I bought a 15.5 gallon keggle off of Craigslist with a fairly standard pickup tube that extends horizontally from the weldless bulkhead and then bends down toward the center (the attached photo is from before I started cleaning it up). I have an immersion chiller that I'm planning to use with it that's relatively narrow and tall. The dip tube prevents the immersion chiller from sitting all the way down in the keggle, which should be fine for 10 gallon batches but will leave a good portion of the coils above the wort level for a 5 gallon batch. The pickup tube also makes it hard to stir the wort, which I understand is pretty important for effective immersion chilling.
I'm thinking about adding a 90 degree elbow between the coupling and the pickup tube so that the tube will run more toward the wall of the keggle, then angle it in toward the center, leaving more room for the immersion chiller to sit lower. I'm not too worried about a few quarts of dead space, which might even be preferable in terms of reducing the amount of trub I transfer to the fermenter. I'm not ready to invest in a plate chiller at this point.
Any thoughts on whether this will be effective and/or any downsides that I might not have considered? Thanks!
I'm thinking about adding a 90 degree elbow between the coupling and the pickup tube so that the tube will run more toward the wall of the keggle, then angle it in toward the center, leaving more room for the immersion chiller to sit lower. I'm not too worried about a few quarts of dead space, which might even be preferable in terms of reducing the amount of trub I transfer to the fermenter. I'm not ready to invest in a plate chiller at this point.
Any thoughts on whether this will be effective and/or any downsides that I might not have considered? Thanks!
