Had our first brew-day on our 3 bbl system yesterday (and damn it smells good in here! <g>) Most everything went pretty smoothly except for clean-up was of course a PITA.
Biggest clean-up issue is the hop trub in the BK which has brought up a couple questions:
1. This was our first time whirlpooling on a pro system so be gentle as this is a *really* stupid question: during the whirlpool should we be drawing the wort from the drain at the bottom/apex of the dish or from the one higher up? I went with the higher-up one because I was worried that drawing it through the apex might lead to a clog but in the end the trub didn't really form the oft-mentioned "cone" at the center of the bottom of the kettle - it was just sort of spread out all over the bottom (didn't help that we made an ESB - probably should have started with a less messy beer).
2. What's the best way to clean all that trub out of the bottom of the tank at the end of the day? We're on septic so we don't want to run it down the drain by just hosing it out into the floor drain (plus it seems to have clogged up the opening a bit). The tanks to big to get in there and scoop it out by hand. I was thinking of maybe going after it with a shop-vac? Any thoughts/tips/advice?
Biggest clean-up issue is the hop trub in the BK which has brought up a couple questions:
1. This was our first time whirlpooling on a pro system so be gentle as this is a *really* stupid question: during the whirlpool should we be drawing the wort from the drain at the bottom/apex of the dish or from the one higher up? I went with the higher-up one because I was worried that drawing it through the apex might lead to a clog but in the end the trub didn't really form the oft-mentioned "cone" at the center of the bottom of the kettle - it was just sort of spread out all over the bottom (didn't help that we made an ESB - probably should have started with a less messy beer).
2. What's the best way to clean all that trub out of the bottom of the tank at the end of the day? We're on septic so we don't want to run it down the drain by just hosing it out into the floor drain (plus it seems to have clogged up the opening a bit). The tanks to big to get in there and scoop it out by hand. I was thinking of maybe going after it with a shop-vac? Any thoughts/tips/advice?
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