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why does my whirlpool not work?

jamier

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I use a floc tablet and get a good whirlpool going, but when it settles, say 15 minutes later, there is no centre cone, just all settles evenly at the bottom. I lose about 5 litres![from 23 litres] How do you successfully "whirlpool"?
 
To build up a cone, the whirlpool gives the largest effect in the following situation:
- building up a very high speed whirl with no turbulence to start with (very smooth pattern also in the horizontal plane)
- the kettle should be positioned horizontal, stable and not shake
- the bottom of the kettle should be flat and the walls round shaped. Other kettle shapes, parts sticking out of the smooth surface
  (opening to a tap crane, screws etc.) or equipment (bazooka, falls bottom/grid etc.) could disturb and cause turbulence.
- let it rest at least 15 min
- the effect is also depending on the type of trub: large/heavy particles (rests of hop pellets) collect and drop better than very
  small/light particles

R, Slurk
 
jamier said:
I use a floc tablet and get a good whirlpool going, but when it settles, say 15 minutes later, there is no centre cone, just all settles evenly at the bottom. I lose about 5 litres![from 23 litres] How do you successfully "whirlpool"?

+1 on when do you add the floc tab?

Also, are you getting a lot of trub when transferring to your fermenter? If not, then you do have a good cone. It may just be flattening out as you near the bottom of the kettle. Last, is your burner still hot? That could cause a small convection that would disturb the cone.
 
Thanks for your help. I added the floc tablet 15 minutes before end of boil, with the cooling coil. Started the cooling at flame-out, for about 20 minutes, without stirring. When almost cool, started the whirling with a sanitized stirrer, as fast as I could. Left till it stopped, about 15 minutes. Then slowly filled fermenter, getting no trub as I left it all in kettle, but wasted 6 litres. Thats what I want to avoid. It all just settled at the bottom, evenly. The kettle bottom is flat with only the inside of the tap in the way.
 
jamier said:
Thanks for your help. I added the floc tablet 15 minutes before end of boil, with the cooling coil. Started the cooling at flame-out, for about 20 minutes, without stirring. When almost cool, started the whirling with a sanitized stirrer, as fast as I could. Left till it stopped, about 15 minutes. Then slowly filled fermenter, getting no trub as I left it all in kettle, but wasted 6 litres. Thats what I want to avoid. It all just settled at the bottom, evenly. The kettle bottom is flat with only the inside of the tap in the way.

I moved to a keggle a couple years ago. It has a dip tube connected to a ball valve and it disturbs a good whirlpool. When I started brewing I tried at all cost (like you) to avoid trub in the primary. I now drain almost everything into the primary (I use hop bags) with no ill affects.

For chilling I recently found that stirring the hot wort while chilling dramatically reduces the chill time. I have found since some brewers even make wort stirrers form old ice cream machine motors, but, to me it isn't a big deal to stir by hand.

Mike
 
Whirlfloc should be added with 15 minutes or less remaining.  I've read it denatures after 15 mins, and started adding it later with no issues.  It reacts quickly, and beyond that reaction time I think we're just burning it off. 

I just learned this after having some transferring issues, but if you whirlpool, settle, and then very slowly open the drain valve, it allows the flow to start without sucking lots of trub through. 

I've also started propping up the front edge, under the valve, while it is settling, which makes more gunk settle in the back edge, away from the valve.  If I need to absolutely drain the keggle, I remove the prop so it's flat, and have even put the prop under the back edge.  By then, there is a nice delta cleared out and the flow remains clear. 

These adjustments allow me to get much more clean wort out of the keggle so I've reduced my losses, boosting overall efficiency. 
 
Thanks for all that good info, I will try it again this weekend.Aussie Pale Ale coming up.  :)
 
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