I have a 15 gal flat bottom kettle, I have been using a “u” shapep bent piece of copper to draw from the side of the kettle once I finished chilling. I use a Jamil style RIWC. My problem has been that the coil of the chiller doesn’t allow for a proper whirlpool, and during recirc I have been getting clogged. It isnt a problem unless I have already reached the danger zone of cooler temps which is what happened today.
My question is: how do you have your kettle set up? how do you keep the cold break and trub out of you fermentor?
On my 20gal kettle I have a pickup tube and a weldless valve. I can turn the valve upwards to keep the pickup well off the bottom during the whirlpool. Then I turn it back down when I’m running off to the fermentors, not before the level gets low though.
I also have it set up where the pickup is aimed in the opposite direction as the whirlpool, that is, the whirlpool isn’t pushing stuff into the pickup tube. I don’t know if thats a big deal though.
Finally, my whirlpool tube and the chilling coil are separate so once I am done chilling I pull the coil and continue to whirlpool for another ew minutes. I think this helps me get a nice cone of hop material at the center of the kettle. The trub settles flat along the bottom though. I tend to accept a bit of trub in order to get all my precious wort.
