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chigundo

chigundo

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What are you using for wort chiller? I have the 15g kettle and that thermowell is too long to fit a 12" diameter immersion wort chiller. I'm in the market for new chiller with recirc arm.
 
I have the 20 gallon setup. I use a Therminator plater chiller that feeds into an immersion chiller in a bucket of ice water. Chills the wort down to below 68 by the time it hits the fermenter.
 
yeah your best option is the plate or counterflow chiller. could always drain into a homedepot cooler and chill there as well.
 
I bought a shorter (3" length) tri clamp thermowell off eBay. I don't see a similar item listed anymore, but some searching might turn up another option. It's still long enough to fit the dial thermometer shaft, since there's still several inches outside the kettle for the tri clamp fitting. I'm using a Hydra cooler from JaDeD Brewing, and it fits nicely.
 
Take your thermowell that came with the kettle, and throw it away. Halfway kidding, but I have used mine once, and it was only when I was heating my sparge water up. I would say to get an end cap that fits where you'd put that thermowell, and get a good, digital thermometer.

If you don't want to go that route, Brewers Hardware has some shorter thermowells where you can use an immersion chiller just fine. I hate how that Bru-Gear thermometer just fogs up every single time. The rest of the kettle I love.

Are you doing BIAB? If you aren't, why have the thermowell at all for the boil?
 
I am doing BIAB and that thermowell tore the bag every time. I even brewed with a friend who tried to help me not tear the bag, but even with four hands we tore a hole in the bag.

I did try that solution and haven't had a torn bag, since
http://www.norcalbrewingsolutions.com/store/Tri_Clover_1.5_in_x_.5_in_NPT_Female.html
Just screwing the thermometer into it and forgoing the thermowell. It does defeat the purpose of Tri Clover since now I have threads to clean.

I do have a digital thermometer and I'm probably going to just cap that opening off in the future unless I need the digital thermometer for making invert sugar while brewing.
http://www.norcalbrewingsolutions.com/store/Tri_Clover_Cap_1.5_in.html

Which means the pot has an extra hole with stuff to fiddle with and clean for no purpose :(

All of this wouldn't bother me so much (along with the 1.5gal left in the kettle without tipping it) except before buying I emailed BruGear asking if this model would be great for BIAB and they said yes. It's not.
 
I have the 15 gal, and do BIAB and use my old immersion copper wort chiller. With BIAB when I pull the bag I use my mash paddle to keep it out of the way of the thermowell. Also the wort chiller I made was originally for a taller 8gal pot, it goes just a bit above the 6gallon mark but it fits in fine then I can move it over to the center with the thermowell between a couple rings just fine.

Not ideal but works fine. At some point I do want to incorporate a pump and cool down super fast but for now this is what I do.
 
Anyone use the HERMS attachment as a wort chiller and recirculate cool water through? Seems like its kind of built in.....

20151220_115956.jpg
 
OG_IBU_Bunghole said:
I am doing BIAB and that thermowell tore the bag every time. I even brewed with a friend who tried to help me not tear the bag, but even with four hands we tore a hole in the bag.

I did try that solution and haven't had a torn bag, since
http://www.norcalbrewingsolutions.com/store/Tri_Clover_1.5_in_x_.5_in_NPT_Female.html
Just screwing the thermometer into it and forgoing the thermowell. It does defeat the purpose of Tri Clover since now I have threads to clean.

I do have a digital thermometer and I'm probably going to just cap that opening off in the future unless I need the digital thermometer for making invert sugar while brewing.
http://www.norcalbrewingsolutions.com/store/Tri_Clover_Cap_1.5_in.html

Which means the pot has an extra hole with stuff to fiddle with and clean for no purpose :(

All of this wouldn't bother me so much (along with the 1.5gal left in the kettle without tipping it) except before buying I emailed BruGear asking if this model would be great for BIAB and they said yes. It's not.
Click to expand...
Are you implying that you take your weldless fitting apart in your boil kettle to clean them? Thats completely not needed.... as for the 1.5 gallons left in the kettle, isnt there a diptube? If not could you add one? I used a simple stainless 1/2" elbow turned down for my kettles.
 

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