keggle dip tube Q

I am building my keggle and I plan on using a Whirlpool chiller. I was wondering what is the best place to put the dip tube? Should I use a false bottom and keep the tube in the center?

Or go with these methods

http://www.bargainfittings.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=46&product_id=151

The point of a whirlpool is to get the gunk to pile up in the center, you want to draw from the side as gently as possible.

So I should get the side pick up with the 90 degree fitting?

I would recommend using 90s.

I'm currently working on the same thing ... planning on using 90s for both the pick up tube and whirlpool fitting. My pick up tube will pick up from bottom at the wall, and my whirlpool fitting will be installed a few inches above the bottom. I'll position my immersion chiller a few inches off the bottom (to allow room for the trub pile to form).

Picking up from the bottom at the wall will leave about a half gallon of liquid (I measured). My dip and whirlpool tubes will be 5/8 OD stainless connected to the 90s with compression fittings.

instead of worrying about leaving the trub can't you just run your wort through a filtration medium such as a funnel lined with a few layers of nylon paint bags or actual filtration paper from a chemical supplier?

Thats at least what I have been doing and it works great and I do not have to worry as much about lost wort or attempt to account for it....just a thought.

MrMeans said:

instead of worrying about leaving the trub can't you just run your wort through a filtration medium such as a funnel lined with a few layers of nylon paint bags or actual filtration paper from a chemical supplier?

Thats at least what I have been doing and it works great and I do not have to worry as much about lost wort or attempt to account for it....just a thought.

Click to expand...

I've never had much luck straining or filtering the wort. Tried it once using one of those big funnels with a screen inside. The screen plugged up almost instantly and after several cleanings & repeated attempts, I gave up on it. I seriously doubt that filter paper would work at all. Much too fine.

There have been many attempts to come up with a way to effectively and efficiently separate hops & break material from the wort. These have met with varying degrees of success, but I have yet to see the perfect solution. Screening or filtering the wort would appear to be easy, but IMO it's not.

What about just putting a straining bag at end of hose going into carboy

assuming you have a pump since you mentioned a whirlpool chiller, that will make the trub pile in the center of the kettle. You still want to pull from the side to keep the trub where it rests, otherwise there is no point in whirlpooling, I use gravity to pass through my 3/8" cfc and have a 3/8" dip tube and it is a must to whirlpool and pull wort from the side otherwise it will plug and No more flow. there will be a decent amount of cold break that you can leave in the pot also. from what I understand the whirlpool chiller method is to keep the wort flowing to and from and around the cooling coil, instead of stirring.

My keggle has a 90 degree compression fitting with 1/2" OD tube bent similar to the tube in the link to draw from the side. I wouldn't go any smaller than 1/2" OD for a pick up. My whirlpool return is a 90 degree compression with 3/8" OD tube. This way the returning wort is coming in at a higher velocity for the whirlpool. My return is located at roughly the 4 gallon mark. This way I can adjust the return up or down depending on the batch size.