I have been researching Whirlpooling for removing trub and such (have not used this technique yet). I use an immersion chiller to cool my wort after the boil. One article advised to whirlpool and then cool with the immersion chiller. Another article advised to cool first with the immersion chiller and then perform the whirlpool. Logically it seems to make more sense to me to cool the wort first with the immersion chiller and then perform the whirlpool. I suspect if you were to perform the whirlpool first and then cool down with the immersion chiller it will just stir things up again unless our are extremely careful and gentle. Am I correct in my reasoning? Your recommendations?
Yeah I agree with your thoughts. I'd recommend cooling the wort to your desired temperature (or a couple degrees below), removing the wort chiller, and then stirring so as to set up a gentle, laminar circular motion. The wort does not need to be moving very fast. In my experience it takes several minutes for the trub to drop out and form a cone in the middle.
Most effective is actually both. Whirpool while chilling decreases the time to chill the wort to pitching temps, then remove the chiller and continue whirlpool for a minute, shut it off, and let it settle.
Chill first IMO. I've never gotten the mythical cone of trub when the chiller is in the kettle. Even the dip tube (if equipped) causes a disturbance in the cone formation. I get a cone but its by no means a pretty well centered cone with all the trub in it.
