I’m amazed I managed to get a piece of kit like this for £177 unbelievable. Another question from a AIO novice and that’s a whirlpool arm is it a good idea to pump wort at 85-90C And how does that work with a hop spider?
The pump should be fine at 85 degrees and under. I just used my homemade immersion chiller to drop to 85 which took seconds and then set the temperature on the machine. I left the chiller in situ and hung the hop spider on the outside of it. When switching on, the whirlpool pushed the spider around until it stopped at the back of the whirlpool arm and wort was being pushed around both sides and one presumes some permeated.
Once I had finished the 15 mins I took the spider out, squeezed as much wort out as possible and left the wp running.
I then ran the wort chiller and initially had the tap connected and caught the first 2 bucket loads to wash up. I then switched to an ice bath and pump recirculating through the chiller. I got it down. In about 20 mins. I then switched the pump off removed the wp and lid on and left for 10 minutes.
I then slowly cracked the tap to put the wort into the fermenter. Once we got going I opened fully.
You could see the hop cone forming with what had escaped the spider.
All drained with no blockages.
I would say for £19 the whirlpool arm is well worth having I crushed mine at the end vertically like a duck bill so it makes more of a whirlpool.
Certainly helped with cooling wort and the hop cone.
I used all functions on manual as I also used brewfather.
I'm really really pleased with it, just need to get a bit better efficiency.
I got the brewzilla jacket and the whirlpool from bkt for about £29 and a bit of post.
You might want to get some rice hulls to i add a couple of handfuls to each brew as this helps wort run through the grainbed.
.
