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Adding whirlpool to keggle?

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gotbags-10

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So I'm placing an order for cam locks and would like to do something for a whirlpool addition. I see there are dedicated whirlpool setups but man are they pricey. Can I just use a weldless bulkhead with with either a 45 or 90 degree fitting on the inside? Or does it need to have some sort of tube directing the flow on the inside?
 
I use a 90 degree elbow, angled 45 degrees upward, because I whirlpool while I chill, and when I kept it horizontal or 45 downward, the wort would stratify. Cooler wort, mixing upwards, seems to not stratify.
 
Yeah I planned on a ball valve and cam lock on the outside for flow control. I just didnt really want to spend 35$ on a whirlpool port from brewhardware or bargain fittings on top of the ball valve and cam lock.
 
Just a thought, I use a removable whirlpool arm with a male camlock fitting. It hangs over the side of the kettle and dips down below the top of the wort. I have a 90 degree with a barb on mine so the output has more velocity. Haven't had any problems with it yet and I can easily move it between vessels if I need to.
 
Bargain fittings sells a street elbow that has been machined to a barb fitting on one end, I just installed them in place of the jam nut on my weldless fittings in both my HLT and BK so they can draw lower in the kettles, and they're great. They would be great for a whirlpool, imho. Smooth sides, no exposed threads, easy to clean.

The kits they sell with the bent stainless tube and compression fitting seem like a rip off. My brewing partner just got some delivered (yet to install) and they look like they have lots of places for buildup to hide and are going to be difficult to clean around, and will deliver a higher velocity flow which could result in turbulence and increase hot side aeration if left at full flow.

Mine is just a leftover piece of 1/2" OD copper tube attached to the outer side of a homemade immersion chiller with a camlock on the top. The trub collects really nicely on the inner side of the chiller, but it can get things moving way too much if it's full blast. Nice thing about having it on the chiller is that you can take the whole thing out and scrub all the junk off really easily.
 
Just a thought, I use a removable whirlpool arm with a male camlock fitting. It hangs over the side of the kettle and dips down below the top of the wort. I have a 90 degree with a barb on mine so the output has more velocity. Haven't had any problems with it yet and I can easily move it between vessels if I need to.

I would love to see a picture of how you did this. It is something I have been kicking around doing on my Brutus system.
 
I would love to see a picture of how you did this. It is something I have been kicking around doing on my Brutus system.
Not the poster, but use to do something similar to this. Used Loc-Line hung over the side of the kettle. In this picture the pump is throttled back during transfer from the mash (don't want to compact grain bed), but moving the disconnect from the MLT to the bottom of the boil kettle and opening up the pump created a pretty nice whirlpool. When I used this, I'd hang it over the side of my MLT to recirculate the mash and then move it to the kettle to transfer.

loc-line_02.jpg
 
Not the poster, but use to do something similar to this. Used Loc-Line hung over the side of the kettle. In this picture the pump is throttled back during transfer from the mash (don't want to compact grain bed), but moving the disconnect from the MLT to the bottom of the boil kettle and opening up the pump created a pretty nice whirlpool. When I used this, I'd hang it over the side of my MLT to recirculate the mash and then move it to the kettle to transfer.

This is very similar to my setup, except mine is 1/2" ID stainless steel instead of locline and it extends deeper into the kettle, just a few inches above the bottom. It's basically just a pair of 5" nipples coupled together with 90 degree couplings on the top and bottom. The top one has a Camlock F fitting and the bottom one has a barbed fitting. I hang it over the side of the boil kettle like you see in the picture, but with the pump wide open.

For my mash tun, I actually use a much longer locline setup that is permanently attached through a weldless bulkhead. But it is convenient for me to be able to remove the whirlpool arm from the boil kettle when I need to use it elsewhere.
 
You can use the high flow elbow barb as suggested.



The whirlpool / side pickups are easy to disassemble and clean. It can be pointed up or down by just adjusting the tube.

We can make a custom tube that hangs over the the kettle as well that you can hose clamp to a chiller

Many different ways to do this.
 
I use a 90 degree elbow, angled 45 degrees upward, because I whirlpool while I chill, and when I kept it horizontal or 45 downward, the wort would stratify. Cooler wort, mixing upwards, seems to not stratify.

I use a 90 degree elbow as well, but its horizontal. I might have to angle mine 45 degrees as well. Thanks for the tip
 
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