I’ve got a plain old 15 gallon stainless kettle that I use for all grain brewing. I’m looking to pimp it with a stainless valve, sight glass, and thermometer.
For those of you with this type of set up, do you go with a dip tube or a SS screen inside the kettle on the other end of the valve bulkhead? Or neither?
I typically brew with pellet hops and just throw them loose into the boil. I think I’d like a screen to filter them out of the fermenter but I"m worried about clogging.
A dip tube would also be nice to get as much volume out of the kettle below the bulk head as possible, but I’m also worried about clogging that.
Combination of both? Neither? Pros and cons to each?
Thanks, JW
Dip tube without a doubt.
[quote=“JayDubya”]I’ve got a plain old 15 gallon stainless kettle that I use for all grain brewing. I’m looking to pimp it with a stainless valve, sight glass, and thermometer.
Thanks, JW[/quote]
a stainless valve- yes
sight glass- ugh, no, why would you want to try to clean that?
thermometer- meh. Only if you use a immersion chiller. If you are using a counterflow or plate chiller, I’d say your thermometer placement needs to be on the outflow of your chiller.
Get the thermometer.
As for the pickup I’d go with the diptube and whirlpool before you drain off to the carboy. I used to have a bazooka screen but it was so far up the kettle that I had to tip the thing on it’s side to get it to drain out. I just put on a diptube and it’s super easy. Haven’t made a hop bomb yet but so far no clogging in the plate chiller.
Another vote for the dip tube. I have a thermometer on my HLT, but do not have one on my BK.
Do not use a bazooka or braid with pellets unless you can get a good whirlpool going and increase the recipe volume a little to be able to leave some wort behind. A pikcup tube allows you to drain the kettle dry without tilting, which is nice, leaving your hands free to handle the fermenters or other things while draining. An open pickup tube and valve will not clog with pellets, but they will with leaf hops, so use a bag for those. A thermometer helps predict boiling and as mentioned is nice to have with an IC.
