Coping with the wrong sized immersion chiller

[Ska_J]

Hi all,

Having bought a 10 gallon boiler from hop and grape and simply ordering the IC they have advertised without realising I should have stipulated longer leggy bits, I have a bit of an awkward situation with cooling. I did my first extract brew the other day (23L), and my plan simply revolved around transfering my boiled wort over to an FV, chilling in there, then transfering to my other FV for the actual fermentation. This was all ok, except that I either get a loss in the second trasfer, or I pour in all the gunk from (what I believe is) the cold break. Given this less than ideal choice it has occurred to me that I could transfer my cooled wort back into the boiler, then from there into the FV in the belief that I would filter out the junk through the hops. Is this likely to work? Can anyone think of a good reason it could be a bad move?

J

PS Its Daabs simple extract beer to get me started. Tasted the beer at 1.020 down from 1.040 after 4 days, and its already seeming quite a lot more vibrant than the few kits I've tried. Not sure if I'm going to be able to wait the 4 weeks I want to leave it in the keg :S I've already ordered a mash tun and the ingredients to try a Hobgoblin clone in an attempt to build up some stock to get things conditioning for long enough!

[Waffty]

I'm not really sure I understand but if you can cool the wort in your stock pot to 18-32 °C to reduce the risk of infection/oxidisation, then you shouldn't have a problem transfering it to your FV, as adding oxygen is a key part of the fermentation process. This would be safer than trying to man handle a full boiling brew length + the assocated risks of oxidising the wort during the transfer.

If the issue is around getting too much trub/particals in the FV, then you could always fit a ball valve to your stock pot & add a hop filter. Failing that, use a combination of a cullender, sieve & small nylon filter to help remove the crap, as it enters the FV.

Multiple transfers of wort over 32°C is not a good ide, so cool it, before moving it and if you have to move it, then ideally move it via a tap, hop filter or limit your trub by using hop/grain bags.

Hope this helps ?
Darren.

[Ska_J]

Thanks for your reply Darren.

To clarify (hopefully!) my issue is that my immersion chiller doesn not reach low enough in the boiler I have, so once the boil time is up, I can't chill until I've moved the wort elsewhere (unless I put the chiller right into the boiler, but it doesn't have water-tight enough connections to cope with this at the moment). The boiler has a tap, so I should be able to transfer it without oxidising it too much (an issue I hear varying reports about when the wort is hot). This time round I didn't have a piece of tubing that would connect to this tap so it had to drop straight into my FV.

There is not too much material in the transfered wort because my boiler has a hop strainer, but once chilling was underway a fair amoung of unwanted break material came out of suspension, and it is tricky to prevent this reaching the final FV without loosing more wort than I'd like. My question really is whether by putting the wort back through the boiler (once it is cooled) to use the hops left as a sort of filter (which presumably is where all the material would end up if I could chill in the boiler) I could get a clearer end product? Or perhaps this material is all going to get left in the bottom of my fv when I keg anyway? In which case I can stop worrying about it. Not that it is going to be a big issue- I can handle cloudy beer if it tastes good. I'll claim its rustic.

J

[Waffty]

Ok, that makes more sense now.

So semi boiling wort into one FV, cooled & tranfered to a final FV, shouldn't cause you too many issues & if particles are an issue, why not sanitise a hop/grain strainer & use it to filter FV to FV ? I bought a nlyon filter bag off Ebay, which has a 4" neck & is very fine. I simply sanitise it, fit it into the FV & secure it with string. Bang the contents in & pull out when finished.

[Robdog]

Just place the whole thing in your boiler mate legs and all 15 mins before end of boil then just use as normal.

This is what i do and ive got the dame kit as you.

[Ska_J]

Both good solutions.

At the moment I don't have a water tight connection on the outlet of my IC (one end came ready-converted to be the right size for a hosepipe- this is fine- but the other end is very narrow copper. As it is I put a bit of tubing round it loosly and allow physics to do its thing so that no water goes anywhere but down the tube. Physics is not on my side if I try this trick submerged in water with the tube going upwards.) This is something I need to rectify, but until then I'll probably just do what Darren suggests and put a strainer over the tap.

Thanks to both of you!

ps- Robdog, is your IC the same one from hop and grape? If so what do you use to connect the outlet? Just a pice of narrower tubing, or is there something I can use with no DIYing skills/tools required to convert it to the standard hose size?

[Waffty]

Found the link to the sieve I got off Ebay, which filters to a nice level + fits nicely into a 4" fermenter

here

[adm]

Ska_J,


Your best bet long term is to adapt the skinny end of the chiller up to 15mm so it works directly with hosepipe. I have no idea why they don't supply both ends with 15mm fittings...a couple of quid at your local plumbing supply store should do it. The pipe is 8mm microbore BTW - you need an 8-15mm adaptor, NOT a 10-15mm adaptor....

[Ska_J]

Thanks Adm,

It would be much easier if they did both ends, I guess its a cost thing. As I say, in a smaller vessel its's not a problem as long as you don't want the water to go up, but thats not ideal.

I will probably try to get this done. My ownly problem is a lack of any tools, so soldering is a bit beyond my capabilities. I guess I could probably find someone to do it for me- Its a pretty small job. Thanks for the heads up on the adapter I'll need, that sounds like a mistake I could easily have made!

J

PS- Darren- that filter looks good too, might be worth getting even if I sort the IC to get spotless wort out of my boiler!