Help with Keggle build

[PJM]

I'm building a keggle and need some help with dip tube options. The first one I made essentially came out a couple of inches from the wall of the keg, took a 90 degree turn down and ended approx. 1.5 inches from the bottom. I put an SS pot scrubber on the bottom to help filter out hops and other sludge. It was a failure as it drained EXTREMELY slow.

I need to redesign the dip tube and need some suggestions. Should I do a side pickup? If so, are there any tricks to it? Are there other options? Do bazooka tubes work and how should they be installed? Do people use false bottoms in keggles or just in Mash Tuns?

Thanks for you help. PJM

 

[Yoss]

I can't really answer your questions because I have never done a side pickup and I don't use any filters, but i'm interested in the answers.

People will probably need to know a bit more about how you brew to give you a good answer. Do you use a pump? Pellet or leaf hops? Do you run it through a plate chiller before it hits the fermenter?

 

[Bobby_M]

I prefer to pickup about half way up the dish, no strainers. Keep most of the junk out by bagging hops.

 

[BadNewsBrewery]

I've tried all kinds of strainers in my BK and have basically clogged all of them. I prefer to use a hop bag / hop spider to control as much of the hop gunk as possible during the boil. Then whilpool and use an off-sent pickup without a filter. I do pickup some trub, but I get good flows and it all settles out during fermentation.

-Kevin

 

[PJM]

Hmm. I generally don't like to use hop bags but maybe that is what I need to do. Sounds like my current setup is much like Bobby M's. I use both whole leaf and pellet hops and I suspect the whole leaf is what will give me the most trouble. I use a paint bucket strainer in my primary so if I get some pellet hops in the primary they will get filtered out once I pull the strainer bag out.

@BadNewsBrewery - What do you mean by "off-set" pick up? Do you mean that the dip tube runs out to the side of the kettle? I'm thinking of giving this a shot to see if it works better than my current configuration.

 

[BadNewsBrewery]

When you whirlpool you get a nice pile of trub in the middle of the keggle. My dip-tube is off-set to the side of center, so it's not right in the middle of that pile. It's not right up against the side of the keggle, but it's closer to the side than it is to the center. Really it's a balance between the chance of sucking up some of the trub pile, and having the pickup tube too high / far from the low point and leaving too much wort behind. A few experiments during brew time should dial that in for you.