Convoluted IC (update)

[edit1now]

I had to use two plastic boilers when making an attempt at a Prague Dark the weekend before last, as I managed to trip the element in my shiny boiler - it clicked back on after half an hour but by then the plastic boilers were going strong. (Descaling was supposed to be on my list for this weekend!)

I needed to use two immersion chillers, so I put the convoluted IC in one boiler and the quad in the other. Each plastic boiler had about 10 litres of hot wort.

To chill from about 75°C (after the 80°C hop steep) to 24°C for pitching took about 25 minutes for each boiler - I had a Y-piece to divide the garden hose water between them. The convoluted chiller used about a bin and a half of water, as collected, and the quad chiller used about five bins!

When I get round to building the proper shiny boiler, which doesn't have to double as the HLT, with two elements, I'm planning a twin-coil convoluted chiller built-in to the boiler. Just plug the hose fittings onto the side....and the chiller will have two sections up the boiler for larger and smaller batches so I can do 25 or 50 litres at once

[Scooby]

When I get round to building the proper shiny boiler, which doesn't have to double as the HLT, with two elements, I'm planning a twin-coil convoluted chiller built-in to the boiler. Just plug the hose fittings onto the side....and the chiller will have two sections up the boiler for larger and smaller batches so I can do 25 or 50 litres at once

Won't that make it a bit of a pain to clean out all the hop debris and trub? You could devise some sort of coupling to easily detach it.

[edit1now]

I've been daydreaming about some kind of cleaning-in-place system, but even my monster 60l/hr pump won't drive a sprayball. Squirting soda solution around sounds favourite.

[Scooby]

Have you seen the price of a decent spray ball


Back to the convoluted thing. I was thinking that maybe a piece of solid copper wire pushed through the tube would break up the flow. At first I thought about putting blobs of solder on it every inch or so then I realised that would be over 500 blobs. Perhaps buying a crimping tool would be easiest

[edit1now]

monster 60l/hr pump

Should have read 60l/min

I tried making a squirty nozzle built-in to a plastic bin lid, which would sit on top of the vessel being cleaned:


but I don't think it sprays very well - I would have liked it to revolve but it doesn't, and the coverage isn't great. Maybe a Mk 2 would have mainly upwards-pointing holes in the nozzle.

The only things wrong with using a crimping tool are 1. having to buy or borrow one, and 2. the state of one's wrists afterwards