Need help with cooling and whirlpooling

I'm trying to find the best way to chill and create a whirlpool. Right now I have a valve (no dip tube) with pump and IC.

Let me know what you guys think about my plan...

Adding a side pick up dip tube. This will draining wort away from the center where all the trub would hopefully be.



Then I would add a whirlpool fitting like this one. I was going to add it towards the middle of my kettle (height wise). This way it creates a good whirlpool and it moves along more of the IC. I feel if it was towards the bottom or top, it wouldn't create a good whirlpool or the wort coming out wouldn't touch a good portion of the IC.



Anyone have any advice on this? Good or bad?

Also, what is the best way to keep the IC off the element? Or is that not an issue?

Lots of people use these fittings. Personally I'd have the higher-mounted "liquid in" fitting shown as in your bottom picture, but making a counterclock wise flow, and then your wort out basically the same as shown in the picture (pulling the wort again counter clockwise) so that the outbound flow works WITH rather than against the whirlpool.


Ideally you want the wort out to be as large a diameter as possible; obviously you want a good pump that can get some good velocity for a whirlpool and you want to work hard to avoid any flow restrictions except maybe a slight restriction on the wort-in whirlpool fitting in the kettle (the fitting that you're using should do that) -decreasing the diameter of the output at the last second will accelerate the flow.



To be honest I've never seen a great whirlpool in a homebrew kettle in a 10 gallon batch. I have this setup but with copper pickup tubes in the compression fittings rather than stainless. It works well but I accelerate the whirlpool using a cordless drill with a plastic mash spoon attached to DRAMATICALLY increase the whirlpool velocity. -I am now only doing this once the temps drop below 110F so I don't have to worry about hot side aeration. (Let's not get into an HSA debate, though.)


Adam

Don't worry about keeping the IC off of the element; worry about getting the IC fully emerged below the liquid level.

Adam

So I should basically buy two of the bottoms picture fittings. The top liquid into the BK as shown in the picture to create a clockwise flow and the liquid out into the pump reversed so it is sucking in clockwise.

I'm not worried about the IC being submerged. It has a lot of coils and does a great job. I'm more worried about it damaging the element.

Here is another problem. I want to be able to do 5 and 10 gallon batches. Where is the best place to put the top liquid in fitting? My guess would be closer to the top for 5 gallons which would put it towards the middle of a 10 gallon.

For my whirlpool in I use one of these with a valve on the outside and silicone hose going down to the bottom.
https://www.brewhardware.com/product_p/wlbulk3.htm
For my wort out I have a ss dip tube with a 180 bend so it pulls wort from the side and leaves the cone alone. I use a chugger pump and all the wort appears to be in motion.
Using this whirlpool method and an IC I have cut my cooling time in half.

Good luck!

decoleur said:

For my whirlpool in I use one of these with a valve on the outside and silicone hose going down to the bottom.
https://www.brewhardware.com/product_p/wlbulk3.htm
For my wort out I have a ss dip tube with a 180 bend so it pulls wort from the side and leaves the cone alone. I use a chugger pump and all the wort appears to be in motion.
Using this whirlpool method and an IC I have cut my cooling time in half.

Good luck!

Click to expand...

Sounds similar to what I want to do expect instead of having the whirlpool fitting, you just have a hose. Glad to see it works.

I think I'm going to go with it. Relatively cheap. Just need the two fittings and another valve. Oh and a hose. Should be under $60.