Kettle/Whirlpool Operation

[aeschill]

This might sound like an absurd question, but here goes. We've recently started using a two vessel brewhouse fabricated in China. One of the quirks we're having trouble getting around is the design of the kettle/whirlpool. When the boil finishes it is whirled by pumping from the bottom and recirculating back through a portin the side, which enters at an angle to spin the beer and create the proper separation affect. The only problem is that after whirling, it is designed to draw out the bottom drain valve. The manufacturer told me to simply run off the trub after the whirl and run the brite beer to the fermenter, which still leaves a lot of trub going into the heat exchanger. Has anyone worked with this specific design before? I'm working to find a routine that can maixmize our efficiency, but more importantly keep solids from plugging up our heat exchanger. Any suggestions/past experiences are welcome. Thank you.

[Bainbridge]

Wait, are you saying after the whirlpool it draws from the center?

[Ray Hodge]

What? The center draw certainly negates most of the benifit of the whirlpool. I cant imagine that this will ever be able to make great beer the way its configured. So, see if you can find an experienced sanitary tig welder to come in and retrofit a side port for you. Its not going to be easy if you have steam, insulation and double cladding, but it can be done, and I can't think of another alternative. Good luck with this.

[BrauAC]

Set up a tee?

It sounds like you should be able to setup a T so that you can direct flow away from the heat exchanger, toward the drain. This way you can dump the Trub pile to the floor until you have clear wort, and then direct flow back to the heat exchanger to minimize trub buildup. It may not be the most efficient but it's cheaper than retrofitting the kettle, and allows you to bypass the trub to the drain for the time being.

[dick murton]

I think the side take off is a wonderful idea, but probably not easy to retro fit, so I go along with the Tee piece - one side to drain before the H/ex, the other to the H/ex. Alternatively, you could try a removable upstand in the outlet. If you go with the Tee piece idea, then make sure the valves are extremely close to the bottom of the tank, or possible even put a third blocking valve there to stop rubbish / cold wort accumulating in the outlet leg during the whirlpool stand - though this may not be critical.

Don't put the tee after the pump as you want to run the trub off slowly - so slowly that I would try the upstand first as this will definitely hold the trub back. There is no chance of it collapsing as the tank empties then.

[Bainbridge]

Thoughts:

What about a removable standpipe of some kind in the kettle drain?

Or put a T after the drain and run it into a hopback with another T at the inlet. Drain most of the trub into the trench, then when it starts running clearer switch over to the hopback and use hops to filter it. Or a nylon bag. Then into the HX.

[sopbeer]

Center drain from China

The same thing arrived with our setup, it totally sucked! The people don't know beer. We retro fit and put in a bottom port high on the dish. It was pretty easy for the welder and didn't cost very much. A fairly simple fix that has saved us a lot of frustration.

The welder simply used a hole saw to cut through the inside and out side of the kettle, then inserted a pipe through the jacket and welded both sides shut, I think it took about 45 minutes to do. We then modified the piping to allow our run over to flow into kettle with a valve and back out to the pump for the whirlpool through the standard path the manufacture provided. We now get a tight cone and no trub in the heat ex.

PM me, I would be happy to send over some pictures. Maybe 2 hours work total weld and fabrication time, well worth the money spent. Although it should have been this way from the manufacture to start.

[aeschill]

Thanks everyone for the responses. We found a way to clump the trub pile at the bottom, run off enough to punch a hole in it, and then carefully transfer the wort through it. It takes a lot of time, and we're getting a quote on a retro-fitted side port.