Current regime after flameout is whirlpool with a chugger which gives me a lovely hop cone, cover boiler and let it all settle for 25 mins and loads fall to the bottom.
I have a deck drain kn the floor my pot at the edge, and I pump out and usually just chuck the first half litre but I was still getting way too much trub drifting towards the drain as I filled fvs. I know some trub absolutely helps fermentation but this was too much.
Then I came across this thing.
http://www.hastingsbrewworks.com/trub-trapper/
Nah homebrewing shouldn't be about new bits of metal or plastic so I got a 15mm piece of copper and wedged it in the deck drain, hey presto instant trub dam.
I loose about 4l that is below the level of the copper outlet but it's mostly slushy trub and hop debris so worth it.
I use the fast fermenter now and the trub settles nice and neat at the end of the cone. Just slowly open valve at bottom and all that trub is gone.
Same as any stainless conical fermenter i guess but cuts out the whirlpool step. I can clean up brew shed and then when im finished drop trub add yeast.
Another trick with the FF is to let it settle for a few hours before pitching yeast. Break will settle in the bulb which you can dump before pitching.
Cheers Nigel, yep sharpening pencil for Mr Claus list.
And here I am pumping everything over with a center pickup :) that said the hop spider is catching everything I'm worried about.
so pump from boiler into spider, into bucket yeah does it not get blocked?
No from boiler into fermenter. The hop true is already in the spider, so I'm getting hot and cold break into the fermenter. It just settles to the bottom while fermenting and doesn't seem to cause any harm.
Now you mention it though, I could try going through the spider with the hops still in it and see if I catch any break material. Might try this weekend....
I am liking this thread. I see a lot of people struggle with kettle trub and hop debris. Universal solutions that deal with leaf & pellet are expensive or problematic to use. A nice combination of solar pump & hop spider can get rid of all 3.
Dying to try this out on my new kettle
Basic Brewing did a podcast or 2 on trub into the fermenter :
http://media.libsyn.com/media/basicbrewing/bbr01-05-12trubex.mp3
And
http://media.libsyn.com/media/basicbrewing/bbr02-23-12trubres.mp3
I do exactly that with the hop spider, pump through it, catches any largeish bits. Then the usual cold crash and gelatin to clear