[mabrungard]

As we all should know, whirlpooling the wort at the end of boiling or chilling re-suspends trub into the wort and preferentially deposits it in a conic pile in the center of the kettle. Placing a wort intake at the periphery (edge) of the kettle will avoid more of the trub. Here are measures I take to help to maximize the recovery of clear wort while leaving trub undisturbed in the kettle.

The first element is to place a segment of slotted tubing around the periphery of the kettle. While you could make a ring of tubing around the entire kettle, I prefer to limit the intake zone to about 1/4 the kettle circumference so that I can tilt the kettle slightly to improve wort recovery. Slotting should be placed on the bottom side of the tubing.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=13SRoPh0tmvCCsB93NaASUW0lP5e8PYe4

The second element is to include a better filter to help separate trub from the wort. I place a length of stainless steel braid over the slotted tubing to improve that filtration.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1d3OxQGSsvOhjqFIQleOsWn1PIB3sSoEO

The third element is to incorporate a substantial trub dam to contain more trub in the center of the kettle. The photo above shows the simple strip of aluminum sheet that is pop-riveted together to form a large ring that sits about an inch inside the kettle walls. As shown in the photo below, the tube and braid assembly fit between the kettle wall and the trub dam. While the picture above shows a ring that is only about a 1/2-inch tall, I've since created a new ring that is about an inch tall that works even better.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1hHN2kTCsLd4pVCLfmJuwXL-yjC2GIzhl

I can attest that these measures work very effectively in keeping trub of almost any size out of the flow. I chill my wort with a plate chiller downstream of this wort intake and can report that I never have sediment in my chiller.

You've probably seen vendors with their pathetic, little trub dams or accessories for kettles. They'll never be as effective as this. Make a real difference and improvement to your wort handling.

Enjoy!

[Wilbur]

Looks very interesting, have you considered making some of the ring out of mesh? How much material do you typically have left in the kettle? Any pics of this in action? I've been working on improving my filtering of trub, bazooka screens have always clogged fairly quickly. I kind of like the idea of having 1/2-2/3 of the ring of wire mesh, opposite the tube.

[Gary Glass]

How's your flow rate with this set up.  I tried doing the braid over slotted copper in my mash tun years ago, but found that my flow rate was severely restricted.  I know this is a different application, but I would have expected similar issues with flow.  Is the slotted copper tube really necessary?  Did you try just hooking up the SS braid without the slotted tubing?