Whitlpool Thru Pickup Tube

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_HOME_BREW_WALLACE_

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Have many here on the single vessel scene used the outlet/pickup as a path for a pumped whirlpool?
 
Tried it. didnt like it. Went back to the ol plastic spoon whirlpool.

I dont think brown pumps are fast enough.
 
I'm going to give a whirlpool a go with my LBP when it's wired up.'FatBastard' on this forum uses one to fairly good effect...I might use a reduced outlet to increase the pressure if needed
 
using the mash paddle to do a manual whirlpool for 30 - 45 seconds and it gets a nice settle of the trub everytime.
 
using the mash paddle to do a manual whirlpool for 30 - 45 seconds and it gets a nice settle of the trub everytime.

There's also the advantage of a faster chill with a pumped (longer) whirlpool.

I'm hoping to test mine in anger very soon Wallace, but from some water tests i appeared to get a faster whirlpool without the pickup tube on.

I've also read on here that some people couldn't establish a whirlpool with their configuration, but could give it a good stir and maintain a whirlpool with their pump.

There's only one way to find out!
 
There's also the advantage of a faster chill with a pumped (longer) whirlpool.

I'm hoping to test mine in anger very soon Wallace, but from some water tests i appeared to get a faster whirlpool without the pickup tube on.

I've also read on here that some people couldn't establish a whirlpool with their configuration, but could give it a good stir and maintain a whirlpool with their pump.

There's only one way to find out!

Im doing No Chill hence the manual method, probably should of mentioned that.. :D
 
I did a whirlpool on my last batch yesterday with a brown pump and immersion chiller. 1/2 in pickup tube in kettle, 1/2 in silicon hosing and 1/2 in whirlpool return arm. Gave it a kick off with the spoon to start and then kicked off the pump. it worked quite well, was still fast enough to make a decent whirlpool, faster would be better but it was still ok.

performance was quite good, 100c to 18c in about 15 mins and not as much water as without the whirlpool.
 
I'm going to give a whirlpool a go with my LBP when it's wired up.'FatBastard' on this forum uses one to fairly good effect...I might use a reduced outlet to increase the pressure if needed


Last brew I did I had some issues with the pump getting clogged with hop debris and noticably slowing the whirlpool down to the point that I needed to resort to the dowel of doom. It seems to work very well with lightly hopped beers though. Or if you're sensible and use a hop sock.

Been looking at a couple of ways to solve the problem though. I used to use a stainless steel mesh screen over the false bottom in the boil to screen the hop debris out before it got anywhere near the pickup. This method worked with poor whirlpooling and kept most of the crap out of the fermenter. I think it may work even better with the pump as it should work the same way as recirculated BIAB, with most of the hop debris and break staying on top of the screen and not getting into the pump or pickup. Surprisingly the whirlpool does go through the screen and false bottom so you do get a cone underneath, or at least it did when I was hand whirlpooling.

I'm also looking at adding a second pickup and valve and running a dedicated recirculating/whirlpool circuit so I can run a screen on the drain pickup, limiting the amount of hop and hot break getting to the chiller and fermenter even further. This will also allow me to optimise the recirculation pickup angles and sizes, as I'm starting to realise drain and recirculation have different requirements.
 

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