Whirlpooling with Counterflow Chiller, Pump, and Tangential Inlet

It's a long title, but I couldn't figure out how to describe this set-up and technique with less words. I've recently upgraded my MoreBeer Tippy Dump sculpture where I just had a pump and counterflow to include a whirlpool tangential inlet and love it!! Here's the equipment, how to do it, and the benefits.

The equipment:

• 26 gallon brew kettle in which I usually brew 10 gallon batches, but could be any size (http://morebeer.com/products/hot-liquor-tank-26-gallon-heavy-duty-brew-kettle.html). FYI, my kettle has false bottom and diverter for collecting wort from the edge of the kettle.
• Tangential inlet upgrade (can't find URL, but I paid ~$100 for this upgrade. I think it's standard now for MoreBeer sculptures).
• Counterflow chiller (http://morebeer.com/products/chillus-convolutus-counterflow-chiller-2-12-fpt-fittings.html)
• Pump (http://morebeer.com/products/march-high-temperature-brewing-pump-flow.html)
• In line oxygenation assembly and thermometer (http://morebeer.com/products/stainless-inline-oxygenation-assembly-barbs.html)
• Misc tubing and fittings. I mostly reuse the same 1/2" silicone tubing and quick connects that are already on my sculpture for mash recirculation.
• I did add 3/8" tubing from the tangential inlet to the bottom of the boil kettle. I found this created a better whirlpool and pulled hops/trub away from outlet better; especially when boiling smaller volumes where the inlet alone was near the top of the wort level (see photos).

How to do it:

1. Connect beer hoses during the boil: 1) Kettle bottom outlet to pump inlet; 2) pump outlet to counterflow inlet; 3) Counterflow outlet to in-line oxygenation assembly and thermometer; and 4) In-line oxygenation assembly and thermometer to kettle tangential inlet.
2. Connect water hoses during the boil: 1) Sink faucet to counterflow inlet; and 2) Counterflow outlet to sink drain ... remember water needs to flow in the opposite direction of the beer ... AKA "counterflow!!" Do not turn on the water yet!
3. At 15 minutes left in the boil, open bottom of kettle valve, open tangential inlet valve, and turn on pump and run for 10 minutes. This pumps boiling wort through hoses, pump, counterflow chiller, and inline oxygenation/thermometer to sterilize them. Do not turn on the water yet!!
4. Turn off pump, put in aroma hops (if applicable), and cover kettle for last 5 minutes of boil.
5. Turn off burner at end of boil, turn on pump, and turn on water to flow through chiller. Do not throttle the pump with a valve. You want it to flow as fast as possible to chill the wort (for cold break and time savings!!) and create a good whirlpool.
6. Watch the in-line thermometer for the target temperature you want to pump into the fermenter with. For me, I can chill 10 gallons of wort down to 80F at the hose outlet in ~10 minutes using ~58F tap water. There's a temperature drop through the chiller so the temperature in kettle will be higher and that's okay. When you reach your target temperature, turn off the pump.
7. Close the kettle tangential inlet valve.
8. Remove the hose that's feeding the kettle tangential inlet and attach to hose that you'll use to fill fermenter or attach to fermenter inlet (if you use quick connects like I do) and open fermenter inlet valve (if applicable). FYI, I give my fermenter inlet a little spray of sanitizer, pinch wort hose with my fingers, give it's connector a little spray too, and then mate the two together.
9. Turn pump back on and pump at full speed into fermenter. You don't need to throttle the flow (like you need to do with a counterflow chiller alone) since the wort is already chilled to the desired temperature at the hose outlet.
10. Turn on oxygen and let it flow at a generous rate. Since you're not throttling the flow, it's going to fill the fermenter in just a couple minutes (pump flow rate = 7 gallons per minute). I don't have an oxygen flow meter, but am in the process of upgrading to one so this will be a little more controlled than just saying "generous flow". The research seems to say you can't really over oxygenate, but you might just waste oxygen.
11. Remove wort hose from fermenter when full and put end in sink.
12. Remove hose end from kettle outlet and run hot water through hose, pump, chiller, and inline oxygenation/thermometer. I do this most times and only super clean my kettle, pump, hoses, and chiller with PBW a couple times a year.

The benefits (compared to just using pump and counterflow chiller):

• Major time savings! Reduces chill and pumping time from ~25 minutes to ~12 minutes.
• Faster chilling = better cold break.
• Whirlpool collects hops/cold break/trub so there's less of this going into fermenter.
• No need to fuss with throttling pump outlet to hit target wort temperature when pumping into fermenter.
• System cools the wort in the kettle which also cools the kettle. That way the kettle is quite cool when you're done and easy to clean without burning yourself.

I hope this is helpful. Next post will include pictures.

One photo shows the set-up during the boil. You can follow the fat, brown hose that's going from the kettle outlet, pump, chiller, inline oxygenation/thermometer, and then back into side of the kettle where tangential inlet is. Smaller clean hose coming off inline oxygenation/thermometer is gas line for oxygen. Black hoses going in and out of chiller are water.

Other photo shows pumping into fermenter (once wort is chilled) through in-line oxygenation/thermometer and oxygen tank.

Two photos show kettle after emptied. The first time I used the system, the wort came directly out of the right angle fitting. It didn't draw the hops into a tremendously huge cone. However, I also used a ton of hops on that batch. The next time I added silicone tubing which dropped the outlet down to the false bottom. This batch was a Belgian Wit with hop pellets and orange peel which you can see were nicely drawn to the center of the false bottom during the whirlpool.

i like this a lot hoping my setup will work as well!
would u see any issues say chilling kettle down to 160 to stop dms and let it whirlpool for 15-20 minutes for whirlpool hop additions and then finishing chilling after whirlpool and into the fermenter?

That certainly seems possible to do. I usually watch an inline thermometer which is after the chiller, but you could watch the boil kettle thermometer and shut he pump off when it hits 160.

BTW, I've heard of whirlpool hop additions, but never tried it. Does it add a lot more flavor and aroma?

Awesome I'll just have to play with some batches as see what I get

Honestly haven't tried it personally listened to and read some about it but I think it's something that is from system to system

I tried something like this, but I didn't have enough pressure to whirlpool when running through 50 ft 3/8" CFC. There was major stratification, and having to stir to de-stratify defeats the purpose of a whirlpool.

Probably works better with a Chillzilla like you have.

Thanks for this post. This is exactly what I'm planning to do, with slightly different equipment. Glad to hear it works well.