Lee and I were talking about whirlpooling when he stopped by my house and I thought I would bring the discussion to the forum where everyone can benefit. I was mostly curious on how to set it up with a heating element. Right now I use a hop stopper which is a fine stainless steel mesh screen, however I still pull in hot break and trub into the fermenter.
I found this great example of what the equipment could look like:
Pickup tube on the left, whirlpool input on the right. The user mentioned that you want the whirlpool to go the same direction as the pickup tube otherwise you'll pack it full of solids.
Lee also mentioned making a 'wand' to hang over the side. I also found an example of that:
I'll let Lee talk about the benefits of whirlpooling if he sees fit. Just thought this was interesting. I haven't decided which route I want to go yet.
Is there any reason the hop stopper has to go to the middle of the boil kettle? I am building an electric brewery knock off, which I am assuming is similar to your design.
That is really one of my hold ups right now. I am already planning to recirculate my boil through a chiller and back into the kettle prior to going into the fermentor to get a rapid chill in the kettle. With the recircuation design I am going with it will create a whirlpool in my kettle naturally.
I don't know why you could not still utilize the hop blocker by shortening it and redirecting it towards one of the sides. I am thinking that is the way I am going to go. Still going to leave it until last so that I can think about it some more. will probably go with a smaller screen as well as I am contemplaing building my own hop blocker. Does not look like a very complicated device.
The Blichman hop blocker does go closer to the side. The thought is that when you whirlpool in a flat bottom kettle, the hops will settle in the center of the pot. This doesn't work so well in my Blickman 10 gallon pots as they are more narrow and tall when compared to some other pots. This results in the edge of the hop blocker extending almost to the center of the pot which is where the pile of hops is at. It would work better in a larger, or at least wider, pot. I still use the hop blocker, but if I'm using a lot of hops, I bag them or use my "hop spider" to keep them from being transferred to my fermenter.
The hop stopper I use is just like the electric brewery build:
As you can see it is a fairly large screen. One of the reasons I'm considering this is also to leave more hot break behind. I don't believe with the hop stopper you are doing that since those particles can easily penetrate that screen.
I'm thinking even though my Blichman has that 'lip' near the bottom that it is still wide enough to install a pick up tube there and not have to worry too much about the trub.
I am assuming by yours is just like TheElectricBrewery and looks virtually the same as that picture.
There looks to be about 2 inches there that add no value to the system other then to put the pickup tube in the center of the pot. This could be cut off of the tube to shorten it with no ill effects.
Also I am not sure how ridgid that screen is. But, after you cut some of that excess tube off, you could put a ninety degree bend in it to place it up against the side walls. I would think as it is screen that you could press some of the screen up against the side wall and change the shape. You could even redo the screen, the only reason it is that size is to create surface area to prevent pluging of the screen material. with it off to the side and a whirlpool created. you should not have as much hop matter in contact with the screen even with hoppy beers.
Then you screen still serves funtion to prevent hope matter from the cone after whirlpool to the pickup tube while eliminating the hot break pickup because of the whirlpool.
I am kind of glad you posted here on the topic. I was wondering if me creating a whirlpool and using the generic "as is" Hop stopper would create a problem. After your post it definitly sounds as if it will as it will put all that material on top of the screen dead center in the pot.
Was doing some looking around while trying to figure out what I want to build and came across this DIY Hop stopper. Would be pretty simple to do, and if it is not fine enough you could order some 30 x 30 stainless mesh and stitch to the outside to increase filter capabilities.
