Lauter Helix.

[Lionman]

First brew the other day with this was a disaster.

Ended up with pretty much all the trub and hops in the cube after a lot of swearing. The helix just clogged up too easily and I had to keep kinking it with a spoon to get any flow through it.

I must be doing something wrong. Is there a trick to it?

 

[wide eyed and legless]

Nick, you have to try and keep it to the outer edge of your kettle, get a good whirlpool and open your valve slowly, the only time mine clogged up was with a load of flaked maize in the mix. The last two brews I did on the Guten I opened the valve fully and still barely got any trub or anything going into the cube.

 

[Liam_snorkel]

First brew the other day with this was a disaster.

Ended up with pretty much all the trub and hops in the cube after a lot of swearing. The helix just clogged up too easily and I had to keep kinking it with a spoon to get any flow through it.

I must be doing something wrong. Is there a trick to it?

Similar here, although it was fine until about the last 5L (not including trub volume). This was with 170g of hops in the kettle. I think I'll still have to bag them in future.

 

[goatchop41]

Gave mine its first run on the weekend. I usually get either get a shitload of trub in the cube, or leave about 3L in the urn. I ended up with minimal trub in the cube and only 1.5L left in the urn....great success! There were minimal hops in this one though, so I'll be interested to see how it goes with the IPA that I have planned soon. No trouble with flow at all this run either

 

[Thefatdoghead]

Got mine in the mail. Thanks mate.
Be a little while until I use it but just looking at that coil I can see itll work perfectly for my new system.
Where did you get that spring coil from wide eyed?

 

[Boxcar]

I'll be using one of these in a 1-vessel system i'm designing, so I've been doing a lot of reading over the past few months.

First brew the other day with this was a disaster.

The issue with your specific installation is definitely that the spring lacks curvature to open it up. In the image you posted, the end of the spring is perfectly straight which means it's tight and not doing any filtering at all - it's pretty much a solid pipe at that point under negative pressure. Curvature is needed to cause the outside of the spring to open up, creating wedge-shaped (pie shaped) spaces in the coils.

It will be much easier to maintain shape if both ends of the spring are held in place, like for example by a Tee.

 

[wide eyed and legless]

They are the best system I have come across for filtering the wort, but they will have to be tweaked to fit your system, the 20 litre BM owners who bought should be able to slot them straight in. the spring tension should be used to keep it firmly around the perimeter of the kettle, if you have a larger kettle and didn't buy 2 springs can make it up with 2 connectors and some silicone.
This is the Bombay IPA i did a couple of weeks ago with 180 grams of hops.

A 400 micron hop sock inserted into the cube and what it caught.


And a good whirlpool.

 

[Lionman]

Nick, you have to try and keep it to the outer edge of your kettle, get a good whirlpool and open your valve slowly, the only time mine clogged up was with a load of flaked maize in the mix. The last two brews I did on the Guten I opened the valve fully and still barely got any trub or anything going into the cube.

I'll try this next time. Should I create a whirlpool at flameout, then let it sit for 10-15mins to let the break fall out of suspension and then crack the tap slowly?

I might get a T piece too to get rid of the straght section and create a slightly tighter curve.

Similar here, although it was fine until about the last 5L (not including trub volume). This was with 170g of hops in the kettle. I think I'll still have to bag them in future.

My brew was only 20g FWH and 20g at 5mins so not much really.

I'll be using one of these in a 1-vessel system i'm designing, so I've been doing a lot of reading over the past few months.



The issue with your specific installation is definitely that the spring lacks curvature to open it up. In the image you posted, the end of the spring is perfectly straight which means it's tight and not doing any filtering at all - it's pretty much a solid pipe at that point under negative pressure. Curvature is needed to cause the outside of the spring to open up, creating wedge-shaped (pie shaped) spaces in the coils.

It will be much easier to maintain shape if both ends of the spring are held in place, like for example by a Tee.

I get waqht your saying and agree it will help, but I dont think its the casue of my problem here. See the pic from WEAL in this post https://aussiehomebrewer.com/threads/lauter-helix.95579/#post-1462782. that looks very similar to mine in terms of the position of the helix, but he has managed ot get a nice pile of trub an hops in the centre of the kettle.

I think maybe I didnt let the trub settle for long enough before racking to the cube. Next time I will let it sit for longer. I'm just impatient!

Thanks for the replies guys.

 

[clarkie54]

Had a similar problem to Liam_snorkel with my BM20, also with 160g of whirlpool hops. Perfect speed for the first 15L, slow thereafter. But I didn't have the helix in the right spot. I have now taken the spring out of the t piece and ran it round the vertical part of the element, exactly like the photo Weal took. So it's right on the outer edge of the curve of the urn. Plugged it back into the t piece and ready for the next brew which will be a similar amount of hops.

 

[Liam_snorkel]

Mine was right around the outer edge. I don't get a great whirlpool in the urn because of it's exposed element and smaller diameter than the BM I guess.

 

[wide eyed and legless]

That also crossed my mind with lionman's set up, I did wonder if his element is acting as a baffle against getting a decent whirlpool.Would a perferated plate as a false bottom help? Should at least get a good whirlpool with nothing to impede it.

 

[Lionman]

Nick, you have to try and keep it to the outer edge of your kettle, get a good whirlpool and open your valve slowly, the only time mine clogged up was with a load of flaked maize in the mix. The last two brews I did on the Guten I opened the valve fully and still barely got any trub or anything going into the cube.

Did another brew the other day. A red IPA. Worked great this time.

I tucked the end of the helix under the elbow and it helped form an even curve across the length of the helix.

I waited longer after heat was off to allow more of the trub to settle and then opened the valve only partially.

Drained perfectly and left all the kettle trub behind. Happy days!

Thanks mate.

 

[wide eyed and legless]

Makes a big difference how it is laid out, and the flow rate, glad it worked.

 

[Leyther]

WEAL, off to Keg King later, I want to block up 1 end of the T-Piece and also ideally the end of the spring, I think you sent me the sizes in the past but I can't find it on the thread, if you have a minute mate can you let me know the size I need to get. Cheers

 

[wide eyed and legless]

1/2 inch BSP, I will send you an elbow if you like, you can also cover the end of the helix with a copper capillary 20mm end cap,
available from Bunnings.

 

[Leyther]

1/2 inch BSP, I will send you an elbow if you like, you can also cover the end of the helix with a copper capillary 20mm end cap,
available from Bunnings.

No worries mate, I'm brewing Sat so I will pick one up, only a couple of bucks. This the correct plug: http://kegking.com.au/1-2-inch-stainless-hex-plug.html

 

[wide eyed and legless]

Correct.

 

[Tractor]

Hi fellas,
I read with interest about the lauter helix. Where can i get one about 1800mm long?
Thanks
Tractor

 

[malt and barley blues]

PM WEAL he has the 1 meter one but I believe you can connect them, done 3 brews with mine now hasn't missed a beat, the clearest wort I have ever had.

 

[Leyther]

Brewday today, went with the helix around the outside this time, put the end over the top of the tap rather than inside.

About 200g of hops in this one, happy with the results not sure would have got away with much more looking at it but got my full amount into fermentor so no complaints. Also used the old bazooka to good effect as this was a 6.5 kg grain bill.

Could probably have got a better Whirlpool with more time just used the mixing paddle to swirl

 

[wide eyed and legless]

My next brew will have a big hop addition so I will see how that goes.
I still have to try another brew with flaked maize and I am also just about out of English bitter so that will be the trial.

 

[Leyther]

This one was a NEIPA had oats and wheat, sparge was slower than usual but no issue.

I need to learn to Whirlpool better maybe need to get a paint stirrer.

Think today was my best brewday with the guten and the helix, very happy just off to watch the storm then goto the GnG for a well earned beer or two.

Cheers

 

[EalingDrop]

Nick, you have to try and keep it to the outer edge of your kettle, get a good whirlpool and open your valve slowly, the only time mine clogged up was with a load of flaked maize in the mix. The last two brews I did on the Guten I opened the valve fully and still barely got any trub or anything going into the cube.

Is it possible that I had opened my tap too full at the start on my BM? It drained about 1 litre and stopped after that. I only had 15g of pellets. Maybe it was the 8% oats (500g) in the grist?

I fitted mine the same way you did WEAL on your BM. I did a whirlpool but I'm not sure how important that step in the process is. Reading the comments it seems like it's not completely necessary.

After siphoning out the wort, the amount of trub left wasn't anymore than usual.

 

[wide eyed and legless]

If you have changed your tap from the original, to a half inch just open half way, the whirlpool is really important I wait for around 1/2 hour for the thermal movement to stop, but just before or as it slows down make the whirlpool and when it stops slowly open the valve and drain the wort. On the BM with original tap I open it full throttle on the Guten with the 1/2 inch valve I open around halfway to drain.

 

[Boxcar]

Is there a particular reason you guys aren't connecting both ends of the spring filter? I'd think performance would be much improved.

And if there's substantial excess, orienting it like on the Helix site:

 

[wide eyed and legless]

If you look at the picture the helix is under the tee piece, so you are only going to drain the wort as high as the tee piece, if there is room to lower the tee piece as in the BM then it can also work as a dip tube and drain more wort. In the Guten their isn't the room to sit the tee piece on the base of the unit so it works better blanked off with the other end running down at an angle from the tee piece or elbow.

 

[clarkie54]

Did another brew yesterday with the helix after my adjustment on the BM. 155g of whirlpool hops. Worked much better this time. Tap half open. Still slower which is to be expected, but far quicker then last time and at a consistent speed throughout. Got 21.5L of clear wort instead of 20L. Will do another couple of brews before adjusting my recipe designs but great signs!

 

[wide eyed and legless]

Did another brew yesterday with the helix after my adjustment on the BM. 155g of whirlpool hops. Worked much better this time. Tap half open. Still slower which is to be expected, but far quicker then last time and at a consistent speed throughout. Got 21.5L of clear wort instead of 20L. Will do another couple of brews before adjusting my recipe designs but great signs!

I don't know if I asked before, but have you got the BM original tap? If so you can open that fully, I know a lot of the BM users changed them but I can't remember who.

 

[clarkie54]

Yeh I replaced mine with a ball valve so only opened it half way. I think it's important especially at the start so it's not sucking the trub into the clearer whirlpool area around the helix. Worked well, thanks Weal.

 

[Moog]

I finally got to try my 1metre helix on Friday, brewed a double batch of firestone walker union jack IPA and it worked a treat.
Up until now I'd used a hop spider and the brews seemed to lack some hop character, so I thought I'd give this a go, and just chuck them all in.
Before with the spider, I'd still end up with a fair amount of hop debris going into the cubes, and then into the fermenter.
When I put the first cube in the fermenter last night, there was NO crap in there, so I'm very pleased with how it worked, the flow coming out the kettle tap was fine, it slowed down to a trickle at the end, as the last bit came out, but it wasn't frustratingly slow or anything, so, hats off to WEAL for some great brewing kit, cheers....