Do those hydraulics count as a pump? BTW, I used the pump and the Jamil whirlpool and it worked great; I’m going to add a pre-chiller for when the wort gets under 80F, just to see how fast I can get it down in the 50’s. It only took about 35-40 minutes for 10 gallons of wort to go from boiling to 2 degrees above inlet temperature using 52F tap water. Call me a convert.
Same setup here, similar results.
This is interesting. They point out that with a counter-flow or plate chiller, you’re leaving a large portion of the wort at near-boiling temp, while an immersion chiller takes care of the whole batch equally. That’s never occurred to me. I’m rethinking my plan to buy a therminator.
I found pictures of the rig I was talking about with the boiling kettle hoist.
Also found a pic of my first gravity fed system 
Safety First!
Oh Goodness! I don’t feel so McGiverish now.
Ha! I thought you guys might like that picture. I was 23yrs old and pretty short on resources and funds. I slapped that ghetto setup together in the garage of our rental house and brewed a good amount of beer with it.
The silicone hose is nice stuff. It doesn’t discolor or collapse when it gets hot. It doesn’t get a memory so it’s easy to coil. And you don’t need hose clamps on the barbs because it seals perfectly yet pulls off so easily.
I use gravity, but I tell people that I use a “Newton Pump.”
I use a pump to reduce lifting and to recirculate with a WIC during chilling. Once I solved the priming challenge and got my process dialed-in, the pump ends up being a net time-saver for me.
I have a single tier system so pumps are a necessary part of it. Not that I am complaining that i dont have to do much heavy lifting… …
Decided to pull my pump out of retirement. I made my own version of a whirpool nozzle. I did a test run with water and I got a pretty nice whirpool. I made some gaps in the IC so the flow can get all the way to the center. I’m going to test it out tomorrow. I’m planning on brewing (2) 12g batches.
I’m just now adding a pump so I can pull the wort through my system w/o gravity. I’m sure my back will appreciate the gesture.
One of my goals is to be able to filter the hop sludge and break material so I can get cleaner wort into the fermenter. I did notice something in this thread…
Trub filter? I’m thinking of using my Hop Rocket stuffed full of hop-socks. What do you use?
The pump sped up my process today but I had a couple accidents with siphons while disconnecting and reattaching hoses. I think I need to add a couple ball valves to alleviate the problem.
I re-plumbed my whirpool nozzle to more resemble Jamil’s design. His configuration just makes it easier, and the elevated inlet will eliminate the siphoning problems I ran into on the last batch when I disconnected hoses.
Just an observation -The whirlpool definitely speeds the chilling time as expected. One drawback is that it results in a less clear wort going into the fermenter. So on yeast harvest after fermenting, I find that I have more trub. Not a big deal for me, since I repitch on volume, anyway (1/2 for lagers and about a third for ales - timing my beers so that I rack from primary on brew day of the repitch batch).
I hear that if you let it settle for a bit (10-15 min) after whirlpool that it’s clearer than no whirlpool. I haven’t done a side by side test but I think this is true.
I have a false bottom in my kettle. With whole hops you get a natural trub filter, and clear wort when you are done whirlpooling.
Otherwise you should wait for it to settle, as suggested.
I remove my hop-bags and give my kettle a good stir and go do something else for 10-20 minutes. That’s my whirlpool.
Worked well on a recent 13g batch. I was below 140*F in minutes with a 50’ x 3/8 OD immersion chiller. Please excuse the hazards; we have a one car garage and the weather was nasty so real estate was at a premium. I never left the burner unattended.