Lawrence Brewers Guild

I will be getting a immersion chiller this week and have heard about the blanket effect created next to the coils. How does one speed up the cooling process either by doing nothing or creating some sort of whirlpool effect, WITHOUT getting bad stuff in your wort?

Does this make sense?

A good way to get a good whirl pooling effect, WITHOUT getting bad stuff in your wort, would be done with the aid of a pump. One way to achieve this requires a kettle with a spigot near the bottom and a return line back through the top, which usually goes to a copper (or such) ?flow-director? which causes a swirling effect in the kettle. This keeps the wort moving around and through the coils?which greatly increases the efficiency of the chiller. A good cold break is achieved and left in the kettle (especially good for lagers), and the effects of DMS are greatly reduced by getting the wort down below 140 in a hurry.

Here is a good link to check out while researching this process:

http://www.mrmalty.com/chiller.php





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Excellent! Thank you very much.

This has been an ongoing challenge for alot of brewers. The pump is the best option. Otherwise its the old stir by hand situation. The technique of IM Whirlpool chilling works very well. I know of 2 brewers that IM whirlpool chill in a Keggle (converted sankey keg) and altho their chill times are second to none, they both complain that the domed bottom in the keg does not support a trub cone very well and during run off will get all sort of pellet hop gunk into the fermenter. Ive read this complaint on other forums as well. You may ask Jeff if this is a problem for him when using pellets.

Whole leaf wont form a cone from whirlpooling so its not really an issue as long as you have a decent filter that wont clog such as a false bottom or mesh screen such as a bazooka "t". Pellets can clog a mesh screen pretty easily i may add. So whirpool chilling using leaf works equally as good for chill times. Other wise just using hop saks during the boil and problem solved. I just personally feel hop saks reduce extraction rates from the hops unless you build one of these....

Its a paint strainer bag and some pvc.....then when done boiling just remove the entire thing. You can still use an IM just lift this thing up and drop it inside the coils.

Andy, that's beautiful. I think I'll have to hit the hardware store soon. With pellet hops being the rage right now due to whole hop prices and availability, that just looks like a necessity to me.

My big question is how well the bags hold up at high temperatures. Those things have a tendency to melt if you're not careful. Looks like yours stay well away from the walls and bottom of the keg, so it's probably not a problem, but I'm wondering if the bag's manufacturer put any kind of heat warnings on them? And if so, how hot can they go?

I'm wondering if paint-strainer bags are food-grade at all. Some plastics (when they get hot especially) do some nasty things to your wort.

Have you used this yet? Looked brand new in the pics. Let us know how it goes.

Good timing on this post by the way... I am heading to the hardware store tomorrow to get my parts for sight glass/thermometers anyway. Thanks!

Matt

Matt,
Sorry for the big pic....im lazy and didnt want to resize for the forum. Anyways, this rig is not mine, nor do i use it. A buddy of mine in NC made this up and since then ive seen various knock off's on other forums. If there is a bag that gets good extraction by letting the hops be "Free" in the boil, then this is it. And, the paint strainer bags are nylon which is the same material other hop/grain bags are made from sold at our fav. LHBS. So far, in all the forums, nobody has expressed problems heat wise w/the nylon paint strainer. AFWIW, Jamie has been NC Brewer of the Year a few times..

Check out his resume...

http://www.jrbrewing.com/awards/

What a nite..

Andy! Is...Is your beer glass Empty in that pic?



Gordo

Doesnt he look like its empty!!!!

Hey Andy where is this Brewery??