keggle and 25' IC?

So I was looking at a 25' chiller and they are only 16" to the top. Of the inlets. How does that work with a keggle since they are so tall.
I don't want to kink the vinyl lines running them up at a 90d angle.

I guess I could stretch out the coil or put a spring over the lines so they don't kink.....

How does every one else use this setup?

Any one?

i had a 25' IC and it didn't work in a keggle the hose hookups were well below the keggle opening. Kegs are taller than 16", infact their diameter is ~16" and they are much taller than they are wide. I bought some extra copper and soldered them on the end of my IC, to have 80' total but in the end I cut it up and built a CFC out of it. IMO bite the bullet and build or buy a CFC.

did u have one with the garden hose fittings ? or the vinyl?

garden hose, regardless of the hookups, if the IC is only 16" tall you're not going to want to use it in a keggle.

yeah but my thining is have the ends bent straight up and then the vinyl ...
i have use one before but idk how it sat in the keggle ( i was buzzed) but it cooled.....

i cant afford a counterflow so this is my only option at the moment ill have to make it work
im just looking for ideas

is there any one else that uses a keggle an IC?

I do, or did use one in a keggle (building a CFC this weekend).
I bought the copper and made my own IC though, so I just made the input and output tall enough to reach out of the top of the keg.
You don't want the fittings IN the kettle though, whatever you do. It's far too easy to bump something and loosen a fitting and the last thing you want is hose water going into your wort.

I had this immersion chiller long before I had a keggle, so adapting it was kind of a necessity. If I had a keggle and was shopping for a chiller, I might have bought a counterflow chiller or one of the tall, 50' chillers sold commercialy, but this was a cheap solution that works perfectly.

I had several feet of soft copper lying around the same diameter as the chiller tubing, so all it took was a couple splices, some solder, and a little patience. I cut off the inlet & outlet just below where they were bent, soldered on the splices, and soldered on the new risers. Took < an hour. I promise this isn't as dirty as it looks!

I've been using a 25' chiler with my keggle for years. (And contrary to popular belief, 25' is PLENTY to chill 10 gallons of wort in a short time.)

I just made it myself since most of the ones I saw on the market were overpriced, not the ideal dimensions, and kinda junky in terms of quality. I used the standard 1/4" soft copper refrigerant line for the coils, then used 1/4" x 3/8" fittings to connect to standard household copper pipe. From there it's dead simple to extend it up as high as you want or need, solder on some 90s, and terminate with whatever fittings you want.

That's the post I was looking for......

But... I just bought 50' of 3/8" copper yesterday day. Going to make the chiller tonight.

I didn't notice do u have a pick up tube in your keggle? I guess ill just have to rest the chiller on top of mine

I rest my IC on top of my pickup tube.

SixFoFalcon said:

I've been using a 25' chiler with my keggle for years. (And contrary to popular belief, 25' is PLENTY to chill 10 gallons of wort in a short time.)

I just made it myself since most of the ones I saw on the market were overpriced, not the ideal dimensions, and kinda junky in terms of quality. I used the standard 1/4" soft copper refrigerant line for the coils, then used 1/4" x 3/8" fittings to connect to standard household copper pipe. From there it's dead simple to extend it up as high as you want or need, solder on some 90s, and terminate with whatever fittings you want.

Click to expand...

what is a 'short time'? It took me at least 25 min to chill 10 gallons to pitching temps with a ~80' IC in a keggle...

cobolstinks said:

what is a 'short time'? It took me at least 25 min to chill 10 gallons to pitching temps with a ~80' IC in a keggle...

Click to expand...

The only time I've had performance that bad is in the peak of summer months, when my "cold" tap water is in the 70s. In wintertime I can bring it down from the boil to pitching temps in about 10 minutes.

The key to IC efficiency is to keep the wort moving relative to the IC. This could be swirling the IC in the wort, stirring the wort with a spoon or paddle, or using a recirculation/whirlpool pump. When the wort or IC stops moving, cooling comes to a grinding halt in a matter of seconds. You can verify this by feeling the heat on the output side. If you let things stagnate, it goes from warm (removing heat from the wort) to cool (not doing anything) in seconds. Swirl the IC around and it gets warm again instantly.

When you say 10 minutes to pitches are you using garden hose or pump type set up

I just moved up to keggle batches. I bought a 60 3/8" OD cooper coil, and sump pump. I fill a cooler up with ice water and let it pump and recirculate. With my set up it took 30 minutes to get it down to 80 degrees. The pump has a hard time getting the water through the coil since it is long and narrow. The pump is rated at 1400 gpm, but hooked up to my chiller, I get about 60-100 gallons a minute. Wondering if there is a better way to get me down to 10-20 minute range of chilling.

^ what's the temp of your ground water? Il using 3/8" 50' with 60ish degree water and chilling to -70 in about 20mins

Mine has 90 deg turns before the hose fittings, this makes it hang perfectly over the edge with the coil off the bottom. That's how I like it because the hotter wort will be at the top anyways and convection will get everything uniform.

Are you guys just setting it in there and walking away? I've cut down on my cooling times DRASTICALLY by swirling it around quite a bit. I've got crazy cold tap water though (Anchorage AK) so i only have to put up with swirling for several minutes.

Smits07, the 10 minutes timeframe is in winter (when I do most of my brewing) using city tap water through the garden hose. I'm guessing water temperatures are in the low 50s or maybe even 40s because I've accidentally gotten sidetracked and overchilled wort into the upper 50s on two occasions.

I tried timing the chill yesterday when I brewed a 10.5 gallon batch of Witbier. It took 10 minutes to get to 100 degrees, but at that point it really tapered off. I ended up cleaning up and tending the BBQ so I don't know the precise time it hit pitching temps, but I'm guessing it was somewhere between 30 & 45 mins after flameout. The weather has been really warm so tap water temps are warmer than usual for this time of year. EDIT: Measured cold tap water at 56° F. Going by feel, I'd say mid-winter temps must be about 10° F colder.

In summer it's really bad--the "cold" city tap water is almost tepid. I've tried using a pre-chiller in an ice-saltwater bath but at the end of the day it's just faster/easier to get it down into the 80s, transfer to the fermenter, and put it in front of an AC register for a while 'til its cool enough to pitch. It would be more efficient to actually pump ice-chilled water through the IC itself rather than using a pre-chiller, but the pumps I've tried aren't powerful enough to get water through the chiller at a decent rate.