Question for plate chiller users

I have long been a whirlpool IC guy. I love the whirlpool, it leaves a great big pile of grossness in the center after I move cooled wort out of the kettle. Good stuff in the fermenter, bad stuff left in the kettle.

I am considering a plate chiller, as that would reduce my brew day by at least a half hour. But that would force me to forgo whirlpooling, unless I want to do it hot, which feels intuatively wrong.

I kindly ask you plate chiller folks; does the whrilpool matter? Am I not looking at this right? Any education would be greatly appreciated.

A hot whirlpool is pretty much the standard IME. I would definitely whirlpool before running through the chiller, just to keep it as clean as possible.

I bag my hops, so is it still necessary to whirlpool? At this point in time, I’m allowing my flame out hops to linger longer as if I was whirlpooling.

It certainly isn’t necessary, but I’d say it’s a good idea to keep as much hot break out of the heat exchanger as possible. Depending on your kettle design, that may not be an issue. For example, if you drain from a port that sits off the bottom (like in a converted keg), a short rest would probably allow just as much break material to settle out as would whirlpooling.

So at flame out, you whirlpool hot wort. For how long do you usually do it? I wonder if I would really save much time. I thought the goal was to cool as quickly as possible to preserve hop presense, but that must be a point of debate.

I whirlpool hot too. Turn the flame off, move the pot, give it a stir, then let it settle while I get the plate chiller ready and everything else set up (about 10-15 minutes). Then drain and chill. No problems but I do compensate by throwing my late hops in slightly later. For example, if a recipe has 10 minute hops, I may throw them in at 5. Flame out hops often go in the whirlpool.

How cold is your chilling water? If it’s sufficiently cold, it’s hard to beat the ease and simplicity of an immersion chiller, though they do use more water.

So are you saying that you are whirl pooling at flame out to settle the hops after a set amount of time then running through your plate chiller to reach pitching temp .

Im thinking of doing the same as I don’t have a Immersion chiller.

would be interested to hear how you went with that
cheers

Commercially I believe the hot whirlpool is usually 20-25 min, FWIW.

Me too, although I haven’t made the late hop change yet.
I also have a Bazooka screen along the kettle periphery. Then pump away through the plate chiller.

Agreed. I suspect that this includes most people–it certainly does me. I use a hop bag and have never bothered to whirlpool since getting my plate chiller.

Also, I’m not sure if this really means that much, but when I look at what’s left in the primary after fermentation, cold-crashing, and transferring, I have never seen more than a trace of anything but pure yeast.

In other words, if there’s any significant hot or cold break material that makes it into my fermentor, it must be left in suspension throughout primary fermentation, which I doubt very much.

I’d say that’s a good average, although I know (or at least, know of) brewers who do as little as 10 minutes and as much as an hour.

[quote=“rustyhoover”]I use a hop bag and have never bothered to whirlpool since getting my plate chiller.
Also, I’m not sure if this really means that much, but when I look at what’s left in the primary after fermentation, cold-crashing, and transferring, I have never seen more than a trace of anything but pure yeast.[/quote]
I suspect you are getting cold break in the fermenter. With a heat exchanger-type chiller, there’s really no way to avoid it. Cold break tends to be more or less white though, so it can’t be distinguished from yeast visually IME.

[quote=“a10t2”][quote=“rustyhoover”]I use a hop bag and have never bothered to whirlpool since getting my plate chiller.
Also, I’m not sure if this really means that much, but when I look at what’s left in the primary after fermentation, cold-crashing, and transferring, I have never seen more than a trace of anything but pure yeast.[/quote]
I suspect you are getting cold break in the fermenter. With a heat exchanger-type chiller, there’s really no way to avoid it. Cold break tends to be more or less white though, so it can’t be distinguished from yeast visually IME.[/quote]

OK, makes sense. Overstatements notwithstanding :slight_smile: , I think the vast majority various trub and miscellaneous gunk in my kettle stays there without any whirlpooling.