I'm all blocked up !

[mexican]

Yep, I'm getting all blocked up !

Err, nope Justin not in that way and 'no' I don't need you to unblocked me, thanks anyway.

Sorry, couldn't resist the chea shot..

Anyway, I currently have a stainless steel brained hose, with one end crimped closed, inside my kettle. Whenever I try to recirculate wort through the tap or transfer to my fermenter the braied line blocks up. I'm basically using the braided line as a cheap-arse hop filter. The problem I've got is that the line is working too well, so well infact that hops are blocking the braid to the extent that I get nothing out of the tap !

I'm not sure what to do to get around the problem. I can currently think of two solutions.
1. whirlpool and hope everything settle in a pile in the centre of the kettle and just transfer everything else to the fermenter.
2. 2 stage filter. Use an initial course filter with the stainless braid inside that then to my tap to stop the couse material clogging up the braid.

Any thoughts or ideas of what other brewers have used would be much appreciated.

A homebrew solution rather than a bought solution would be preferable (its bloody expensive to get stuff here in oz).

mexican

[WichitaBrewer]

Have you whirlpooled your wort in the past and if so, how long have you "spun" the beer and how long have you let it sit after? I typically use my kettle spoon rapidly around the edges of the kettle for about :30-1 minute to get the wort really spinning, then I wait for about 20 minutes for everything to settle out in the middle (kind of like a pyramid of hops in the center of the kettle. You should then be able to get most of your wort without getting too much of your hop crud in the mix until you're near the end of the kettle. I actually don't use any filter on my kettle (even when I use all whole hops). By whirlpooling the wort I'm able to draw off about as much wort as possible and then when things start getting clogged near the end, I cut off the transfer to the carboys.

WichitaBrewer

[mexican]

Have you whirlpooled your wort in the past and if so, how long have you "spun" the beer and how long have you let it sit after? I typically use my kettle spoon rapidly around the edges of the kettle for about :30-1 minute to get the wort really spinning, then I wait for about 20 minutes for everything to settle out in the middle (kind of like a pyramid of hops in the center of the kettle.

I'm whirlpooling at the moment and get a pretty decent sized pile of crap sitting in the middle of the kettle. I suppose I'll try your idea of simply not filtering at all and see what happens. It may not be too bad as I'm usually using hop plugs anyway so the hop gunk is pretty big.

Maybe I'm just not letting it settle long enough after the whirlpool. (Too eager to pitch my yeast )

Thanks for the info.

mexican