So I'm an idiot

[cwilliams108]

Warning text wall. Well anyway, figured I would do an extract batch before I put my keggle OOC for the upcoming brewstand build but thought to myself "self, wouldn't it be nice to ditch the auto siphon for this last extract batch and just use a drain valve" well yeah seemed like a good idea to me. So I proceeded to pop a hole in my keggle mocked up and welded in the coupling. Then I installed the valve and then made a short tap off the valve. Everything was moving along smoothly until I went to attach the false bottom (I am growing 3 different varieties of hops and thought that using whole leaf and a false bottom would be a cheap way of filtering before the plate chiller). Had bought the wrong fitting for the false bottm (3/8" pipe to 1/2" compression should have been the other way around) no biggie got an Ace hardware 100 yrds from the house. Anyway I knew I would be using pellet for this batch and possibly others so I made a quick and dirty hop bag (5 gallon paint strainer and misc hardware). So I get everything ready for the impending doom errr I mean brew. I figure I should probably leak and flow check the new fittings welded in and so I fill the thing with water, well no leaks so far so good. I open the valve and have flow but not what I would expect. Long story short it wont siphon because I used 1/2" copper pipe and the dip tube is 3/8" or at least thats what I figure. Pulled the false bottom and continued with my brew knowing this was going to mean I would have to tip to empty the keggle, No problem I have this handy hop bag so no real worry about the hop sludge. Well to keep this from getting any longer during the brew the hose clamp sliped off the hop bag holder and I ran out of propane 15 min before the end of the boil. Not a great brewday. So my question is do I need to make a 1/2" dip tube for this silly thing or was I doing something wrong?

 

[Suthrncomfrt1884]

Do you have pictures of your diptube? Here's what I use and it works wonders. I have to put a strainer on top of my fermentor to keep the hops out, but otherwise it works excellent.

 

[cwilliams108]

It's just the standard false bottom dip tube from this false bottom http://www.midwestsupplies.com/11-sanke-stainless-steel-false-bottom.html . I was thinking something like that but with only one tube to the center of the keggle in the depression. Any reason for the double tubes it seems that would give you more of a chance to break the siphon.

 

[IrregularPulse]

I use and wpould recommend the single tube into the center divot. I'm sure Suthrncomfrt1884's works great, but the lower you physically are the more wort you'll siphon out. No reason not to be in the lowest center divot.

 

[Homercidal]

I use and wpould recommend the single tube into the center divot. I'm sure Suthrncomfrt1884's works great, but the lower you physically are the more wort you'll siphon out. No reason not to be in the lowest center divot.

Having the dip tube reach out into the center would be easy to use, because you wouldn't have to tip the keg to get all the wort out. However, it seems lie it might be in the way if you wanted to stir. Personally, I like the idea of having it at the edge. Tipping the keg right at the end doesn't seem like a big deal. And if you whirlpool, having the diptube in the center will mean you are drawing up more crap you might not want.

 

[Suthrncomfrt1884]

Having the dip tube reach out into the center would be easy to use, because you wouldn't have to tip the keg to get all the wort out. However, it seems lie it might be in the way if you wanted to stir. Personally, I like the idea of having it at the edge. Tipping the keg right at the end doesn't seem like a big deal. And if you whirlpool, having the diptube in the center will mean you are drawing up more crap you might not want.

This was exactly my thoughts when building mine. I like to whirlpool, so this prevents things from being sucked up. Also, the siphon works incredibly well. If I tip the keg at the end, I can usually suck up all but the last cup of wort.

 

[shortyjacobs]

Pipe diameters shouldn't matter. As long as there are no leaks, it should siphon! One thing you never mentioned....You DO have either pipe or hose on the outflow side of your valve which hangs lower than the keggle, right?

The outlet of the siphon always has to be lower than the inlet....so you need pipe or hose on the outflow side of the valve which will hang lower than the inlet side....

 

[Homercidal]

Also, the inside diameter of the pipe/tube doesn't really matter as far as flow rate goes. The wort will only siphon as fast as the total resistance through the tubing will allow. And the weight of the wort plus the length of the vertical drop will also affect the flow positively.

Personally, I would go with a single diptube, set up like in the above picture.