Hi
Been disappointed with my therminator. I think it's permanently clogged. Last I used it I ran hot 150-170 degree PBW in each direction for an hour each way, then sanitized. Wouldn't effectively chill my wort, though granted my ground water temps are at best mid 70s in the summer.
So I've experimented with using my home built immersion chiller to pre chill the wort to about 100, and then use ice in the plate chillier water to get to pitch temps. Still not effective. Plus I end up with hot break in my fermenter and the cold break. Last time I forgot to dump the break from the conical port before oxygenating.... Been using the Hop Blocker and hop sacks.
Anyway, I've been thinking about a better way.
I thought of a few options.
1 ) try the more beer recirculating immersion chiller and switch from ground water to ice water for the last 30-40 degrees of chilling. ( I could even use my plate chiller to pre chill the ground water, recirculating the ice water bath in my HLT through the plate chiller to conserve ice. This is probably the easiest way to go, but I am curious how to keep the immersion chiller perched in the kettle and curious if it will produce a trub cone with the chiller in place.
2 ) install a whirlpool return arm in my kettle. Use existing immersion chiller. Could pull the immersion chiller if it affected the cone formation after wort is chilled and continue to whirlpool. Questions about this would be, where to install the return arm, and if there are any ready to go setups that I could buy without fabrication and trying to figure it out on my own. Also the work out from the bottom of the kettle might benefit from a shield to deflect wort flow from the center of the pot away from the intake? Any suggestions here? Where is the best place to draw wort and return wort to the kettle when doing whirlpool?
Option with either 1 or 2 is to use trub filter, though I doubt when using hop sacks that the hot break and cold break in huge kettle alone will plug up the plumbing.
Thanks!
TD
Been disappointed with my therminator. I think it's permanently clogged. Last I used it I ran hot 150-170 degree PBW in each direction for an hour each way, then sanitized. Wouldn't effectively chill my wort, though granted my ground water temps are at best mid 70s in the summer.
So I've experimented with using my home built immersion chiller to pre chill the wort to about 100, and then use ice in the plate chillier water to get to pitch temps. Still not effective. Plus I end up with hot break in my fermenter and the cold break. Last time I forgot to dump the break from the conical port before oxygenating.... Been using the Hop Blocker and hop sacks.
Anyway, I've been thinking about a better way.
I thought of a few options.
1 ) try the more beer recirculating immersion chiller and switch from ground water to ice water for the last 30-40 degrees of chilling. ( I could even use my plate chiller to pre chill the ground water, recirculating the ice water bath in my HLT through the plate chiller to conserve ice. This is probably the easiest way to go, but I am curious how to keep the immersion chiller perched in the kettle and curious if it will produce a trub cone with the chiller in place.
2 ) install a whirlpool return arm in my kettle. Use existing immersion chiller. Could pull the immersion chiller if it affected the cone formation after wort is chilled and continue to whirlpool. Questions about this would be, where to install the return arm, and if there are any ready to go setups that I could buy without fabrication and trying to figure it out on my own. Also the work out from the bottom of the kettle might benefit from a shield to deflect wort flow from the center of the pot away from the intake? Any suggestions here? Where is the best place to draw wort and return wort to the kettle when doing whirlpool?
Option with either 1 or 2 is to use trub filter, though I doubt when using hop sacks that the hot break and cold break in huge kettle alone will plug up the plumbing.
Thanks!
TD
