Electric Kettle/Primary Fermentor/Integral Whirlpool Cooling

[GuingesRock]

I have to say that the comments from the Big Spruce judges were very useful and encouraging to me with this project. I was so glad that Jeff Pinhey judged my beer and commented. Adam’s (Cartooncod’s) comments about a slight metallic aftertaste encouraged me to switch to a stainless steel chilling coil from copper. Derek’s (Derek’s) comments were also very useful and encouraging. I now know, as I was told, and didn’t know before, that the score sheets are the most important thing about entering a competition.

I had no idea that my technique of keg conditioning after a 4 – 7 day primary ferment in the kettle had any validity. I knew I liked my beer.

Jeff is a national BJCP judge and his comments verbatim were …” low side of IPA but a tasty brew. If this was a pale ale competition would score higher. Nice balance. Very drinkable. Well made. A session IPA.” Third place was awarded to people with 37.5 points and my score was 37 (average score 37.3) That was my first competition.

It encouraged me and gave me something to work on. Just like when Adam (cartooncod) and Trevor (jtmwhyte) came around early on in my journey to help me out. At that time fermentation temperature control was the biggest issue. I’ve also had a lot of feedback and advice and mentoring from Greg Nash, and come to think of it …everyone on this site. I owe a big thanks to Big Spruce and the judges and all the Brewnosers.



I know everyone is saying don't encourage him

[GuingesRock]

Notes: I put a quick connect nipple on the bottom inlet elbow and it doubled the speed of the whirlpool. The yellow thumb tightenable hose clamps pictured came from Dave (Everwood Av. Brewshop). Only place you can get ones big enough for silicone tubing. OBK had a really good sale price on the Chugger pump. Two excellent suppliers. They always get the orders right and stuff comes pronto. Thanks! The Rigid stand that the pump is bolted to came from Home Depot. It's height is adjustable and it folds for storage. I put the pump at the end in case I wanted to bolt anything else to it. The plug socket is a ground fault one and I use the breaker on there to turn the pump on and off.

[GuingesRock]

Circulating the wort while chilling is probably where you get the biggest improvement in any immersion chiller. I'd say work on that with a 3/8" tube.

This is key - I had an immersion chiller and movement of either the coil or wort is essential for efficient cooling, even if is just gentle stirring with a large spoon. Wort cools great next to the coil, but just doesn't get seem to get enough convection currents to circulate and cool efficiently.

My new 50' 3/8" SS coil for the built in chiller/fermentation temperature control coil didn't arrive in time for the brew this weekend, so I used the old 20' x 3/8" copper coil together with the whirlpool, and the addition of the whirlpool took an hour off my chilling time. The wort went from boil to 175F in 5 minutes only ...seemed like I had only just turned it on. I turned everything off at 175f for a 30 min hop stand with Galaxy hops and then turned it all on again to go to pitching which took another 50 minutes. I think the longer coil (when it comes) should be quicker still.

I'm officially a whirlpool addict now, and only because I like watching it going around and around ...seems like a very good thing

[GuingesRock]

The coil came today. I cut the risers off and tried the tube bender on the scrap tubing that was cut off. All it did was kink and flatten the tubing so I gave up on that idea and used the elbows and compression fittings. An advantage of using the fittings is you can adjust in any direction, whereas if you bend the tube you’re stuck with the way it got bent.

The nipples shown pass through the holes in the side of the pot (above the water line) and then a lock nut is put on and tightened by hand to hold the coil in place. Hoses are connected with the Blichmann hose connectors shown. Thus, I have an installed wort chilling and fermentation temperature controlling coil, in a whirlpool pot, and the coil can be easily and quickly removed without tools, for cleaning.

The pot has beer fermenting in it ATM but will post a picture when installed in the pot. It spends a week in there (four days of active fermentation, temperature controlled by the coil, and then 3 days of dry hopping). Then it is kegged for keg conditioning. It's kegging day tomorrow as I brewed it last Saturday.

It's all measured correctly using another pot. You need to be a bit careful when spreading the coil vertically as if you spread one coil more than the others you can’t un-spread it and it will be uneven, which isn’t good if you are a perfectionist.

All I need now is the Blichmann boil coil and my contraption will be complete.

[GuingesRock]

ps. If any one wants to see it in action. I'm brewing just after lunch on Sunday. (I'll have the mash done in the full volume mash pot, with Becky's BIAB, bag by then).

[GAM]

Sweet. That looks (and I expect works) fabulous.

Sandy

[GuingesRock]

Thanks Sandy.

Looks neater than the old copper coil, and the coil is easily removed to be washed in the dishwasher.

[dexter]

That looks very clean nice work!

[GAM]

Did it pass the water pressure test?

Sandy

[GuingesRock]

Yes, after a lot of buggering around, tightening and re-tightening of joints. I don’t think those SS fittings are made to very high standards. The two hex nipples that pass through the pot (pictured above) are Blichmann ones and you can really tell the difference in quality.

The SS compression fittings have twin ferrules and I had to tighten them really hard to stop them leaking.

[chalmers]

Not surprising that you need to tighten them up quite a bit. Just a note that you don't want to tubing to be shoved into the male end too far, as it will make your life difficult. Sealing is done using the ferrules, not the tubing face. (I use Swagelok a lot at work on 1/16" and 1/8" tubing, and it's easy to crimp down the end of tubing if you're not careful)

[GuingesRock]

That's interesting. It was more the non-blichmann hex nipples and elbows I had problems with. Very poorly cut threads and SS isn't very forgiving of that kind of thing. I used quite a bit of tape, maybe needed to use more.

[GuingesRock]

Tried it today. Works like a charm. Ended up doing a champagne cascade blonde for the masses, who might not like the dry hopped IPA.

To cool from boil to 175F took 2.5 minutes! with the whirlpool and the built in chiller coil going. Then a 30 min hop stand with everything turned off to let 5oz Cascade stew (10 gal batch), then turned on the water to the coil and the whirlpool pump again and it took another 35 mins to get to pitching temp. That’s 12 gallons of wort. It should take half those times for a 5 gallon batch.

Plus a bonus; the hops are all in a cone in the middle of the pot at the end.

I’m having fun with my brewing.

[LeafMan66_67]

I’m having fun with my brewing.

Exactly what brewing is supposed to be! Glad it worked out well!

[Ladd]

Glad to hear it's working as well as you hoped and your enjoying it! Great job on this build Mark!

[redoubt]

Glad it's working well, Mark!

-Keely.

[GuingesRock]

Thanks for the comments.

[jacinthebox]

looks awesome...great work

man I need a bigger pot...would love to do 10gal batches...47L in my keggle wouldn't work very well lol

[GuingesRock]

Toronto Brewing Co.

Hi Mark, this is Zack. Geoff is just away sick right now. We will be getting another shipment in from Blichmann in March and I will make sure to be stocking the Boil Coils!


We will keep you posted with an arrival date.

Cheers,

Zack

[jeffsmith]

Toronto Brewing Co.

Hi Mark, this is Zack. Geoff is just away sick right now. We will be getting another shipment in from Blichmann in March and I will make sure to be stocking the Boil Coils!


We will keep you posted with an arrival date.

Cheers,

Zack

I'll be keeping my eye out for those to arrive as well.

[Jimmy]

Toronto Brewing Co.

Hi Mark, this is Zack. Geoff is just away sick right now. We will be getting another shipment in from Blichmann in March and I will make sure to be stocking the Boil Coils!


We will keep you posted with an arrival date.

Cheers,

Zack

Boil coil isn't expected to be available until late April.

From Blichmann website:

The BoilCoiltm line of electric heaters for our BoilerMakertm brew pots. Approx Availablability - late April.

[Jimmy]

Mark, do you just sit the lid on your kettle loose during fermentation?

[GuingesRock]

Mark, do you just sit the lid on your kettle loose during fermentation?

Yes absolutely, it's in there for a week only though, before being kegged to kegs with dip tubes shortened by 1 1/2" for keg conditioning. Also there was a thread recently where people with buckets were just leaving an edge of the lid slightly open, then in Europe they do a lot of open fermentation.

http://www.brewnosers.org/forums/viewto ... f=3&t=6044" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Jimmy]

When I first started brewing I just laid the lid on, now I snap it on, but leave one edge cracked.

How do you find cleaning the kettle with the chiller in it, or do you remove the chiller for cleaning?

[GuingesRock]

The chiller is designed to be removed easily by hand with those hand tightened fittings (see above). Came out in a few seconds and rinsed it out under the pull out hot water tap spray thing on the kitchen sink. That's all I did as I needed it right away for the next brew but one of these times I'll fill the pot with PBW or 1 step and leave to soak. The SS coil was a lot easier to clean that the old copper one, after the week's ferment it just rinsed off, the copper used to get a build up of horrible blue/green stuff at the top where it was exposed to the air, probably copper hydroxide or something nasty.

If you are thinking of trying it, drop in in 3 weeks’ time Jimmy (with Becky if she wants to come too) and I’ll have four styles on tap to try before you decide. I’ve been brewing 10 gal every weekend lately one batch comes out of the pot and the next batch is in there within the hour. Weizen tropic, Amarillo Galaxy APA, dry hopped Amarillo Galaxy IPA and Champagne Cascade blonde.

Just chilled 12 Gal from boiling to pitching (no hop stand, straight cool) with whirlpool going - 33 minutes. Going half way seems to take 5 - 10 mins, the last bit is much slower, not so much temperature differential.