Whirlpooling, vessel system, hop back

Whirlpooling

Q. Before chilling, after chilling?
A. This is the main trub separation technique that is used in commercial breweries before the wort is chilled. source
In addition to being more sanitary, hot whirlpools are great at extracting hop flavor and aroma. You'd lose a lot of that if you whirlpooled cold. source

Q. Before hop back, after hop back?
A. I would set up the hop back between the kettle/whirlpool and the HEX(heat exchanger) with valves do by pass it easily when not in use. source
need update!

Benefits of whirlpooling:

1. quicker chilling
2. clearer wort
3. improved hop flavor and aroma: whirlpooling cools wort faster, post-boil hop additions instill more flavor and aroma without too much of bitterness
4. reduced DMS: the heat from the boil converts SMM(s-methyl methionine) in malts into DMS(cooked or cream corn flavor)

whirlpooling in homebrewing: spoon, pump or counterflow chiller(CFC)* *types of wort chiller link
source

The secret to big hop aroma and flavor

• whirlpool hopping: a fustion between traditional late hopping and hopback methods
• adding hops late in the whirlpool results in lower isomerization of alpha acids and good uptake of hop oils and flavor components
• "we throw our late hops into the whirlpool at the last possible moment and then cool"

hot break and cold break

• hot break(trub): separated from the hot sweet wort through whirlpooling. mainly compromise protein, insoluble alpha acid, and other insoluble matters. 
• cold break: trub in a chilled wort after wort cooling. similar contents with the hot break but less thick. to remove it, need whirlpooling again or separate them with a young beer after fermentation. 

Different vessel system

HLT hot liquor tank
CLT cold liquor tank
MLT mash/lauter tun
BK boil kettle
WH(WP) whirlpool
BBL barrel
FWH first wort hop
FV fermentation vessel
source homebrew acronyms

Do any craft brewers here use a 4 vessel system?
Learning about the beer: the 4 vessel system

• 2 vessel brewhouses are present in the vast majority of US craft breweries
• ranging from 7~50barrel(8~60HL) systems
• usually MLT+BK/WH
• 3 vessel setup: separating the MT and LT or BK and WH
• the advantage of 4 vessel setup: perform multiple steps at the same time

types of Brew Kettle

• steam jacket brew kettle: effective heat delivery, massive heating power with increasing pressure on steam. but higher heat loss and limited kettle size. 
• internal boiler: most effective heat delivery, unlimited kettle size. but hard for CIP cleaning, need some amount of wort before steam in(time-consuming).
• external boiler: need just 15% of wort before steam in, easy cleaning.

Hop back

need update!