Wort Chiller in Keggle...

Yesterday I used my newly made keggle for the first time. I brewed an AG batch from Midwest. Not thinking anything of it until the end of the boil, I went to put in my Stainless Steel wort chiller to boil it and it wouldn't fit because I was only brewing a 5 gallon batch and the keggle was too deep for the chiller. I ended up draining to a smaller pot and chilling in that, but is that what you guys typically do? Otherwise how do you chill the wort in a keggle?

Thanks!

Tim

With my keggle (we used it for the first time today) we use a chiller that is designed to do a 10 gallon batch. If you want to use a chiller, get one that fits your keg so that you don't get hot side aeration. Our chiller was about halfway into the brew.

Is the SS immersion chiller bends at the top are bound and keep it from going into the keg?

stainless is a little hard to bend to straighten the hose connector bends on that chiller.

With copper you just cut the rise just below the bend of the lower coils hose end, then pull the coils apart some to get the right height for the upper coils end bend to clear the top of the keggle. You can then use compression fittings and the same size tubing, or use the next size up tubing to extended the existing tubing of the lower coil to the proper height to clear the keg, then solder the bend end back in place.

You may be able to get someone to tig weld an extension tubing riser on the lower coils side like done above. Compression fittings are probably more money then the cost to weld an extension on.

On my SS chiller, the two straight tubes that go up to the inlet and outlet are pretty long, so it fits nicely. I have in the past stretched the coil just a little bit.

Mine is the same as Bulls; it fits into a 10 gallon. See if you can bend the SS more to get about a foot of straight pipe before it starts the coils.

It's this one:



I'll try to bend it but its pretty rigid. I'll talk to a friend of mine who knows how to weld. Maybe he can hook me up.

Thanks everyone. I guess worse case is I sell this one and build my own from Home Depot supplies...

Tim

Did anything ever come of this? I am in the same boat and I am not sure what to do. I have the same model except for the hookups, which are straight to clear tubing, not to an ordinary garden hose. I just ordered some silicon tubing that I am planning on sliding over the normal tubing to protect it from the heat of the keggle...hopefully this will work.

I wish I would never have gotten ridden of my SS 1/2" 50' immersion chiller. Think I would have tried using it differently now. Run the wort through the inside of the chiller have the chiller sitting in iced water. Would probably need pump though. Hmm.. It would at least be worth an experiment with boiling water.

Boardndave said:

Did anything ever come of this? I am in the same boat and I am not sure what to do. I have the same model except for the hookups, which are straight to clear tubing, not to an ordinary garden hose. I just ordered some silicon tubing that I am planning on sliding over the normal tubing to protect it from the heat of the keggle...hopefully this will work.

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I stretched out the coils and it works fine and reaches the bottom now. I've learned that running the water through it slowly cools the wort a lot faster than if its pumping through fast.

Tim

timm747 said:

I've learned that running the water through it slowly cools the wort a lot faster than if its pumping through fast.

Tim

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Unpossible. High water flow = quicker wort cooling.

SpeedYellow said:

Unpossible. High water flow = quicker wort cooling.

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Do what works for you and I'll do what works for me.



T

timm747 said:

I stretched out the coils and it works fine and reaches the bottom now. I've learned that running the water through it slowly cools the wort a lot faster than if its pumping through fast.

Tim

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Interesting. Any way you could upload a picture so that I could see what your stretching did to the IC?

Another option would be to cut the angle portion off and put new compression fittings on the riser so there is no longer a bend on the chiller. I have attached Kent quick disconnects on mine and use it as my HERMS coil when mashing and my chiller when cooling....I now consider it twice as valuable

Boardndave said:

Interesting. Any way you could upload a picture so that I could see what your stretching did to the IC?

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I can get you a picture tonight. All I did was pull the coils apart so they aren't close together. I was afraid to cut the curves off because if I have a drip from a connection I want it to happen outside of the kettle.

timm747 said:

Do what works for you and I'll do what works for me.



T

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Sure thing. But just to explain myself... You'll find that when you crank up the water, the water coming out cools down, but that's only because there's more water carrying the heat. It's still removing more heat than with slower water flow. Of course, at some point it starts to plateau, but wort cooling has to improve with greater water flow rate. Unless you've found a way to defy the laws of thermodynamics, of course.

Right, but then there's the argument that if the water moves too fast it isn't absorbing as much heat. There are discussions about this all over HBT and I have yet to see anything conclusive. All I know is it took 2 hours to cool it down when the pressure was up and I can cut that at least in half if not more by slowing it down. I'm not talking about a trickle. The water is still coming out pretty quick.

timm747 said:

I can get you a picture tonight. All I did was pull the coils apart so they aren't close together. I was afraid to cut the curves off because if I have a drip from a connection I want it to happen outside of the kettle.

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Agreed. I'd love a picture. Just to be clear, is your chiller a Midwest 25' Steel IC?

timm747 said:

Right, but then there's the argument that if the water moves to fast it isn't absorbing as much heat. There are discussions about this all over HBT and I have yet to see anything conclusive. All I know is it took 2 hours to cool it down when the pressure was up and I can cut that at least in half if not more by slowing it down. I'm not talking about a trickle. The water is still coming out pretty quick.

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I won't beat a dead horse, so I'll just leave it with this: I can guarantee you'll never see a mathematical argument OR a controlled experiment showing that lower flow rates results in faster wort cooling. It's just not possible in this situation where we already have fully developed turbulent flow. Sure you may see pseudo-scientific comments like "the water doesn't have time to absorb the heat" but that's simply gibberish.

It's like trying to argue "my heating element puts out more heat when I use a lower current, because when the current is too high, the electrons don't have enough time to create heat." Also not correct.

As I'm sure we'd both agree, once you get a good flow rate, adding more water doesn't help much. For me 100% flow works hardly better than 50% flow because my cooling water comes out around the same temp at 100% versus 50% flow. So this discussion is largely academic anyway, since I'm sure you and I and everybody else runs enough water that we're all the way up that plateau.

Here's a picture. I've had it for too long to remember where I got it but I'm pretty sure its the midwest. Either midwest or northern brewer, they are the only 2 online stores I shop from.

timm747 said:

Here's a picture. I've had it for too long to remember where I got it but I'm pretty sure its the midwest. Either midwest or northern brewer, they are the only 2 online stores I shop from.

Click to expand...

Awesome. Thanks so much. I was afraid to bend it, but I was able to get it bent and all of the coils (save for the send/return) are submerged in 5g of liquid inside my keggle. :rockin:

Hopefully others will find this thread if they have a similar question.