Charlottesville Area Masters of Real Ale

I hope you don't have dialup or a small screen, because these are kinda big.

Essentially, the Recirculating Whirlpool IC is set up like this: you take your existing coiled immersion chiller, and add a "recirc" arm to it. Then, during your wort chilling cycle, you pump wort (via a March Pump) from the spigot on the bottom of the kettle, up through the recirculation arm, back into the kettle. You still run tap water through your immersion chiller as you normally would. The direction of the outlet on the recirc arm is tangential to the kettle/IC, so it starts a nice little whirlpool action---which, because of the increased circulation and surface area, chills your wort down faster. And, unlike plate or counterflow chillers, it chills the entire wort down at once, rather than leaving the majority of it near boiling in the kettle, and chilling a little bit at a time (the longer it sits above 140f but below boiling, the more chance you have of developing a problem with DMS).

Just a little disclaimer: the hop screen on the diptube does NOT like pellet hops, so I've gone to exclusively leaf. If you want cheap leaf hops, try hopsdirect.com.

A few months ago, I built my whirlpool IC using copper stuff from Lowes and a few things from NB. Brewed three batches with that, and really liked it.

Well, an awesome mf'er from the other forum sent me all this beautiful stainless stuff for free. Thing was, it was coming from Canadia, which meant it took a whole month to arrive. A MONTH! But for free, it was worth the wait. So, here's what he sent:



I also ordered 3 sets of 90 degree QD's from McM-C, two for the march pump, one for the valve:



I also took an idea from another guy and modded my brewing toolbox with the march pump, which protects the pump from splashes, and also makes a nice carrying case:







I got the couplings to attach the QD's to the pump, and was able to finalize everything (including swapping out the stainless stuff for the brass).







The inside of the kettle has a stainless diptube fitted with a triangular hop screen. This is just aluminum insect screen from Lowes, folded into a triangle, crimped at the edges with a hammer, and connected to the tube with a stainless worm clamp:



There is also a CPC quick disconnect (pricey, from NB, but worth it) which attaches the "out" line from the pump to the recirc arm. Once I hit my pitching temps, I turn off the pump, disconnect the QD from the recirculation arm, and shove it into the mouth of the carboy...then turn the pump back on, and it pumps it right into the fermenter. The leaf hops collect around the hop screen and act as a filter. 



Here's a view of the recirc in action---you can see the outlet of the recirc arm to the right:



So there she is...brewed probably 8 or 9 batches on it so far. I'm really happy with this setup so far, and I really like the toolbox mod---it's perfect for people, like me, who like to be mobile, rather than have a big sculpture. And the whirlpool IC got 11 gallons of wort from boiling to 65f in 13 minutes on its inaugural run. The only thing I'll need to do differently in the summer is break out my sump pump so I can pump icewater through the chiller coil, or just put my other immersion chiller in some icewater to "prechill" the water that I run through the IC.

My rudimentary parts list:


-Kettle (I was given this kettle with the welded bulkhead, so all I had to do was screw in a nipple.)
-Bulkhead assembly (if you don't have a welded bulkhead and need to drill your kettle, then you'll want a weldless bulkhead assembly, which can be found at Northern Brewer and other places---if you have a welded bulkhead already, then you need a 1" nipple, a female X female coupling, a 1/2" NPT x 3/8" compression tubing connector for the diptube, and a spigot)
-Immersion Chiller
-Diptube
-Copper tubing for recirc arm, plus spring-type tubing benders if you don't have any.
-Screen for hopstopper, or a bazooka tee setup
-High-temp food grade tubing (I like the thermoplastic tubing from Northern Brewer)
-Quick disconnects for kettle, march pump, and recirc arm (McMaster-Carr is where it's at!)
-March Pump
-Stainless worm clamps
-Toolbox (optional)

I think that's it...questions?

Very, VERY cool! 

Thanks for posting...I'm hoping to place my McMaster order ASAP!

werd---those guys are QUICK...you place the order before 3pm, it'll be on your doorstep by noon tomorrow.

Wow.  Thanks for posting all of that information, Evan.  I have been thinking about making the jump to using a recirc set up and your pictures make it that much more appealing.  Now that I have a ball valve on the bottom of my kettle, it has become possible.  I really like the toolbox idea, as I have to break down all of my equipment and store it in a closet, as we don't have space to dedicate full time to my homebrewery.  Thanks for posting.

Hey Evan,
How are you sanitizing it? are you running something like Star San through it and the pump prior or are you running boiling wort through it first?
 
I've been modifying my keggle to make way for my chiller. The way I had it before wasn't very efficient and I'm hoping that this new design works better. I still have to soldier in some of the parts and attach my screen. The whole arm assembaly will be force fit into a male coupling that is attached to the keggle.  Here's a pic: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kyftp/3484279437/.

I'll be ordering my pump by this weekend.

Let me know how it goes, Christopher.  I am planning on this being my next major equipment upgrade, as my existing kettle modifications have been gradually setting the kettle up for this adjustment.

I got my fittings yesterday and my pump is supposed to arrive tomorrow. I'm very excited to get building! I'll also take some photos to document the build.