Denk rings?

[dinobrew]

I was reading about whirlpools today and came across references to denk rings. Apparently these are a series of concentric rings in the WP which help to break-up eddy currents. This is supposed to increase settling rate and produce a tighter cone. I was wondering if anyone had any experience with these. Do they work? Are they easy to cip? are they easy to make? Any info would help, thanks.

Todd Crowell
Brewer
Kettlhouse Brewing

Oogy wawa. (look it up)

[dick murton]

I've not heard of multiple rings, but have seen WPs with a single "ring" which is split into two or more sections with a slight difference in the distance from the centre of the WP to the ends of the retaining ring, so that the part rings overlap and help direct the trub inside the "ring". These can be particularly useful if using high hopping rates (excessive vegetable matter), or extract only, (the lack of vegetable matter seems to allow the trub cone to collapse). Thus there is less trub passing through to the FV.

The rings sections were only a couple of inches high, and far enough out to protect the final runoff point in the WP floor, but not necessarily much further in.

However, the big problem is then removing the trub and then cleaning the tanks, so a separate trub runoff point inside the ring, as well as the normal wort runoff point(s) outside is useful then.

Try not to install them but get the balance of hops, inlet / rotation speed corect and life will be much easier, though I do appreciate that high hop loadings may not give you any option. I had the relative luxury (??) of using a mix of hop pellets and extracts - though preferred the flavour from the all hop pellet grists - but big brewers don't give you much leeway on these things.

I don't have any dimensions other than as noted above

[dinobrew]

Thanks for the info, but I was under the impression that the rings were suspended in the WP not on the bottom. Looking in 'Technology of Brewing and Malting" by Kuntze it seems like the rings are suspended about a third of the way up the WP. There they act to break up eddy currents that form in the WP and hinder the settling and and movement to the center of the wp. It sounds like what you are describing is a series of rings on the bottom to channel and guide the trub into the center.

Todd Crowell
Brewer
Kettlehoue Brewing

[dick murton]

Ah. This does indeed sound different. I have never seen or used these and none of the modern brewery installers that I have dealt with ever use these "mid liquid rings2, but rely on accurate flow control and deisgn of the whirlpool. I imagine that they might be useful to calm things down if the rest of the whirlpool design allowed / encouraged high levesl of turbulence in the wort.

I would be wary as the support structures to hold these rings in place would actually encourage turbulence, and the whirlpool will also then not be easy to clean properly without large numbers of sprayballs etc to ensure full and even coverage of all surfaces

I'll have to find a copy of Kunze to look at this

Cheers