Boil Kettle Deadspace and Brewing Efficiency

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Surly

Surly

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Hi

I batch sparge and use a converted keg as a boil pot.

I find my brew house efficiency tends to be in the 60-69 range.

I have about 1.75 gallons of deadspace under my brew kettles spigot.

I am wondering if I could increase my brew house efficiency by reducing that deadspace. If so, would a dip tube of some sort with a screen help?

Is there a relationship with this dead space to my final brewhouse efficiency or am I dreaming?
 
You can always just tilt the kettle after the liquid gets below the level of the spigot - just be careful not to rouse up anything that has settled out.
 
Depending on your coupler size, just fashion an elbow that points down and towards the outside of the kettle. You don't want that little bit that settles in the dome, anyway...it's mostly trub. you can use the dome to your advantage by whirlpooling at the end of the boil. If you want to really boost your efficiency, I suggest milling your own grain.
 
gabeweisz said:
Yes gabeweisz, I can always tip the boiler, but as I use carboys I am always concerned about slipping. Especially as I brew outdoors in the Wisconsin winter.

ScubaSteve said:
Depending on your coupler size, just fashion an elbow that points down and towards the outside of the kettle. You don't want that little bit that settles in the dome, anyway...it's mostly trub. you can use the dome to your advantage by whirlpooling at the end of the boil. If you want to really boost your efficiency, I suggest milling your own grain.
Click to expand...

If I do this, will I be able to suck more wort out of my boiler even from below the spigot line? I am attempting to decrease my boilers deadspace. I hope this will contribute to an increase in my efficiencies.
Click to expand...
 
Reducing deadspace will increase brewhouse eff but not extract eff.

Having it below the tap line will create a siphon so will suck up until the wort is below the pickup tube.
 

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