anybody use an I.C. and a bazooka tube in their kettle?

just curious. i'm getting ready to build my new brew kettle. i got a big stainless steel oxygen tank that i've sawed the top off of, and i'm planning on installing a ball valve spigot, and some sort of method of filtering out the hops and cold break.

i've read a ton on here about various ways, such as the home made hopstopper made by sewing a big piece of wire mesh screen together, i've looked at bazooka tubes, bazooka T's etc.

my issue is, i don't have the money, space, etc. for using a CFC or something like that, i plan on sticking with my imersion chiller for awhile, possibly forever.
using most of the methods for filtering hops i've read, such as the hopstopper, bazooka T with the pick up tube, etc. put copper tubing right in the middle of the brew kettle, making it harder to sit your I.C. in the kettle correctly.

i've only used pellet hops thus far, and i always put them into a hop bag.

what i'm thinking i can do, is use a pickup tube, and a bazooka T, but instead of having the pick up tube put the T in the middle of the kettle, make one much shorter so that the bazooka T is more on the side, like very close to the wall of the kettle, to keep it out of the way, and allow room for it, and my immersion chiller to be able to use both.

has anyone ever done this? anybody got any better ideas? anyone see any problems?

thanks.

brian

Not quite sure what you mean BUT..

A keggle has a depression in the middle so that is why the pick up point is central.
If your kettle is flat bottomed then yes you can offset it.

I've only ever used whole leaves and a pan scrubbie so can not really comment further. I do use a IC though.

orfy said:

Not quite sure what you mean BUT..

A keggle has a depression in the middle so that is why the pick up point is central.
If your kettle is flat bottomed then yes you can offset it.

I've only ever used whole leaves and a pan scrubbie so can not really comment further. I do use a IC though.

Click to expand...

yeah, you are understanding me right. my kettle is from a stainless steel oxygen tank. it's flat bottomed, so sounds like it should be fine, and both the bazooka T and the IC should both fit nicely.


thanks

brian

I've often thought of bending my bottom coil on the IC so it has a kink and fits over the pick up.

Crap picture alert!!!!!!

orfy said:

Crap picture alert!!!!!!

Click to expand...

Priceless...

Provided you keep your pellet hops in bags, you'll be just fine with a Bazooka. In fact, I used to use that setup...here it was:


But I found I wanted better hop utilization, so I started chucking the pellet hops right into the boil. Trust me, they will choke the Bazooka in no time and it's not pretty. So I angled my pickup tube the side, and continue to throw my hops right into the boil. I whirlpool via recirculation through a pump when I chill (not only does it drastically reduce chill times, but it forms a nice hop cone in the middle of the boil kettle, and I get very little hops in the fermenter. Here's the current set up:


Bottom line is the Bazooka is great for whole hops or pellets in bags. Anything else and you'll be stuck, literally.

I use a bazooka tee in my kettle, which also has a flat bottom. I've tinkered with a few different ways to use my IC. One way is to build short legs for your chiller so that it sits just above the bazooka. I also tried putting some mesh screen inside the chiller, I just slid it between the bottom most coil. This way when I whirlpool, I captures most of the cold break and hops. It's very effective. Let me know if you have any questions. Russ

I put my chiller in the kettle, then thread the bazooka between two coils.