Adr_0
Gear Bod
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I will let you know how the return from the plate chiller goes in about 5-6 weeks. A couple of things to consider:wobbly said:Those using a chiller plate does returning/recirculating the output from the chiller back to the whirlpool/boiler via a filter/hop back until the full boil volume is chilled show any reduced amount of cold break transferred to the fermentation vessel either via one last pass of the chiller/hop back or direct from the boiler to the fermenter
Cheers
Wobbly
- The return line shouldn't splash the beer around too much (a little is fine) as according to the Belgians this can have a neg impact on head retention
- Putting my engineer hat on, I would then be conscious of stratification if you returned to the bottom of the kettle (via a dip tube over the top), i.e. cold stuff on the bottom of the kettle staying in a layer there and being recycled
So for my setup I was going to return it at a tangent to the kettle, about 2/3 of the way up (or at my normal level for a ~20L batch) and in the same direction the whirlpool went. This should then return cooler stuff to the top (mix back in with the hot wort) and encourage a slight whirlpool again.
Kai has a bit on whirlpooling:
http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?title=Whirlpooling
One concern he has is the potential production of DMS without boiloff. I was pretty sure that if you boiled long enough (90min for pils) you got rid of the majority of the precursor (DMM? DSS? BDSM?) so it's not a concern anyway. And how many no-chillers here have no-chilled till the cows come home with no DMS issues?
The other thing I was going to say was I'm 50:50 on whether waiting 20-30min has any extra benefit. Once the particles have clumped, they are there: either floating around or settled. Once you establish a good whirlpool, as soon as they have started their first cycle these particles will start to settle in the middle. I generally wait 5-10minutes and it seems to do the job (very slight swirling is still happening after 5min) but I might have to see if 20-30min improves things. My gut feel says not really: the separation happens when the whirlpool is happening, and the particles are big enough to settle within seconds (I would have thought).
Stu, only thing with Wobler is where is his bottleneck? If the sediment tank is before the plate chiller, whirlpooling when hot might make a difference (if there is better hot break separation at higher temps). If the sed tank is after the plate chiller I guess he should whirlpool while cold?