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Draining kettle issue
I just finished a great brew session. All goes pretty well except when I get to the end and finally start to run the wort out of the kettle and into the fermentors. I have one of those 1/2 inch poly sulphone disconnects on my kettle ball valve. But because of the size of it I have a 3/4 inch tube running off the "free" end of the disconnect set. Problem is that because the tubing bore is so wide its not filled with fluid as it drains. Inside the kettle my ball valve is an inch or more off the bottom. It is connected to a dip tube which makes the typical 90degree bend to in the center of the keg. When the wort drops below the level of the ball valve the wide bore tubing causes the the siphon to break and rather than completely draining the kettle I am often left with at least a gallon or more in the kettle! It sucks.
I think what I need to do is ditch the disconnect and just get a threaded 1/2 inch brass fitting with a flared 1/4 - 1/2 inch barb on it. That way the tuning is filled with wort and the siphon doesn't break. Thereby pulling all the wort out of the kettle despite it dropping below the level of the ball valve.
I was just wondering how other guys with are dealing with that issue. Am I not getting it or what change can I make in my set up to get a good complete drain.
FWIW: I am using a keg for a kettle. I also use a 10 inch round false bottom to keep whole hops behind.
Is your elbow extending to the center of the keggle? cause of the sloping of the bottom, I have found the best place to pull from is that little flat spot in dead center.
That being said i have had those issues in the past and I never related the siphon break due to a resistance issue, but that makes a ton of sense.
I have seen some suppliers with all kind of male end attachments, The one I use is large and I use the 1/2" high temp silicon tubing for transfers off the kettle. Perhaps a brass reducer off of the QD could allow for the use of high temp 3/8, or 1/4 inch tubing increasing the resistance. I might even want to do the majority of the transfer with the faster flow 1/2 inch, then stop the flow for the last couple of gallons and change out the tube to finish.
great point, if I ever brew again this year i will have to pay attention to messing with this. Lemme know how you experiment.
I have a pump and that might help some of the issues too. I just don't have it "in process" yet.
Just to test my theory of resistance I might try the barbed fitting thing with 1/2 inch tubing.
The QD I am using is not barbed on the "out" end (female). Its threaded, so I have the 3/4 inch tubing "threaded" on the fitting. That makes for a big wide open end. Essentially the 1/2 inch fitting and flow is opening up to a 3/4 inch space.
I do need to shorten the shank of the dip tube set up because its not in the flat part of the keg that's for sure.
The thing also tends to spin a little under the weight of the IC. SO at the end of the drain last night it was turned a little sideways too. Can't figure out why I can't tighten it enough to stay rigidly in place.
brewchez wrote:
The thing also tends to spin a little under the weight of the IC. SO at the end of the drain last night it was turned a little sideways too. Can't figure out why I can't tighten it enough to stay rigidly in place.
I do something similar with my hopstopper. The pickup tube is inside the mesh screen, so when I tighten the fitting to the bulkhead, I leave it slightly on an angle, so when the weight of my herms coil sits on top of it, it is trying to flatten it, but by doing this essentially tightening the fitting also. If it were leaning the other direction, then the tube flattening would be loosening the fitting. Kind of using gravity to continually tighten it.
Or perhaps submerge a support, allowing the IC to rest on something else.
Or turn your IC into a HERMS coil, and break the bank on a Therminator! 
+1 on the Therminator. Man was it expensive to get but it cuts my cooling time more than in half. I cooled 10 gal down to 70 in a half hour today.
I always like a new toy. It's just hard getting the wife to let me get them! 
ID
thirsty wrote:
Or turn your IC into a HERMS coil, and break the bank on a Therminator!
I have the parts to build my own hop stopper like Wade did not to long ago. I just haven't gotten their yet.
I do plan to build a brew stand and I'll convert the IC to a HERMS I think eventually too. And get the Therminator.
Maybe I should stop dorking around with what I am doing now equipment-wise and dive into the totabl rebuild.
What attracts me most to the plate chiller is just shortening the brew day a bit more. Time is of the essence and if I can get the brew day down to a 4 hour session from 5, that would be ideal.
I have also been talking with my father in law who was an electrician. I told him I want to make an electric HLT with a termostat, clock and timer built into it. So I can have the thing heat up water to strike temp while I am still at work, come home add grain and be mashing. That would make the session maybe a 3 hour deal at that point.
brewchez wrote:
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I have also been talking with my father in law who was an electrician. I told him I want to make an electric HLT with a termostat, clock and timer built into it. So I can have the thing heat up water to strike temp while I am still at work, come home add grain and be mashing. That would make the session maybe a 3 hour deal at that point.
Funny you say that 
I have a small slow leak in my hot water heater. I have been thinking about getting a new hot water heater, and bringing the old one up to the garage which is preplumbed for gas. that would give me the ability to have a true permanent HLT that I could plumb into. Then I could finally convert that stainless prep table and stainless drum into a 1.5BBL kettle, and start doing some serious brewing!
Yup Stuck at work still daydreaming! Sucks when you have all the pieces but no time
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