Beer Forum

I've brewed 3 AG batches so far and each time I've tried to whirlpool, but with no noticeable results (looking for a cone of some kind I guess?). Here's what I do:

using a 30 qt. Bayou Classic turkey fryer aluminum pot
-after cooling to around 72 I get the wort spinning as fast as I possibly can
-I leave it for about 20 minutes
-rack into my fermenter using an auto siphon

For my last two I have ended up just dumping all of the trub into my fermenter because I didn't want to lose the gallon or so that is left behind, then racking to secondary for dry-hopping after 5 days.

Questions:
-Does whirlpooling not seem to work for others or am I doing it wrong?
-Is it ok to dump the trub into my fermenter, especially when I am racking off in 5 days or so?
-Should I just adjust my recipes so that I get more liquid and leave the gallon with the trub in the kettle?

Thanks in advance!

How are you cooling the wort? The faster you cool it, the better chance you'll have of having stuff settle out.

If you are going to get a whirlpool to work you are going to have some loss to the kettle. I make about an extra gallon of wort and leave it behind in the kettle.

Travis

I wrote a fairly comprehensive whirl-pool how-to once. But it is on a different brewing board. If you guys think I shouldn't point to other message boards, let me know and I will remove the link:

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread. ... =whirlpool

Info is good. Post away.

Travis

Thanks for the step by step Kai.

Thanks for the tips, guys!

How are you cooling the wort? The faster you cool it, the better chance you'll have of having stuff settle out.

I cool with an immersion chiller, takes about 15 minutes to get down to pitching temp.

If you are going to get a whirlpool to work you are going to have some loss to the kettle. I make about an extra gallon of wort and leave it behind in the kettle.

right on. I guess I can do that. I just noticed that after my whirlpool attempts, the trub was still flat with no real cone shape like I was expecting...

Thanks again!

Excellent step-by-step, Kaiser! The pictures are especially helpful. Guess I'll just need to try again until I get it right.