Screwed up My Hole Placement

[BluePants]

So I got some fittings welded to these 55 gallon barrels that I picked up. I'm going to place them on the brewstand that I build and I was worried about clearance of the valves underneath so I authorized the welder to put them in the middle of the barrels.

Problem is, now I have effectively ruined my ability to whirlpool. My plan was to recirculate through the chiller to induce the spin. Now if I have any kind of cone it will either be destroyed by the recirc or it will maybe come out in the first pull off it I let it settle in the cone for a while. My feeling is I wont even be able to get a cone established.

I thought that maybe some kind of plate placed on the bottom with holes on the side would allow me to keep the cone. Any thoughts?

 

[IrregularPulse]

Plug the holes and try again?

 

[JOHN51277]

I thought this thread was gonna contain nudity! I am disappointed!

 

[TriangleIL]

I have been thinking a lot about this problem lately. I think having a plate with holes around the outer edge would allow allow the trub cone to form above the drain. I've also considered making a mushroom sort of drain, where the "cap" would keep the sediment, and any sediment that fell below the cap would be blocked by the stem. I.e. see my %*#ty ASCII drawing below.. and ignore the periods..



.............---------------- Plate
.................====== Slotted section of "stem"
.................|........|
.................|........|
.............\__|_....._|__/ Bottom of kettle with hole for drain

I would think cleaning this design would be established by pulling the entire cap/stem piece out of the kettle.

Thoughts?

 

[Brewmoor]

You could go with false bottom. Then it should not matter what sort of hop trub you have in the kettle. Do you have pictures? How big is your stand you are putting those on? You are going to need a ladder to look down into them.

 

[BluePants]

I have been thinking a lot about this problem lately. I think having a plate with holes around the outer edge would allow allow the trub cone to form above the drain. I've also considered making a mushroom sort of drain, where the "cap" would keep the sediment, and any sediment that fell below the cap would be blocked by the stem. I.e. see my %*#ty ASCII drawing below.. and ignore the periods..



.............---------------- Plate
.................====== Slotted section of "stem"
.................|........|
.................|........|
.............\__|_....._|__/ Bottom of kettle with hole for drain

I would think cleaning this design would be established by pulling the entire cap/stem piece out of the kettle.

Thoughts?

Yeah that's kinda what I had in mind. I don't to wreck my volume so it would have to be a short stem. I don't have a pic that I have access to right now. Its a standard 55 gallon drum. Plugging is not an option.

 

[lazybean]

Fill it with water, through in some old coffee grinds and test how the whirlpool works. You can see how good it works, it might be effective enough that you can work with it.