BIAB system. Would this work?

[snails07]

I've recently picked up a crown urn (concealed element) and I'm wondering if this system would work as intended for BIAB.

The idea is to have a recirculation pump that i will hook up to a controller to maintain mash temp.
Then shut off pump and do the boil as normal. Once boil is complete and to cool the wort, i then switch on the recirc pump and use as a whirlpool whilst also pumping ice water through a fixed immersion coil (3m × 1/2" coil) on the bottom of the urn.
Once cool, disconnect recirc pump and drain into fermenter.

Would this work? Questions are:

Would the whirlpool make much difference to temp? And is it okay to run it like this after the boil?
Would the permanently installed chiller pose any problems/issues?
I envisage the chiller to be 2-3 coils of copper high.

I am doing this in a 20 litre urn and hoping to do 10-13 litre batches.

There's probably a shiteload of issues with this! I'm just trying to avoid doing pretty much anything on brew day - I more prefer the designing of recipes and the drinking of the finished product!!

Cheers

 

[cke11y]

Mate, other people here will probably provide much more valuable advice, but heres my opinion: (Everyone wants to give theirs right?)

It will work sweet.

I wouldn't make the chiller permanent if you can help it. Immersions (IMO) are a pain in the ass to clean. coils sitting deep in the urn will require some careful cleaning and inspection to get nice and spotless. I am a weirdo and engineer as much cleaning as possible out of brewing (at very severe financial cost). I would just put a normal immersion in your urn during last 10 mins of the boil.

Definitely recirc ice water though. Against the opinion of others Ive always found it great. I now recirc water out of my rainwater tank to save buying bags of ice and just wait a little longer which works great this time of year. If my new house didn't have the tanks I would definitely be using ice water.

How many L is your urn? You sure you can't do bigger batches?

 

[Coodgee]

yeah I always had trouble cleaning my immersion chiller. Bloody hop pellet trub was always stuck in the cracks.

 

[S.E]

It’s not ideal to have chillier coils on the bottom of the urn it would be more efficient if you had them as high as possible. It should work with your recirc pump running but I would have the coils removable with something to place and hold them higher in the wort at the end of the boil.

Remember heat rises so it’s better to have the heating element near the bottom and the cooling coils high up.

 

[snails07]

Thanks for the replys.

Yeah i thought cleaning it would be a bit of a bitch. That was my major concern.

If i had the whirlpool outlet pointing at a downward angle, do you think this would eliminate the heat issue?

 

[snails07]

Its a 20 l urn cke11y, not sure on batch size as i haven't actually given it a go yet. I'm wanting to set it all up first.
Anything above 9 or 10 litres i will be happy with.

If little bits of trub and hop pellets get stuck, do you think this would be an issue though? As it will all get boiled in the next run anyway. And I'm sure the little bits that do get stuck wouldn't affect ibu's or flavour too much??

 

[S.E]

Thanks for the replys.

Yeah i thought cleaning it would be a bit of a bitch. That was my major concern.

If i had the whirlpool outlet pointing at a downward angle, do you think this would eliminate the heat issue?

[SIZE=11pt]If you are recirculating over the coils at the bottom it will work. But if you have removable coils that you can hook in place below the surface of the wort it would be more efficient and you could remove and clean it easier.[/SIZE]

 

[cke11y]

The thing with the little bits of hops and true and break material is they might sit around and grow mould and bacteria. sure you boil them which will kill the stuff, but I just wouldn't be happy to have that in my next batch.