Post Boil Tips?

[elgatovolador]

Been posting more than usual but I’m planning my brew day and it has my brain juices flowing.

I’m trying to get better at not transferring as much turb from my Boil kettle into the fermenter.

I do all grain, and my Boil kettle is a regular 10 gal kettle with nothing fancy like a ball valve or anything.

I recently built a wort chiller with a recirculating pump so it’s my first time using it.

Also first time trying to make a whirlpool to create a turb cone in the Boil kettle.

This is the new procedure I’m planning from wirfloc addition through racking in fermenter. Any tips would be greatly appreciated!

- place wort chiller in wort @ 15 min before flame out
- add wirlfloc @ 10 min before flame out
- flame out
- start circulating ice cold water in chiller
- monitor temp until pitching temp reached (let’s assume 20 min)
- take wort chiller out of wort
- stir and create a decent whirlpool
- wait 5 min? 10 min? For turb to settle.
- rack into fermenter from the edges of the Boil kettle without disturbing turb cone

Any tips or hints on the above would be appreciated!

I’m not sure if there is a rule of thumb of how much time you wait post Boil for wirfloc to do it’s thing, or if it doesn’t matter and wirfloc mainly does its thing in the fermenter.

Also is there a rule of thumb of how long you wait after creating a whirlpool to let the turb settle. I’m assuming it would take about 5-10 min but I’ve never done it...maybe I missed it when reading about it.

Cheers.

 

[Jag75]

I've never done whirfloc after boil. I use it at 15 -10 min left of a boil. You should get a siphon for transferring your wort . Everything else looks good . Good luck

 

[FunkedOut]

Try using tap water through your chiller at first.
I run the hose at full pressure to fill a couple 6 gallon buckets. This takes less than 5 minutes and brings the wort down to ~100*F. Now you have some hot water for clean up.

Then switch to the ice water.
You’d be wasting the ice water for the first part.
I will run off a third bucket from the ice water to get rid of more heat before recirculating the ice water.
Otherwise, you end up warming up your ice water in a hurry.



The whilfloc does its thing in two parts. During the boil, it dissolves and distributes negativly charged particles that attract other positively charged particles, creating clumps of proteins that resulted mostly from the hot break.
When you chill the wort fast enough, you get a cold break that produces more positively charged particles that will bond and clump with any remaining whirlfloc in solution.
There’s no need to wait for the reactions to happen.
10-15 min in the boil is more than enough to distribute.
The time it takes to cool is more than enough for any reactions to take place as well.

You only need to wait for things to settle out of suspension.
The whirlpool is effective for large heavy trub, such as hop debris. I find that the hot and cold break material will not create the cone and stay put, unless attached to heavier stuff.
The break material stays in suspension during the whirlpool and that is what you are waiting for, after whirlpool to settle out.
I find 30 minutes to be worth the wait.

Rack off the top and you’ll find the sludge at the bottom.
Measure what is left in the kettle when you decide to stop racking. I find this to be 0.75 gallons if I want 100% clear wort.
After a few batches, adjust your process to account for that loss to kettle trub, so you end up with the desired volume of wort in the fermenter.

 

[IslandLizard]

What he said! ^

If I have the time and want clearer wort, after chilling I leave the kettle with the lid on for at least 2-3 hours (sometimes overnight) for all trub and cold break to settle. Then siphon the clear wort from the top, tipping the kettle slowly toward the end to keep the siphon well deep. That leaves most trub behind.

Now I have a plate chiller, so I bag all my hops. Still, a lot of fine hop dust makes it out the fine mesh bags.

 

[owmatooth]

i second the idea of leaving it at least 30 minutes for the trub to settle. as its chilling with the wort chiller, i give it a good stir at about 100 degrees. then i don't touch it for about 45 min. this lets all my trub settle to the bottom. the whirpool effect of the final stirring is important. key is not disturbing the trub when you transfer. not worth being anxious about, but I prefer topping up with a gallon of water to get my six gallons in the carboy than milking every last drop out of the brew kettle and getting more trub in the carboy. but i brew 5% beer, so a little water doesn't kill me. if you're over .060, i'd siphon it all and let the cold crash after the ferment settle out the extra trub. only an issue if you're harvesting yeast for the next batch...

 

[elgatovolador]

Quick question for everyone...I’m going to heat up some water in my Boil kettle to baptize my immersion wort chiller and try to clean off any oil/stuff I don’t want to end up in my beer.

I pulled my 8-gal Boil kettle and found this inside. Is this beerstone? I’ve done 4 batches on this kettle so far...just wondering when you have to do something about beerstone and when does it start affecting your beer...from the research I did it mainly affects you if it’s in the fermenter? The only issue with your Boil kettle is it affects heat transfer?

After I clean the wort chiller I’m thinking on dumping some PBW to and get a Boil rolling to further clean. But I’m Not sure if it’s necessary, I try to maximize my use of PBW since I’m cheap.

 

[Cavpilot2000]

It's maybe some hard precipitates as well as oxidation on the surface. Yes, stainless will "stain" and oxidize.
A good scrub with Barkeeper's Friend (powdered, not liquid) and a sponge with a rough side will clear that right up. Just make sure to rinse well with a wipe - BKF tends to leave a film that doesn't just rinse off without contact.

 

[elgatovolador]

It's maybe some hard precipitates as well as oxidation on the surface. Yes, stainless will "stain" and oxidize.
A good scrub with Barkeeper's Friend (powdered, not liquid) and a sponge with a rough side will clear that right up. Just make sure to rinse well with a wipe - BKF tends to leave a film that doesn't just rinse off without contact.

Will precipitates and oxidation affect the final beer? Like off-flavors or such?

 

[Cavpilot2000]

Will precipitates and oxidation affect the final beer? Like off-flavors or such?

UNless you are doing Low-Oxygen Brewing and trying to prevent fenton reactions, it probably won't have much effect, but it will get worse over time, so you are better off cleaning it frequently and removing that stuff. Barkeeper's Friend (BKF) is cheap and readily available (and will remove it better than PBW) in any store's cleaning supply section (Lowes, HD, grocery store, etc).