thanks

They probably feel due to equipment setup that they cannot vorlauf adequately so they whirpool before boil to clarify it. I find it important to vorlauf ( recirc the runnings until clear) at least 10 minutes or until runnings are crystal clear going into boil kettle. I whirpool by hand with paddle, and recirc at the end of and after boil.

MRMARTINSALES said:

After mashing they pumped their wort into a intermediate whirlpool tank and then from there it went into the boiler. I know they do this to rid of any sediment however, I have been reading that this should be done after he boil and before going into the fermenter. Any thoughts on this?

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What your describing sounds like a "weak wort" or "wort receiver" tank. It's not a practical item in homebrewing. It starts to make sense in small breweries making 3 or more batches per day.

The tank saves time in a busy brewhouse, as well as increases mash efficiency. As twhitaker surmises, it shortens or eliminates vourloff, which can be a huge time saver. The vourloff and sparge are often the bottleneck in a production brewery, especially when working around the clock. With a weak wort tank, sparge starts well before the boil kettle is empty and the wort is heated to near boiling. This can save as much as an hour per cycle, which can add two to four extra batches in a 24 hour brewhouse. That's a big gain in productivity for the same labor.

Another advantage of a weak wort tank is that the last runnings of one batch can be pumped back into the next batch. This can save 2% to 5% in grain cost and up to 14% in water use.