Diameter of IC.

Justdrumin · Nov 4, 2014

i bought a 60' section of 5/8" od copper from Home Depot a while back on clearance for like $40. I just bought a 70qt brew kettle and I'm wondering what kind of diameter I should make it. I was gonna go with a dual coil design with a big and little one inside with a t and the bottom and top for inlet and outlet. I'm afraid to make it the size of my huge pot and end up buying one that's smaller, or something of that nature, down the road. Any advice for the diameter? Maybe a typical size of one would work just fine?

max384 · Nov 4, 2014

What size batches are you doing?

Whatever your design, you want it to be completely (or as close to as possible) submerged. Any copper coil that is above your wort is doing nothing.

Justdrumin · Nov 4, 2014

max384 said:
What size batches are you doing?

Whatever your design, you want it to be completely (or as close to as possible) submerged. Any copper coil that is above your wort is doing nothing.

Right now I'm doing 5 gallon batches, but I bought this brew kettle anticipating I'll want to do ten gallon batches. Which is my dilemma. I feel with a 5 gallon batch, I won't have much to worry about in terms of it being completely submerged. I don't plan on it being completely submerged. I do plan to chill with tap to around 100*F and then ice water with pump down to pitch temps. I'm worried about me deciding to use the 70 qt as an HLT or MLT and buying a new brew kettle in the future. If I make it to the specs of this kettle, I would have a huge chiller.

Edit: Nice SV btw. I REALLY miss mine. Probably the best bike I've ridden and a great price too! Hopefully I'll have another one someday.

max384 · Nov 4, 2014

Justdrumin said:
Right now I'm doing 5 gallon batches, but I bought this brew kettle anticipating I'll want to do ten gallon batches. Which is my dilemma. I feel with a 5 gallon batch, I won't have much to worry about in terms of it being completely submerged. I don't plan on it being completely submerged. I do plan to chill with tap to around 100*F and then ice water with pump down to pitch temps. I'm worried about me deciding to use the 70 qt as an HLT or MLT and buying a new brew kettle in the future. If I make it to the specs of this kettle, I would have a huge chiller.

Edit: Nice SV btw. I REALLY miss mine. Probably the best bike I've ridden and a great price too! Hopefully I'll have another one someday.

In my experience with my immersion chiller, tap water will take it all the way down to pitching temps and below. My tap water is about 50 F... That may be quite different down in Georgia though.

If you think you may get another brew kettle in the future, do you think you'll be going smaller? I have a 60 qt brew kettle, and I only do 5 gallon batches, and think this large size is perfect. I get a high boil-off rate due to the large surface area with such a large kettle, which means I sparge with more water, which means I get better efficiency. Furthermore, I never have to worry about a boilover, even with large hop additions.

I LOVE this SV. I bought it going on three years ago with an R title and just under 2000 miles for about $2000. Since then I've wrecked it once, dropped it a ton of times, dipped its tires in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Arctic oceans, and put about 65,000 miles on it. I blew the engine about 4,000 miles ago and swapped out for a new (used) one... But other than that, it's been kind to me. Eventually I'll get a nice touring/adventure touring type bike, likely a BMW, and I'll have to retire this one... She's not my first bike, certainly won't be my last, but damned if I won't miss her once she's gone! :mug:

Justdrumin · Nov 5, 2014

Awesome to hear that! That's precisely what I was worried about. I was worried about not going to 10 gallon batches and the pot being way too big, but from the way it sounds...a big pot ends up working out better. I haven't had the chance to boil some water to get the boil off rate, but I've been hearing it's quite a bit more. I don't mind sparking a little bit more and getting better efficiency. Plus it's probably nearly impossible to have boil overs with a five gallon batch and you end up getting a really good hot break. I won't worry about the chiller then. I'll make it for this kettle and be able to chill it super fast. Thanks!

They really are a fantastic bike. I got a new rear shock and changed out the front forks, did a Full system exhaust, with some other extra little cosmetic things. It was an awesome bike. It handled like a DREAM. I layed mine down twice and no hiccups. I bought mine new though. It was an 2007. Still only at $7,500 brand new. Not bad at all. I miss it. If I could I'd love to have a BMW though. Such a great bike.