Robobrew/Brewzilla Whirlpool arm modification

[clyne]

After being pretty underwhelmed when I first used the whirlpool arm I decided (after quite some time!) to make a wee (simple) tweak to it. I reckon it's made it way better. Youtube video talks you through it. How's other peoples use of this contraption been?

 

[ColinF]

Loving yer wee brewery. Nice one

 

[Little Rock Brewing]

Great modification. I'll be doing that for certain. Cheers.

 

[Polcho]

That's a great idea. I'll be looking at that, thanks.

 

[sifty]

Subscribed. Also a 35l Brewzilla brewer. Great videos, cheers...

 

[clyne]

Thanks peeps! Would love to hear how your mods go and if you find it makes a difference

 

[Beer Please]

After being pretty underwhelmed when I first used the whirlpool arm I decided (after quite some time!) to make a wee (simple) tweak to it. I reckon it's made it way better. Youtube video talks you through it. How's other peoples use of this contraption been?

Great video. Will be modding mine.

1st run out of my Brewzilla on Friday and I, like yourself, was somewhat underwhelmed with the whirlpool arm.
I seemed to be having a slight blockage on the pump anyway so assumed that it was the cause but when I gave it a go with just water, whilst it was better, it wasn’t great. Having read various posts, I put a tea strainer on but this was pretty clogged at the end. Will try without next time.

whereabouts in the Highlands are you?

 

[clyne]

I've had blockages on my pump before as well. I usually find that opening the valve fully clears it, although I have on occasion had to blow air from the arm back down into the hot wort to clear it. Where there's a will there's a way :)

I'm in Caithness (Halkirk). What about you, where in the country are you?

 

[Beer Please]

I've had blockages on my pump before as well. I usually find that opening the valve fully clears it, although I have on occasion had to blow air from the arm back down into the hot wort to clear it. Where there's a will there's a way :)

I'm in Caithness (Halkirk). What about you, where in the country are you?

Ah, Thats a good tip
Grantown on Spey. Work up in caithness sometime, might pop in and check out your set up, ask lots of silly questions

 

[clyne]

Feel free to give a shout if you're up this way. Happy to show you around my (messy) brewing area :)

 

[Beer Please]

Feel free to give a shout if you're up this way. Happy to show you around my (messy) brewing area :)

Thought it was just me

 

[foxy]

Call me old fashioned but I use my mash paddle to whirlpool, no blocked pump, clear wort into fermenter. Does the job, only ever used the whirlpool arm once.

 

[Rodcx500z]

I to just use my paddle

 

[clyne]

Where's the fun in that? I mean what I love about brew days is the unexpected accidents! The mess on the floor, the beer hitting the ceiling, taps being left open, blocked pumps. It's what gives the beer character

 

[fgoulding]

I saw the video when it came out and thought it was a fantastic idea because the whirlpool arm is a little underwhelming.

But I don’t have access to a vice and so I’m going to use either some form of reducer or mess around with smaller diameter tubing.

I really appreciate you taking the time to do the experiment and sharing it, as I love brewing hacks!

Cheers!

 

[hoppyscotty]

Not sure how vigorous a whirlpool is meant to be, though it is a bit limp wristed from the standard pump/whirlpool arm combination. In my experience I always continuously run the whirlpool arm as soon as the boil is over and through the hop stand and turn it off and give it a few minutes to settle once the hop stand steep time is over and never had any problems as such with this, and get a nice hop cone gathering on the FB.

However now I've moved to a plate chiller I have had issues with the plate chiller blocking and this is because as the wort drains it drags hop matter off the sides of the cone and they slip down the gaps between the false bottom and the side of the vessel (you can clearly see this as the wort level drops to the cone level as it drains). Not an issue until I got the plate chiller. I'd love to see a solution that seals the edge of the face bottom to prevent this. I have a few ideas but not managed to test anything yet.

But other than that this seems like a sensible mod, I'll give it a go.

 

[Jjinnm]

After being pretty underwhelmed when I first used the whirlpool arm I decided (after quite some time!) to make a wee (simple) tweak to it. I reckon it's made it way better. Youtube video talks you through it. How's other peoples use of this contraption been?

Definitely doing this! Thanks.

 

[Griff097]

I to just use my paddle

I just use a canoe paddle in an 18v Makita, hell of a whirlpool

 

[Hop_it]

Nice simple idea
I was also very disappointed with the performance of the Bz whirlpool arm. I tried bushing the ss tube down to a smaller diameter. It gives a better jet of liquid, and improved things a bit, but there is still not a particularly good 'whirl'. This looks like a much better solution.

 

[hoppyscotty]

How powerful a whirlpool do you need? even with the standard whirlpool arm and the 'lazy river' style whirlpool I still am able to gather hops into a nice cone in the centre of the false bottom. I do constantly whirlpool through the full hop stand period and as the wort cools post hop stand, so maybe with the weak whirlpool it just needs more time to work. But it does work. And I find running the pump through all that period keeps the pump clear rather than shutting it off letting hops settle and clump together then suddenly getting sucked into the pump in a huge slug when you turn it on. Better to have a constant 'thin' stream of hop matter running through the pump constantly then chucking a huge slug of the stuff into it all of a sudden.