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Greetings fellow brewers!

I've just started moving from extract into grain brewing and have about 4000 questions. But I'll start with just a couple

Regarding whirlfloc/irish moss 1) is there much diffence?
2) I've followed the packet instructions and ended with this photo! ( insert below pending puta skills ) Doesn't look right.. adding the whirlfloc with 15 minutes left, and left for 15-20minutes. Should I leave this for longer? and where do you whirlpool?, before or after chilling?

Cheers in advance as always! Chriso

http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/8994/img2286ot.jpg

I don't use an immersion chiller so I'll leave the before/after question to someone else, but I will say that once the convection currents die down is generally the earliest it is worth bothering to whirlpool. Have a look in the kettle and if you see that the fluffy, coagulated stuff is swirling about then convection currents are still active and will fight your whirlpooling efforts.

That aside, that pic looks like you're got a pretty nice break forming. Get a good whirlpool process sorted and you'll be well on your way.

I've never used irish moss and always use whirfloc but I've never seen anyone say anything other than they work about as well as each other - disagreements cause fairly big barneys in this hobby so I read that lack of animosity as being significant. Have a crack with both if funds allow and see if you have a preference.

[EDIT: typo]

The stuff in the photo looks to me like the whirlfloc has done it's job.

I add whirlfloc 10 minutes before flameout. I use an immersion chiller and chill immediately after flameout.
I remove my immersion chiller after I've got the temperature of the wort down, usually after 10 to 15 minutes of chilling. That's the time to do a whirlpool.

I tried whirlpooling, but my kettle outlet etc just doesn't seem to allow me to get a good pyramid of trub in the centre on the bottom, so I now just let my kettle stand about 20 to 30 minutes after chilling. The trub settles anyway. I have a length of rolled SS termamesh along the perimeter of my kettle attached to the tap outlet, and if I drain slowly, it works to get pretty much clear wort into the fementer. I generally only lose about 1 litre or so to trub.

To the best of my knowledge, Irish Moss is the traditional form of carageenan. That's also a major component of whirlfloc, so they essentially do the same thing.