Which immersion chiller for keggle?

I think I've finally decided to get an immersion chiller. Soon I'm going to start using a keggle. I was leaning towards this chiller from midwest: http://www.midwestsupplies.com/products/ProdByID.aspx?ProdID=4485

Will this fit well in a keggle? The chiller is 10" in diameter, so I'm guessing it will fit ok into the top I cut in the keg. But I'm not sure if the 23" to bend in the coil is enough.

Anyone else own this keggle and care to give reviews on it?

My immersion chiller didn't work well with my keggle at all. I have a hopstopper, so it didn't sit flat. Additionally, the portion of the chiller where you attach the hoses was too short and the hoses would have been touching the side of a really hot keggle if I had tried to use it.

I'd suggest looking at a cfc or plate chiller. I have a cfc, but if I had it to do over again, I'd probably get the shirron plate chiller and be done with it.

It's going to sit on top of your siphon tube giving you about 3" of added height anyway so it will make it over the top of the keg. Now, you might want to pull some of the cooling coils down a bit if you plan to do 5 gallon batches because half the coils will be sitting above the wort line.

rdwj said:

My immersion chiller didn't work well with my keggle at all. I have a hopstopper, so it didn't sit flat. Additionally, the portion of the chiller where you attach the hoses was too short and the hoses would have been touching the side of a really hot keggle if I had tried to use it.

I'd suggest looking at a cfc or plate chiller. I have a cfc, but if I had it to do over again, I'd probably get the shirron plate chiller and be done with it.

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Well what chiller did you have?? Plenty of people use immersion chillers with keggles without a problem.

I just ordered that chiller from Midwest last nigt. I'll let you know how it fits in my keggle when I get it

But, it seems to the the best price around for 50' of 3/8".

bigben said:

Well what chiller did you have?? Plenty of people use immersion chillers with keggles without a problem.

I just ordered that chiller from Midwest last nigt. I'll let you know how it fits in my keggle when I get it

But, it seems to the the best price around for 50' of 3/8".

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I think mine was the basic one from More Beer. I got it when I started doing full boils in an 8.5 gallon pot. It worked fine for that. I'm just thinking if you're getting a keggle and don't have a chiller yet, the CFCs and Plates are more effective and don't cost that much more. And since you have the port anyway, why not use it?

Like anything, I guess it's a personal choice.

rdwj said:

I think mine was the basic one from More Beer. I got it when I started doing full boils in an 8.5 gallon pot. It worked fine for that. I'm just thinking if you're getting a keggle and don't have a chiller yet, the CFCs and Plates are more effective and don't cost that much more. And since you have the port anyway, why not use it?

Like anything, I guess it's a personal choice.

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I didn't want to spend another $100 or so on a pump. I've been reading lots of HBT and it seems like the consensus is that if you don't have a pump, a CFC isn't the best option. But if it will work, I have no problem using a CFC, it will probably be cheaper if I can make it myself with 20' of 3/8" copper.

I've used a 25' 3/8" CFC for 15 years without a pump,with no problems. I gravity feed out of my keggle with 1/2" NP ball valve and a 3/8" copper tube pickup on the inside. Works great, I have to throttle back the flow until the last couple gallons to get 65-69 F wort out. As long as you have an airtight set up from the pickup to the outfall of the CFC, you'll either have gravity assisted or siphon assisted flow.

The one trick is to filter hop leaves or pellet bits out so they don't clog the system. I use a home made hop-stopper for that. It works well too.

Hmm...if I can gravity feed a CFC, I'm pretty sure I can make a CFC similar to cheyco's for much less than $80. Looks like I might have a project for this weekend.

Think about how you're going to sanitize that sucker though. I HATED my CFC until I got a pump. It will gravity feed alright, but you'll need to get your kettle up pretty high to get a good flow going. You can gravity feed sanitizer through it, but it's just another headache. I now pump boiling wort through my CFC then back into the kettle for about 5 minutes just before I shut the flame off and run the coolant. I'm pretty confident it's sanitizing. After the brew I just hose out the sugar and store it. For me, this makes running the CFC about the same amount of work as an IC. Without the pump, it's more work.

If you're using a glass carboy, you can build a DIY wort wizard (venturi pump) to help SUCK the wort through the CFC. Do a search.

The one thing about gravity feeding a CFC without recirculating is that all your cold break is going into the fermentor.

This may not be a bad thing, but it may not be a good thing either.

Also, what if you get a clog in your hop stopper...what do you do then?

bigben said:

Also, what if you get a clog in your hop stopper...what do you do then?

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Hopstoppers don't clog. They've done experiments with insane amounts of hops with no problems.

rdwj said:

Hopstoppers don't clog. They've done experiments with insane amounts of hops with no problems.

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Oh, well that's good to know

I have actually stopped using my home made hop stopper, just a dip tube now. I have been using the paint strainer/PVC collar method.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=40738
It works great, no problems of clogging anything.

Like someone very early in this thread stated, immersion chiller and a pond pump, it works great, and its cheap. No sanitizing anything, no recirculating wort.

Does anyone use a IC for the initial chill to a moderate temperature in the kettle, let any break settle, then drain or pump to a plate chiller (Shirron)? Reclaiming the hot water for cleanup solutions would seem to be a bonus.
Thanks,
Steve

Hopstopper with pellet hops and coldbreak absolutely clogs on a 10 gallon batch. Pellet only ok, the cold break just puts it over the edge.

realcpt said:

Does anyone use a IC for the initial chill to a moderate temperature in the kettle, let any break settle, then drain or pump to a plate chiller (Shirron)? Reclaiming the hot water for cleanup solutions would seem to be a bonus.

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Solid idea, and I think a few folks employ that technique.

Personally, I've tried all sorts of cooling methods. I thought I was an IC convert, but it just took too long to cool 15 gallons with ~30' of tubing. I think I'm going back to my CFC for now, it's the most efficient means I've found (assuming you have at least one pump). Perhaps a Shirron is in my future...Christmas is coming!

Yuri_Rage said:

Solid idea, and I think a few folks employ that technique.

Personally, I've tried all sorts of cooling methods. I thought I was an IC convert, but it just took too long to cool 15 gallons with ~30' of tubing. I think I'm going back to my CFC for now, it's the most efficient means I've found (assuming you have at least one pump). Perhaps a Shirron is in my future...Christmas is coming!

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have you tried the immersion chiller with a pump reciculating the wort thru a whirlpool piece like JZ describes? http://www.mrmalty.com/chiller.php