Whirlpool with a sanitized stirring spoon (bucket of Starsan nearby is handy for this) while using the Immersion Chiller (IC) to quickly cool your wort.
This will get your hot and cold break to settle in the center of your boil kettle.
Since you have no spigot, the wort somehow has to get over the top of your kettle and into another container (unless you do the ferment in the kettle technique). Dont' worry too much about the break material getting into the fermenter--it's ok.
If the kettle is higher than your primary fermenter, then do a gravity transfer via siphon. It also helps if your tubing has a clamp—very helpful if boiling 10 gallon batches but having to transfer to 5 gallon fermenters.
Option #1: Use a sanitized racking cane with a long fine nylon mesh bag (pantyhose?) placed over the output end of it. It also needs to be secured to the cane and the whole thing sanitized before usage. I used one of those fine nylon mesh wine gift bags from the dollar store that had a built in drawstring attached to it. It works far better on the output end of the siphon rather than the input end due to the larger surface area--if you use it on the input end, then it gets sucked towards the siphon tube and you're limited to the area of the siphon tube inlet port. Just make sure the opening of your primary fermenter is large enough (e.g. plastic bucket) to allow you to withdraw a nylon bag full of wet hops if you do happen to suck up a bunch of break/hops.
Option #2: Slowly pour into a large no-splash funnel that has a fine mesh screen. My only concern with this is that the pouring process mixes everything up in the boil kettle (defeats the whole point of the whirlpool) and the small nylon mesh screen does not have much surface area. It clogs up quickly and pouring must stop immediately. It also requires constant, yet gentle, “scraping” with a sanitized stirring spoon to move the hops off the screen. I may improve this process by putting a fine nylon mesh bag over the funnel in order to increase the surface area of the mesh and prevent clogging. I don’t like pouring anything over 5 gallons—the kettle is just too heavy to do alone—and your assistant may not respect sanitation as much as you do and start touching the wrong parts of the kettle or fermenter.
Option #3: Use a very fine stainless steel china cap bouillon strainer (about $25 from Instawares.com) in between the kettle and the plastic no-splash funnel and fine nylon screen. Given the massively increased surface area, the SS China Cap bouillon strainer is just perfect for hop pellet particles. It does seem to let the protein break material go on through, though. A few shakes of the china cap and nearly all the wort gets released and the hop particles begin to coalesce into a big dense green ball. It’s a great option, especially if you’re trying to reduce your wort loss due to hops (e.g., if making an IIPA).
Option #4: Use a pump. No personal experience with this. It’s an expensive toy.
Option #5: Buy a weld-less stainless steel spigot and a titanium step drill bit capable of making a 7/8 inch opening online (look on ebay or amazon). You’ll eventually do this to reduce the work in your brew day.
Topic: Leaving Break Material/Hops Behind (Read 8551 times)
