Anyone use something like this to transfer the wort to the fermenter?
http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/brew ... meter.htmlIf so, does it work well? Does any of the residual crud get through? I’m trying to find an easier way to transfer from boil to primary without having to pour, get the least amount of trub without making a mess. I use a funnel to strain the excess hops and it clogs fairly quickly, just looking for a better easier way.
I use one. but i have a false bottom that keeps all the hops from the spigot, plus the hops soak up a lot of the gunk. i am not concerned with keeping crud out of the fermenter (i try a little, but i havnt found getting crud in the fermenter it to be a big issue).
search the term ‘whirlpooling’ in regards to brewing. basically you swirl (whirlpool) the wort while you drain, this consolidates all the gunk near the center of the kettle, away from the spigot. try it out, on a small scale, with some sediment and clear water - in a cooking pot, too see how it works
most who whirlpool use something called a ‘pick up tube’, which is on the inside of the kettle attached to the spigot.
i whirlpool, but dont have a pick up tube. this keeps a majority of the crud inside the kettle. but like i said, i dont worry too much about crud in the fermenter. I’m sure others on this forum will have some better more thorough advice
I bought the 10 gallon version of that kettle, and it’s been great. Two suggestions for keeping the wort ‘cleaner’. First, buy a hop bag for the boil.
http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/nylo ... 9-1-4.htmlIt’s cheap and reusable. Dump your pellets in there, and most of the pellets will stay in the bag (some will still make it out of the bag and into the boil.
Second is to use a wort chiller to cool the wort as quickly as possible. Quick cooling will cause particulate matter to precipitate out of the wort. Stir gently with an immersion chiller, but let the wort ‘settle’ prior to transferring into a carboy.
And then the kettle with the valve works wonders - easy to transfer and keeps most of the unwanted at the bottom of the kettle.
Good luck.
I use hop bags and cool it in a massive ice bath and it does help but I still get some shit in the filter in the funnel that clogs up. I’m going to try the spigot pot.
Does a wort chiller really make much that much difference?
Thanks for the suggestions guys.
the spigot is definitely slower than pooring. but i still have it empty into a funnel with a screen. once the screen gets clogged you can rinse and sanitize it again then start pooring again. thus keeping less crud out of the fermenter. i dont think a wort chiller will make that much of a difference, there will still be a lot of cold break, and crud
definitely search whirlpooling. it works
From watching BrewTV it looks like they dump everything straight into the carboy and run with it. Didn’t look like they did too much to separate the wort from the trub.
I’ve tried to filter out the hops with the funnel that has the filter in it but that almost always gets clogged up and makes it a pain to get through that last step. For the last batch I tried to use one of the finer mesh bags inside the funnel to catch the hops and it worked just a little bit better.
Has anyone tried just dumping the wort and some the trub in? Would certainly take the stress out of that stage. Leaf hops would be a different animal though.
[quote=“twdjr1”]
Has anyone tried just dumping the wort and some the trub in? Would certainly take the stress out of that stage. Leaf hops would be a different animal though.[/quote]
ive definitely gotten trub into the fermenter. i dont recall noticing anything out of the ordinary with the finished product. i try to keep most out, but dont stress about it
but i do keep all the leaf hops out. but that’s due to the false bottom in my kettle, so i dont have experience with that…
I use the 15 gal Mega with the spigot for 10 gal batches. After chilling with an immersion chiller I split the contents into two 7.9 gallon buckets. When draining into buckets I hold either a hop bag (large) or a paint strainer bag (large) over the spigot and catch sediment.
I too have been less and less concerned with the amount of sediment getting into my primaries. I do make an attempt at a whirlpooling but doesn’t work very well. Maybe something to do with dia/height ratio of boil pot or just lack of talent on my part.
i did put a copper rotatable pickup tube on mine (IIRC 1/2" copper). During the boil and chilling I point it downward but before draining I position it vertical and then as level drops I gently push it down to get the siphoning affect going.
I did have it clog once during draining and needed to hook up tubing to the spigot and blowback to unclog. That was a last resort since i didn’t really want to contaminate the chilled wort at that point. I think I left the dip tube in the up position during the boil and the chilling which may have let sediment fall down the copper tube.
Maybe your current boil pot is just fine but your trying to solve your issue about the funnel clogging. If your pouring into buckets try the large paint straining bags and basically line your bucket and dump from boil pot. The lift the paint strain bag out of primary bucket. I think you may get more fine sediment in your primary but may not be an issue. That is what I do whether the best way or not, I don’t care.
Good Luck!
VK
I whirlpool, let settle for a few minutes then slowing transfer to the fermentor from the kettle. It leaves most trub, what little gets in I’m not concerned.
I’m interested in this style of pot from what I’ve read on the forums it’s a good brand. But what concerns me is the width of the pot. The 10 Gallon pot is 13" tall and 17" in diameter. If my calculations are correct, at 8 gallons after mashing, I’ll only have 8 inches height of mash runnings pre boil. Because of this I’ll have to come up with a new immersion chiller, shorter and wider.
Do others have any solutions rather than a new immersion chiller?
