Whirlpool Setup - Temperature Control

Imho, you don't need to maintain an exact/constant temp for a whirlpool. Anywhere from 150-212*F is fine. Just make sure you take into account any additional IBUs you may get from the "glide path" method. Btw, a 15 min whirlpool is plenty...just shut your cooling water off early and let the temp coast down to ~ 150-170*F...or so

I don't know about you, but my burner is "off" during whirlpools

 

It's funny, but "whirlpooling" is one of those terms that means different things to different people. Originally it referred to a way to enhance hot/cold break collection by moving wort in a circular pattern in a kettle...with the advent of modern hop bombs it became a method to accentuate kettle hop aroma while secondarily collecting trublike substances. Awaiting beer historian diatribes

 

Run immersion chiller for a minute or two, the temp quickly drops below 200, then shut off chiller and add whirlpool hops. As long as the external/outdoor temperature is "reasonable", i.e. not <30-40 degrees, the wort temp won't drop very much in 15 minutes. Then resume chilling with the whirlpool hops still in the wort.

Basically, don't worry too much about being precise

 

The "Rock Bottom Experiment", etc. might be illuminating on this subject...(Hops), by Hieronymus pgs. 199-202

 

Not sure what part of Texas you're in, but maybe move to Phoenix?

I don't whirlpool, but I don't have trouble maintaining a fairly stable temperature for hopstands or mashes here during the summer. Believe it or not, things don't cool off very quickly at 115° in the sun. It's trying to cool wort with hot tap water that becomes an issue then.

 

I just use a immersion chiller to drop the wort down to 165F or so, add in my hops, give it a whirl and cover for about 15mins. Then carefully stir/whirlpool it again, cover for another 15mins (30min total) and then add a sanitized immersion chiller back in and reduce down to yeast pitch temp. I don't really care if temp drops from 165 to 160 or 155 during whirlpool.

 

I have an electric system, so if I want to whirlpool at 170, I'll set the thermostat to 170 and run the chiller. I'll monitor the temp so that I can turn the water circulation off at 170 and not work at x-purpose. After the stand (20 min typically), I'll set the heater to some unachievably low temp so it never kicks in and turn the water back on (my temp probe and heater are wired together so I can't completely disconnect the plug).

Before going electric, I just did my best adding hops when I hit the desired temp. I haven't found any improvements that necessarily merit the greater accuracy and precision of the new system, but since I can, I do it. If you cannot, don't lament.

And as always, add more hops.

 

I've never read anything about stable/unstable temps either, but I can't really think of a reason why the temp dropping 5-10 degrees over 15-30 minutes would matter, especially if we are talking about staying in the 150-200 range. I think that would be a really hard experiment to do correctly (really large sample needed given that any differences are likely to be small).

 

Why do you have to leave the lid off? I just rest mine on top the the in/out of my chiller, it doesn't seal, but it helps keep bugs out and probably keeps some heat in.

Do your temps go from 180 to 150 in 30 minutes with the air temp in the 50s or 60s? How big are your batches?

Regardless, I don't think that much of a drop would be a problem from a whirlpool point of view and that is less you need to run your chiller.

 

I use two pumps (cooling water and hot wort) w/plate chiller but make no attempt to keep the wort at a constant temp. There are four primary oils in hops and they all have different boiling temps. The attempt is to dissolve these oils into the wort before they vaporize. I think it's an advantage to let the temp fall (usually ~10F for me) . . . keeping those oils around is what it's all about. I let Beersmith estimate the IBUs and it seems fairly accurate.

If you add a pump, consider this model (sometimes cheaper on eBay):

It is tiny but does the job . . . has 1/2" inlet and 3/8" outlet. It's pretty frail looking but mine has been chugging hot wort for over three years. You'll need a 12v transformer but who doesn't have a broken thingamajig laying around?

 

As others have mentioned, the main goal is to add the whirlpool hops below a certain temperature to encourage better retention of hop oils in the wort. So most are not concerned with how cool the kettle gets by the end of the hop stand. If you are, then perhaps you can build/buy an insulated jacket for your boil kettle (like most do for our mash tuns - heck maybe one in the same will work for both). There would be some bonus benefits I could see in maintaining your hop stand temp though. Such as getting a better cold break upon knockout, as well as reducing the risk of dms reformation.

 

@telejunkie and I did a whirlpool experiment a few years back, attempting to hold to the Brulosophy standards.

I set up sort of a RIMs system to maintain WP temps to 4 different points, 200F, 180F, 150F and 120F If I remember correctly. Blind judging was inconclusive, no temperature stuck out as being significantly different by the panel. I believe I posted my results on this forum, I'll have to search for them.

But after years of WPing I now just cut the heat and cool to about 180F (I'll use my cfc to do this which also helps sanitize the cfc), then add the hops, stir, and let it cool for another 30min, stirring occasionally, and if using a hop bag I'll squeeze it every 10 min. And the results are good.

The most significant thing I've noticed from this method is the outcome is less sensitive to the technique (time, temp, flow and equip) but very sensitive to the quality (and variety) of the hops. If the hops don't have an intense aroma when you open them, the beer won't have it either. I always try to use a fresh properly sealed unopened bag of hops when WPing. If it was repackaged by anyone (lhbs, online retailer, etc) I won't use them. Has to be in the original package from the supplier.

 

Once I get the temp below 180ºf. I'm not terribly concerned in maintaining much of anything other than getting the day finished and the yeast pitched. Because once I get the hops steeping. There's only so much time they actually need to do their thing and extract the volatile oils and so forth. It's merely tea, and if you know what a fussy medium that is. You don't need to waste an hour when 5 minutes will suffice. If the temp is too high. You get weird flavors because you destroyed the volatile bits.
I'm becoming slightly more interested in doing a hop addition upon pitch. I can't verify scientifically why that is interesting or worth doing. But. My speculation is based on dry hopping on peak fermentation. Certain things might bind and do some kind of synergistic mumbo jumbo, and the beer I get out of it may or may not be better because of that.

 

Bingo. This says it all. I have a trusted supplier and the only time I use a hop that has been opened is one I've vacuum sealed myself. I'm firmly of the belief that poor quality hops have caused much lamentations of brewers far and wide.