permanent ic coil

[techrunner]

okay, i have been thinking about this a few days now, but i am not sure its a good idea yet. i am planning out a brewery setup similar to the simple brewery on here, using two ss pots. my thought was why not put the ic copper coils in the boil kettle permanently mounted through bulkhead fittings? could heat water in the kettle and recirc your mash, then rinse it out well and chill with it after your boil. is there a reason not to do this? i dont think the contact time with copper would matter at all, would it? any thoughts? thanks

 

[DavidP]

My only concern would be losing the ability to get in the kettle and thoroughly clean if needed. Otherwise the copper isn't a big deal, pros use copper kettles all over the place.

 

[Boerderij_Kabouter]

That is a great design. We didn't do it on the Simple brewery to save some cash. In my rig I have an installed SS coil.

It cleans up easily and is very nice to use without having to move anything around. Ask away if you have any questions!

 

[techrunner]

thats pretty much exactly what i had in my head. sweet. now my debate is should i try to find a keg or do it to a 10 gal ss kettle which i believe i will be getting at christmas. that must be about 50' of stainless tubing you used? until i get into the actual build, i am looking at your simple brewery thread alot. i think i'll go with kettles though, because frankly i don't ever see doing more than a 5 gal batch. i actually don't drink it fast enough. are those ss quick connects on your keggle? i want ss fittings, and quick connects would be nice, but then ss fittings would make a huge chunk in the budget for this rig. that might be a problem. i am thinking i'd have fewer coils too, so cleaning wouldn't be a big deal. i have a quick back of the envelope calculation that i'd only need about 6 ft of 3/8 copper. i have to recalc for 1/2" or maybe bigger yet, but i don't think i'll need 50' so cleaning wouldn't be too bad. do you periodically disassemble it all to clean, or just blast it off with the hose and call it good?

 

[Boerderij_Kabouter]

I would go with 25' of 1/2" tubing if I were you. That will give you a good amount of heat transfer.

I would choose kettles over kegs generally. The reason I liked the kegs in the Simple build is because they are rubberized and therefore already have a great insulating layer.

If you do go with the Simple Brewery design, you should know that it likely cannot brew more than 4 gallons without additional heat from a heatstick or something.

I clean my coil with a 30 minute soak in hot PBW, then hose it out. It is shiney and new looking after that.

 

[techrunner]

maybe i missed it, but do you have the specifics on the quick connects you used on the simple brew build? actually where did you get all of the fittings at? and then i am curious about what issues may be involved with the kettle wall thickness. hate to look a gift horse in the mouth, but would the thickness matter much with what fittings could be used?

 

[Boerderij_Kabouter]

I use tri-clover fittings, sourced from Brewershardware.com (Derrin here), Swagman here, or KLG stainless on eBay.

On Simple brewery, Jeremy is just going to use hose barbs and clamps for now, until he saves some cash to upgrade.

I am also interested by the cheap cam locks people have found here. Search cam lock and some threads will come up.