No I've moved onto no chill, I can only get down to about 35c with the immersion chiller and a lot of water so still not pitchable anyway. Hopefully I've now found the best method.
Lauter Helix.
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No I've moved onto no chill, I can only get down to about 35c with the immersion chiller and a lot of water so still not pitchable anyway. Hopefully I've now found the best method.
wide eyed and legless
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Someone who bought a Helix for a BM is missing a capillary elbow and the 21mm piece of silicone hose. PM me and I will send it to you.
FarsideOfCrazy
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I've always used the immersion chiller and its blocked every time. Maybe this is the problem. I'd like to hear from others about this.
cliffo
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I used mine for the 2nd time today and after the first 10L it just dribbled out though after disconnecting it and draining straight through the tap the coil didn't seem to have much crap on it.
The water-only test I did worked a treat. I also use an immersion chiller.
Don't think I'll go back for a 3rd try.
The problem isn't likely to be the immersion chiller - plenty of others who no-chill have issues draining using the spring as well. You need a small diameter vessel to open the spring up enough and even then it's easy to block it up.
wide eyed and legless
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The immersion chiller isn't the problem, I would be putting my money on the cold break after chilling never had a problem with no chill, couple of times with chilling. I have thrown a load of hops in with an AIPA and never blocked. I will try using the immersion chiller again and as I suggested to Leyther I will give it a good whirlpool and open the tap, see what happens. Size of the pot wouldn't make a difference liquid will go through the helix no matter what.
I find the helix doesn't work well if it has no tighter bends in it. It really needs to have a T connection and be be larger than the inner circumference of the kettle so it has to snake towards the centre of the pot in a kind of 'S' shape.
When I first got a helix it came with an elbow connection and a cap on the other end and it really didn't work that well at all. The one I am using now (like the one of the brewpi website) is really very good and I have never blocked it even with over 200g of loose pellets in the kettle. The flow does slow a little but the wort runs very clear. I think it took about 10 mins to drain 40L from my 50L Guten.
I haven't tried chilling yet though, only no-chill.
When I first got a helix it came with an elbow connection and a cap on the other end and it really didn't work that well at all. The one I am using now (like the one of the brewpi website) is really very good and I have never blocked it even with over 200g of loose pellets in the kettle. The flow does slow a little but the wort runs very clear. I think it took about 10 mins to drain 40L from my 50L Guten.
I haven't tried chilling yet though, only no-chill.
When using the immersion chiller, are you flowing water through the chiller really slowly? They are a lot more efficient when the flow is slow.
FarsideOfCrazy
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How does it effect the whirlpool if it comes into the middle of the kettle, or don't you bother?
I don't really bother with a 'whirlpool' as such. I do late additions and give the pot a stir for a minute or two and then let it steep for 10-15mins. Works ok.
FarsideOfCrazy
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Did you get some of these made to a different size?. Mine is only 18mm approx in diameter.
wide eyed and legless
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No, all the same size and it is 18 mm, don't know where I got the 22 mm from, I had to get 21 mm silicone for the BM buyers, odd size outlet hole. Grainfather buyers used the silicone their bazooka was fastened to and the Robobrew buyers used the same set up as the Guten
FarsideOfCrazy
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So today I tried a stainless T piece like lionman, first time the helix didn't block, yay! Started the flow slowly, I could see hops draining into the fermenter but there was nothing I could do about it. After a couple of minutes opened the tap up more and it just kept flowing, didn't slow down at all. Drained the 25 litres in about 5 min. I took some photos but can't resize them with my phone to be able to upload them.
wide eyed and legless
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Did you chill, or no chill?
My brew yesterday I chilled, gave a real good stir hoping to get everything into the vortex and opened the tap, started of OK then slowed down after about 5 litres. As I have my helix on a capillary fitting I decided to prize it off with the paddle, turned off the tap prized the capillary fitting off the tap (so I thought) opened the tap and away it went, was only when it had drained found the fitting was still in situ on the tap? I have a saw cut in the capillary fitting which was partly off the end of the tap. I think once the wort was flowing it went through the helix. It is something to do with the cold break, and it is a difficult problem to solve.
FarsideOfCrazy
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Chill, there was about 50g of pellet hops. Whirlfloc at 5 to go then only gentle stirring to help the immersion chiller do it's thing. Every other brew I was stirring fast to try to get a hop cone from the whirlpool after chilling, never worked for me.
After reading what Matthias said about the spring doesn't do the filtering, it's the hop matter that does the filtering. I thought I'd try to not stir up the hop and other stuff that the whirfloc has coagulated together too much in the hope that it stays 'stuck' together better giving a filter bed.
One thing I noticed as it was draining the last little bit it was channelling through a small gap in one spot in the helix where it looked like the hops had been sucked in.
Next time I'll run the wort through the hop spider into the fermenter to catch any hops that get through, I just hope that it drains as well next time.
How do you attach the copper capilary 'T' peice to the tap on the guten?
After reading what Matthias said about the spring doesn't do the filtering, it's the hop matter that does the filtering. I thought I'd try to not stir up the hop and other stuff that the whirfloc has coagulated together too much in the hope that it stays 'stuck' together better giving a filter bed.
One thing I noticed as it was draining the last little bit it was channelling through a small gap in one spot in the helix where it looked like the hops had been sucked in.
Next time I'll run the wort through the hop spider into the fermenter to catch any hops that get through, I just hope that it drains as well next time.
How do you attach the copper capilary 'T' peice to the tap on the guten?
wide eyed and legless
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I don't use a 'T' , I use the elbow I found the T can leave gaps in the coil where as an elbow on a gentle incline will keep the coil closer. I use a 1/2 " BSP barb connection with some silicone tube over the barb,
a saw cut in the elbow make a nice fit for slipping it over the silicone. Save all the fiddling around with threads.
This is a pic I have posted before when I used a 500 micron hop sock to see what I could catch from a 23 litre brew, and this is all I got through the helix.
a saw cut in the elbow make a nice fit for slipping it over the silicone. Save all the fiddling around with threads.
This is a pic I have posted before when I used a 500 micron hop sock to see what I could catch from a 23 litre brew, and this is all I got through the helix.
I don't think its the volume of hops causing the issue either, my last brew had 200g in the boil and drained no problem, yesterday I had about 50g and it was slow until I did the paddle trick, then it started to flow rapidly, this was hot cube so no cold break issues, its got to be some form of air block I think.
wide eyed and legless
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Definitely not hops, what I do is throughout the process is draw of 2=3 litres of wort and tip it back in especially during the mash (for the preboil gravity) and a couple of times during the boil just to make sure the wort trapped inside the helix gets to play. My money is on the cold break.
Charst
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not sure if it was here or the facebook braumeister forum but someone mentioned the original more narrow tap on the braumeister results in slower flow.
Are people just flicking their 1/2 inch bsp taps on flat out and then the speed of drainage is resulting in blocking the spring?
Perhaps a slower flow doesn’t draw as much liquid (and matter) through as fast, thus not blocking the spring.
Are people just flicking their 1/2 inch bsp taps on flat out and then the speed of drainage is resulting in blocking the spring?
Perhaps a slower flow doesn’t draw as much liquid (and matter) through as fast, thus not blocking the spring.
wide eyed and legless
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That was what I wrote on the BM thread, very practical the Germans, a pump which using the pump break effectively stirs the mash and the tap reduced to a 10 or 8 ml orifice to gently let the wort flow out without disturbing the trub. (Though anyone who has worked on a PIV gearbox will know the Germans can over complicate things)
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