Whirpool Ideas for Large Kettle When Doing Smaller Brew Day

[awoitte]

I use 20 gallon kettles for my HERMS system which is great for doing large batches.

However, I still want to be able to circulate liquid in my HLT and Mash tun while doing smaller batches, while still having the 90' outlets submerged inside the tanks while in use.

See attached, this is where my current ports located in reference to my kettles. I'm thinking I could use a long shaft with NPT threads on the inside to drop down 5-10 inches for when the liquid is not as high, but I was hoping someone has already thought this out with parts, etc. Currently mine is a quick connect on the outside, going into the ball valve, with a 90' on the inside of the kettle.

Any input is appreciated!

 

[mongoose33]

How does the 90 degree on the inside terminate?

Could you attach a piece of silicone hose to allow it to drop down further?

On this page at Brewhardware there are all sorts of fittings and nipples and such. Could you use a 90 degree elbow and attach one of the longer nipples to it? They're SS.

https://www.brewhardware.com/category_s/1840.htm

 

[Blazinlow86]

I'm not sure I'm understanding the question. I have the same setup exactly except I use a 25 gallon boil kettle. On the hlt I just have a angled barb fitting facing downwards and in the MLT I have a 2-3 foot silicon hose that sits on top of the grain bed. The hlt is full to the top until I begin flysparging so the return is always submerged while circulating and the MLT level doesn't make a difference as the hose compensates for the level. On my boil kettle I have different length whirlpool arms for 6-12-18 gallon batches. Long story short I don't have to do anything different for 6-12-18g batches except use the correct length whirlpool arms. Cheers

 

[awoitte]

How does the 90 degree on the inside terminate?

Could you attach a piece of silicone hose to allow it to drop down further?

On this page at Brewhardware there are all sorts of fittings and nipples and such. Could you use a 90 degree elbow and attach one of the longer nipples to it? They're SS.

https://www.brewhardware.com/category_s/1840.htm

I thought about just dropping a hose in, but (unless I have a way to bend it in place?) I'm thinking it would just hang down and not point sideways in the direction that would create a flow.

If I need to I could use a long nipple w/ connections and drop it down that way, but was curious if anyone had been more creative =)

 

[awoitte]

I'm not sure I'm understanding the question. I have the same setup exactly except I use a 25 gallon boil kettle. On the hlt I just have a angled barb fitting facing downwards and in the MLT I have a 2-3 foot silicon hose that sits on top of the grain bed. The hlt is full to the top until I begin flysparging so the return is always submerged while circulating and the MLT level doesn't make a difference as the hose compensates for the level. On my boil kettle I have different length whirlpool arms for 6-12-18 gallon batches. Long story short I don't have to do anything different for 6-12-18g batches except use the correct length whirlpool arms. Cheers

Can you post of a picture of your whirlpool arm/hose setup you'd use for a 6 gallon batch in your Mash?

 

[Blazinlow86]

Can you post of a picture of your whirlpool arm/hose setup you'd use for a 6 gallon batch in your Mash?

Ive honestly only done a single 6 gallon batch on the system and can't find any photos of it. I've attached a pic of the mash tun and boil kettle. the key with the silicon hose in the mash is to use a long hose that wraps around the entire kettle and the barb should be aimed horizontal otherwise it will dig into the grain bed. As far as the whirlpooling arm as you can see in the pictures you can adjust the arm to whatever height you choose. Because I whirlpool thru my chiller I return the wort as high as possible to avoid stratification. Cheers

 

[crane]

I had the same dilemma. For the mash tun I use lock line so I can easily adjust the height and it stays put. The silicon hose idea mentioned above is another easy option.

For the BK l planned for it from the get go. I mounted my whirlpool return low enough that it was submerged when only 5 gal are in it. For 10 gal batches I have found that the reduced height doesn't make a difference, I still get a decent cone after whirlpooling. If you are set on using existing holes located at the top of the kettle the another option would be to use 90' compression fittings and a piece of stainless tubing in between them.