Whirlfloc Or Whole Tablet?

[QldKev]

Not a dodgy batch. Every packet I've ever bought has crumbled with ease.

1/2 tab per 20-25 L

All batches I have ever had have all been from the same source. The first batch was hard to break, all since have been easy?

QldKev

 

[leiothrix]

Maybe you just got stronger

 

[robv]

Try one of these to break them
http://www.magnamail.com.au/Product_Detail...1&Prod=4748

 

[Cocko]

If you can afford it, one of these, even 2, come in handy and work a treat:









Maybe it was my years 'clubbing' that gets me breaking them perfectly in half each time....

 

[schooey]

So much mis-information and ignorance .....

A quick search would have located this.

I use 1/3 tablet per 50 litres to give flavourfull beers of brilliant clarity

I'm not sure how much clearer that thread makes it, Dave.... :blink:

WHIRLFLOC T is recommended for use at 20-60ppm.

The dose rate should be optimised to suit the individual

brewery.

At that dose rate, a 23L batch of 1.050 SG wort would need anywhere between 0.48 gr and 1.45 gr or 1/5 to 3/5 of a tablet. Pretty vast difference...

​

​

​

 

[Tony]

i use 1 tablet in a 28 liter batch and 2 in a 54 liter batch...... works great for me.

Breaking them in half is easy...........

MHB showed me how many years ago.

place said tablet on a sharp 90 deg edge of a bench or piece of timber

Hold it so the middle of the tablet is running half and half on the 90 deg corner and push down on both sides evently with palms of your hands.

99% of the time it will break evenly in half. If it doesnt you did it wrong.

cheers

 

[jackson]

I think the real answer is that we all need to do bigger batches so we can get around having to break that tablet in half.

 

[brettprevans]

Not a dodgy batch. Every packet I've ever bought has crumbled with ease.

1/2 tab per 20-25 L

From Ross? Mine are. All the packs ive seen r crumbly. I was kind of being of being sarcastic and poking fun at the others

Edit: Jackson, exactly right. 90% of my batches r doubles so in a whole tablet goes. No fuss

 

[Tony]

i know i have touched on this topic years ago so i did some searching

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...st&p=117125

 

[schooey]

I really hope Thirsty Boy drops in and shares the results from his experimentation.... Some time ago, I posted this thread and TB made this response

Its possible (just floating ideas) - that the large volume you see in your fermenter is less from cold break, than from a bit of overuse of kettle finings. You use too much of it and the break forms big fluffy floccs that wont compact down properly. Its not that there is a heap "more" of it, its just taking up more space thats all.

Now that batch was 21 litres and I threw in a whole tablet of whirlfoc. From then until ANHC, I started using 1/2 tabs. In the two or three batches I've done since ANHC, I've only used roughly a quarter of a tab and it does take a little longer to settle, but the floccing break does compact down better and the resultant wort is clearer.

 

[manticle]

From Ross? Mine are. All the packs ive seen r crumbly. I was kind of being of being sarcastic and poking fun at the others

GG.

The others are weak. I need a hammer and chisew to bweak my wherwfwoc. It's so wesistant to my hand stwengf

WEAK!!

(or buying the wrong tabs - seriously mine crumble with ery little effort)

 

[jasonharley]

Gee ... i just put one W tablet into a 23L batch and I have had no problems

5 eyes

 

[fcmcg]

Gee ... i just put one W tablet into a 23L batch and I have had no problems

5 eyes

You wouldn't have had any problems ....
The thing is though , Thirsty Boy proved that the correct ratio works better ... From memory at ANHC... He showed that using more ( or too much ) didn't actually make the wort clearer....
It was an excellent demo...hopefully they put it on a DVD , if they put one out this year...
FWIW, I use one tablet in 40 or so liters....

 

[bigfridge]

At that dose rate, a 23L batch of 1.050 SG wort would need anywhere between 0.48 gr and 1.45 gr or 1/5 to 3/5 of a tablet. Pretty vast difference...

Yes it is a vast difference simply because there is such a vast difference in worts - means that there is no single right answer. Like many other questions asked here the the only correct answer is .... 'it depends'.

Not wanting to take anything away from TB and his experiment, but the way to approach any processing step that removes potentially beneficial components from your wort - you should use as little as possible.

Try using the minimum rate suggested and see if you like the results. If you don't then increase the amount, otherwise leave it at the minimum.

You can do this as a trial over sequential batches or divide boiled wort into a number of small samples and dose with different rates. Compare the clarity ,chill proof or whatever other property you are trying to control and pick the minimum dose that gives the desired result.

Seems that the only people that recommend excessive doses are those that sell the stuff - good way to double or tripple sales I guess.

Dave (the minimalist brewer)

 

[Hatchy]

I've got some whirlfloc here but I've never used it because I'm pretty sure I'd be using too much or not enough as well as putting it in the kettle too early or too late.

 

[Thirsty Boy]

Yes it is a vast difference simply because there is such a vast difference in worts - means that there is no single right answer. Like many other questions asked here the the only correct answer is .... 'it depends'.

Not wanting to take anything away from TB and his experiment, but the way to approach any processing step that removes potentially beneficial components from your wort - you should use as little as possible.

Try using the minimum rate suggested and see if you like the results. If you don't then increase the amount, otherwise leave it at the minimum.

You can do this as a trial over sequential batches or divide boiled wort into a number of small samples and dose with different rates. Compare the clarity ,chill proof or whatever other property you are trying to control and pick the minimum dose that gives the desired result.

Seems that the only people that recommend excessive doses are those that sell the stuff - good way to double or tripple sales I guess.

Dave (the minimalist brewer)

My "experiment" was a repetition of the industry standard kettle finings optimisation routine - the whole point of which is, as others have suggested, to use as little of the stuff as possible to get the best result - so even if you did want to take away from me and my experiment, you couldn't, because you agree with its conclusions

If people really want to know whats going on, then they can invest an hour in reading this document fro the Brewers Supply Group

http://www.brewerssupplygroup.com/FileCabi...nual%5B1%5D.pdf

Which is where I stole a great deal of the information I used in my presentation. The main thing you want to look at to drive home the point, is the graph on page 11. It clearly shows that there is a tipping point in kettle finings dose where it becomes effective - and after that it is basically no "more" effective at making your wort or beer more clear - and all it does is increase the volume of trub and make it more difficult for you to separate your clear beer from the muck at the bottom of the tank without losing a large percentage of it.

The point where I diverge from that document, and most of the other stuff that is written about kettle finings, is that they almost universally say that kettle finings have no influence on the behaviour of hot break at all (only affecting cold break) and therefore make no difference to your whirlpool/kettle trub separation process. I've watched dozens of these optimisation trials done at work, and did a bunch of them at home too - and the amount of kettle finings you use plainly does have an effect on the way your hot break forms and settles out and the clarity of your hot wort. So you should take into consideration how the hot wort jars look and behave if you were to do one of these tests. The difference the dose makes to your hot wort is almost nothing compared to the difference it will make to cold wort - but its enough to make a % point or 3 of difference to how much wort you can recover from your kettle.

Get your kettle finings right - and it can help your fermentation performance, your isinglass performance, your foam formation and stability and certainly your beers colloidal stability - get it too wrong and it can seriously mess with your efficiency and maybe wreak havoc on your head retention.

The thing to remember - is that if you don't use enough kettle finings - it doesn't matter. Kettle finings do virtually nothing that you cant get done anyway with patience and time for your beer to sit in the cold. Remember, not one of those crystal clear German beers has ever had carrageenan added to them. Your kettle finings dose was too low?? Lager it for 6 weeks and its problem solved. Kettle finings are there to save you time and money, and they aren't really for anything else at all.

So use a little less - if that works, use less again - repeat till it stops working then go back up to the previous dose or even one more. You might find your beers clearing out faster and better; and that you are suddenly getting a litre or so more clear beer out of your fermenter without having used any more grain to fill it. And in a 20ish litre batch - that's a big efficiency jump.

TB

 

[DanRayner]

Maybe it was my years 'clubbing' that gets me breaking them perfectly in half each time....

"Half now and the other half in 30mins, once I see how the first half goes" is not the appropriate way to use Whirlfloc!

 

[jasonharley]

Thanks Fergie/Thirsty .... i'll definitely try a 1/2 tab next time I do a 23 L batch ....... all this good advice is great !!!!

cheers
5 eyes

 

[flano]

so ...I will just use this thread to ask my question.

brewing away there yesterday BIAB...you know the missus is gone away ..the kids are at the aunties for the night.

Music is pumping ..beers are going down quicker than a 17 year old school girls at schoolies week.

Wake up today and noticed I forgot to put the whirlfloc tablet in.
It is all up and running in the fermeter with yeast etc.
What happens if you don't put it in?
I did notice it was bloody muddy looking...but everything was a bit muddy looking at the time.

 

[Batz]

Chuck them away and get some brewbrite.