Keggle Built-in Immersion Chiller

I wanted to get some extra insight into a project I'm considering.

Currently I use a drop in immersion chiller. However, the darn thing is awkward and doesn't sit well on the bottom of my keggle because of the drain off (see first picture for perspective).

I'm considering creating a built-in Immersion Chiller to stay in the keggle at all times (could remove for cleaning by disassembling). I'm curious what problems this may cause or if others have done this before - see my crappy Paint image below for an idea of what I'm thinking of.





Thoughts?

I will be doing the same thing. Many have warned me against it because they think it will be hard to clean, and I think they are right.... to battle this I have a few things going for me.

1. Stainless coil, I have a 50' 1/2" stainless coil to make cleaning easier.
2. Stainless fittings. I will be using stainless swagelok fittings.
3. I have a pump and will be pumping hot cleaner all over my rig after brewing.

I will be able to tell you in a month how it goes.

I know that I like to clean up my kettle like 2 seconds after I empty it and it's still takes some scrubbing with a 3M pad. Maybe if you fill it up with hot oxyclean and let it sit for 2 hours, it would come clean but I doubt it.

Bobby_M said:

I know that I like to clean up my kettle like 2 seconds after I empty it and it's still takes some scrubbing with a 3M pad. Maybe if you fill it up with hot oxyclean and let it sit for 2 hours, it would come clean but I doubt it.

Click to expand...

I always save my hot used water from the chiller. Then I drain wort off & dump out the remaining crap, hit it with a scrub pad and spray it out with a hose. Then I pour all of the saved hot water back in with some oxyclean and let it sit overnight then drain and spray it out.

Sounds like that would be enough to keep this thing clean? Occasionally I would take out the built-in & give it a good rub-down.

Is cleaning really the only issue? Would it interfere with boiling or whirlpool, etc??

Cleaning is the only issue IMO. I have my coil setup so it will be at the outer diameter of the pot.

I think we can get a little obsessive with the between-brew cleanup too. A little hop residue here and there isn't going to do anything to the next brew as long as it dries out. As soon as the weather warms up I'm going to unleash my powerwasher on the vessels.

How about some sort of hangar system?

Use wire to wind up the coils of the IC, and leave a loop at the top, on both sides.

Then use some stiffer "S" (or "Z") type hooks, like wreath hangars, to suspend the IC
above your kettle hardware.

No extra holes, comes out for cleaning/whirlpooling. Win/Win!

See Here

JPicasso said:

How about some sort of hangar system?
See Here

Click to expand...

I've always had an issue with over-engineering stuff - this would be pretty simple. I'll probably utilize this idea for my next few brews.

Also, I was thinking, if I build this thing, perhaps I can rig some sort of quick-disconnect for the copper coil on the inside so I could just pop it off when I'm done. Do they even make quick-disconnect stuff that would work for this kind of setup?

I would just do leg supports- easy if you have welding equipment handy. Cleaning could be a PITA, but I'm also thinking it will take longer to cool since you'd be brewing with the IC in keggle... Not that big of a deal, but with the cleaning concern, it's another pro to making it not permanent...

Just to follow up...

This idea works great and the clean-up is easy.

I've thought about this set up for a while now after wanting to do a second keggle set up.

Kabouter: If you don't mind...how may feet of SS do you have there? Cost?

the coil is 50' of 1/2" and the best deal is at mcmaster part #8989K98

$70.33.
Look on Ebay for the swagelok fittings, they are about 1/4 of retail cost.

This just sounds like another leak to worry about...

Sweet! do you pump your wort through a cfc as well and get some whirlpool action goin on? I've thought about doing something similar as your immersion chiller and having an additional valve on my BK with an angled pipe on the inside to whirlpool the wort clockwise after I pump it through my CFC. Get some overkill chillin done so I can whirlpool as wel.

old thread, but I was about to install a IC in my keggle, just wondering if that is a 1/2 NPT to 1/2" tube compression. Is it easy to remove the coil. I was thinking about flaring the pipe and trying that, but this looks cleaner.