Question on diptube with recirculation on boil keggle

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steber

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Well, I'm coming to the end of my single tier 3 keggle build and now i'm imaging/visualizing a brew day and I've come into 2 possible problems, that more or less go hand in hand.

My brew keggle is equipped with a diptube and recirculation port from brewhardware.com (along with sight gauge, thermometer and so forth) As of now my diptube is smack center of the keggle. From what I read my recirculation will whirlpool my wort and have the trub collect in center. Seems my diptube will be smack dead center of this pile and that seems pointless? What does everyone typically due to not pull from the whirlpooled trub pile?

Is it best to shorten my diptube length and pull halfway between center? I'd have deadspace and be losing out on some wort for the fermenter. Which could be calculated and compensated for I suppose.

My second problem is my immersion chiller won't fit flat to the bottom as the diptubes in the way.. not really informative to this post, but it's prudent for me to understand the best way to handle the whirlpool, trub pile as I will either now go with a plate or counterflow chiller.
 
Can't speak as to much of the above, but if you can go CF chiller I would. Built mine when I started doing all-grain since it wasn't going to cost much more than the copper anyway and I'm really quite pleased with it. I use gravity but if you whirlpool with the CF chiller you'll get the great cooling power of the CF and the whole-batch cooling effect from the whirlpool so best of both worlds (CF vs. immersion)
 
I have been leaning towards a CF chiller. It seems like less maintenance over a plate chiller. I'm more concerned about the whirlpool and diptube at the moment. Even with a CF chiller that in theory will be restriction free from clogging, im still down to the fact that I invested in the whirlpool for A) stirfree cooling B) to consolidate the trub. If Im sucking from the center of the pile, im losing the benefit of B.
 
You could build a hop strainer around your dip tube with fine stainless mesh. Works grain. My beers are super clear and I barely leave anything in my bk.

Link in my signature.
 
Can you move your dip tube inlet to the edge of the kettle? I feel like that it's much easier to not draw from close to the pile than to try and filter the pile
 
Can you move your dip tube inlet to the edge of the kettle? I feel like that it's much easier to not draw from close to the pile than to try and filter the pile

In short, yes I could trim my dip tube to pull from the side. The negative of this would be losing half quart or so of wort. If that's the preferred method then I will do that. Waiting for more input as once cut theirs no going back without buying more stainless.

Filtering seems possible though you risk blockage? What size screen have people used.

Thanks all for input, would greatly appreciate to hear more!


Included a picture of what it currently looks like.

View attachment 1434314640043.jpg
 
I typically see false bottoms in mash tuns to filter the grain. The hole size is fairly large. For instance, I use the blickman false bottom in my mlt. Works amazing. Got it from a friend who tried it with his bk, did not filter a single pellet hop. The stainless mesh is fine and will capture all hop residue. I free range my hops, no hop sack or hop spider.
 
Okay great info milldoggy, do you think the added surface area from top and bottom would work better than attempting a false bottom made from your suggested mesh in brew kettle similar to that of a mlt?
 
I have mine 90'd to the side. I even grinded an angle in the end to allow the end of the diptub to site almost flush with the bottom of the kettle. Has worked really well.

IMG_1277.jpg
 
This is what I use. Found a big stainless steel mesh tea ball at the Asian market and I put a worm clamp on my diptube that's angled about 45 degrees. I just had to bend the edge of the ball to fit around the dip tube and it clamps into place nicely. http://i.imgur.com/AdBhT6Vh.jpg
 
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