As posted in a previous thread, I normally recirculate hot wort through the hops without cooling then collect cooled wort in the the fermenter along with the cold break material. As suggested below, other folks recirc into the boiler to keep the cold break in the copper. I thought I'd give this a try, much to my annoyance, it didn't go to plan.
http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=6596
This is my setup
http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=6617
Brewday 7Mar10, (recipe from a friendly homebrewer)
basically, all grain standard technique. Usual water treatment and copper finings at 15min.
Brewlength (boil) 65L
9.3Kg MOPM target OG 1.040
75min 110g motueka 7.2% AA
0min 110g motueka 7.2% AA
yeast (from microbrewery)
Set timer for water, all fine for a 7:30 mash in. Added grain to water rather than vice versa for first time, worked well.
Like an idiot, I left my hosepipe supply to the brewshed connected overnight and everything was frozen solid, so while the mash mashed and the sparge water heated, I disconnected hose and put in the bath with the shower on to defrost (the wife was still in bed :whistle: ) and went the B&Q to get a hoselock connector which fractured when disconnecting. B&Q was shut, opened at 10:00. :x .
Apart from the mash temp being a little low (probably due to the extremely cold grain) 62degrees, mash was OK and sparge/collection and boil went well. First time with these new Motueka hops from hop & grape. Expensive 220grams so didn't want em wasted.
Went to B&Q again and got a hoselock connecter during the boil.
I started to run the wort through the cooler into my 5L bucket then kept pouring back into copper, with a thermometer in, watching until I reached pitching temp.
After 2 or 3 buckets, the flow slowed down and then almost stopped. The main wort was still pretty hot (more than 70deg). I thought my hop strainer (15mm copper pipes with hack saw cuts in) had fallen off so transferred the 10gallons into a couple of vessels with a jug, only to find the strainer was still there. Put wort back in again. Flow still negligable.
Had a think and a swear :x
Immersion chiller.... Sanitised by dunking in some VWP steriliser solution, rinsed off and connected up. I havn't used one of these for ages as the counterflow is usually OK.
Wort will still not run off, even straight from the boiler without the chiller connected.
Had a bit more of a think and a swear :x
Sanitised an old 5 gallon electrim boiler which I had fitted a mesh hop strainer to and proceeded to jug the cooled wort into it whilst collecting in the fermenters. I still had to stir the hops back and forth from the strainer to keep the flow going. Eventually collected about 47L of the 55L or so I was expecting due to loads of wort still in the boiler with the hops.
If this brew doesn't turn out infected it will be a miracle :cry:
I think the problem is that I disturbed the hop 'filter bed' too much with my 'bucket' recirculation and the hot and cold break materials just clogged everything up. I was planning on fitting a pump in the system for recirculating.
I wonder, does anyone else recirculate like this, what kind of strainers do you use and whether you've sufferred similarly.
Also, why would you want to keep the cold break separate? I usually keg or bottle after about a week anyway.
I'm probably going to go back to collecting straight into the fermenter, cold break and all. My microbrewer friend does it exactly like this (only bigger) using a plate heat exchanger and has no issue with the fermenting on the cold break. He says much of it comes out with the first crop of yeast he skims off from the top. Still want a pump in the system though to assist the gravity.
Any comments folks
http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=6596
This is my setup
http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=6617
Brewday 7Mar10, (recipe from a friendly homebrewer)
basically, all grain standard technique. Usual water treatment and copper finings at 15min.
Brewlength (boil) 65L
9.3Kg MOPM target OG 1.040
75min 110g motueka 7.2% AA
0min 110g motueka 7.2% AA
yeast (from microbrewery)
Set timer for water, all fine for a 7:30 mash in. Added grain to water rather than vice versa for first time, worked well.
Like an idiot, I left my hosepipe supply to the brewshed connected overnight and everything was frozen solid, so while the mash mashed and the sparge water heated, I disconnected hose and put in the bath with the shower on to defrost (the wife was still in bed :whistle: ) and went the B&Q to get a hoselock connector which fractured when disconnecting. B&Q was shut, opened at 10:00. :x .
Apart from the mash temp being a little low (probably due to the extremely cold grain) 62degrees, mash was OK and sparge/collection and boil went well. First time with these new Motueka hops from hop & grape. Expensive 220grams so didn't want em wasted.
Went to B&Q again and got a hoselock connecter during the boil.
I started to run the wort through the cooler into my 5L bucket then kept pouring back into copper, with a thermometer in, watching until I reached pitching temp.
After 2 or 3 buckets, the flow slowed down and then almost stopped. The main wort was still pretty hot (more than 70deg). I thought my hop strainer (15mm copper pipes with hack saw cuts in) had fallen off so transferred the 10gallons into a couple of vessels with a jug, only to find the strainer was still there. Put wort back in again. Flow still negligable.
Had a think and a swear :x
Immersion chiller.... Sanitised by dunking in some VWP steriliser solution, rinsed off and connected up. I havn't used one of these for ages as the counterflow is usually OK.
Wort will still not run off, even straight from the boiler without the chiller connected.
Had a bit more of a think and a swear :x
Sanitised an old 5 gallon electrim boiler which I had fitted a mesh hop strainer to and proceeded to jug the cooled wort into it whilst collecting in the fermenters. I still had to stir the hops back and forth from the strainer to keep the flow going. Eventually collected about 47L of the 55L or so I was expecting due to loads of wort still in the boiler with the hops.
If this brew doesn't turn out infected it will be a miracle :cry:
I think the problem is that I disturbed the hop 'filter bed' too much with my 'bucket' recirculation and the hot and cold break materials just clogged everything up. I was planning on fitting a pump in the system for recirculating.
I wonder, does anyone else recirculate like this, what kind of strainers do you use and whether you've sufferred similarly.
Also, why would you want to keep the cold break separate? I usually keg or bottle after about a week anyway.
I'm probably going to go back to collecting straight into the fermenter, cold break and all. My microbrewer friend does it exactly like this (only bigger) using a plate heat exchanger and has no issue with the fermenting on the cold break. He says much of it comes out with the first crop of yeast he skims off from the top. Still want a pump in the system though to assist the gravity.
Any comments folks
