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Author Topic: love my hydra  (Read 1533 times)

Offline Wort-H.O.G.

  • Official Poobah of No Life. (I Got Ban Hammered by Drew)
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    • Harvey's Brewhaus
love my hydra
« on: August 08, 2015, 09:10:53 am »
cant say enough about my hydra chiller. with well water, took 6 gals wort from boiling to 60F in under 5 minutes, then recirculation in ice cooler and dropped to pitch temp of 47F in 3 minutes.

great time saver and great water waste reduction.
Ken- Chagrin Falls, OH
CPT, U.S.Army
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Harveys-Brewhaus/405092862905115

http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?title=The_Science_of_Mashing

Serving:        In Process:
Vienna IPA          O'Fest
Dort
Mead                 
Cider                         
Ger'merican Blonde
Amber Ale
Next:
Ger Pils
O'Fest

Offline johnnyb

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  • Pembroke, NH
Re: love my hydra
« Reply #1 on: August 08, 2015, 09:49:21 am »
I've been eyeballing the King Cobra for my wide stockpot. The price tag is a bit much at the moment (unemployed in grad school) but seems totally worth it versus the cost of other chilling systems.

Right now chilling is the weakest link in my system.

Offline ynotbrusum

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Re: love my hydra
« Reply #2 on: August 09, 2015, 06:23:07 am »
After a clogged run off yesterday with my IC Whirlpool set up, I just ordered a Hydra.
Hodge Garage Brewing: "Brew with a glad heart!"

S. cerevisiae

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Re: love my hydra
« Reply #3 on: August 09, 2015, 09:11:41 am »
How wide is your kettle, Ken?  Do you have a diptube?

Offline Wort-H.O.G.

  • Official Poobah of No Life. (I Got Ban Hammered by Drew)
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love my hydra
« Reply #4 on: August 09, 2015, 02:16:10 pm »
How wide is your kettle, Ken?  Do you have a diptube?
14" diameter, 18" deep stainless. Plenty of room to drop hydra in and use it to stir wort...that drops temp the fastest.  No dip tube- I've always siphoned after true settles.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Ken- Chagrin Falls, OH
CPT, U.S.Army
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Harveys-Brewhaus/405092862905115

http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?title=The_Science_of_Mashing

Serving:        In Process:
Vienna IPA          O'Fest
Dort
Mead                 
Cider                         
Ger'merican Blonde
Amber Ale
Next:
Ger Pils
O'Fest

Offline chumley

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Re: love my hydra
« Reply #5 on: August 09, 2015, 05:23:42 pm »
I love my hydra, too.  My only drawback thus far is that I would love to buy one of these filters to sit on the side of my kettle for adding pellet hops, which would work initially, but when you add the chiller for the last 15 minutes of the boil, the filter would have to get yanked.  Which defeats the purpose of late boil hop additions.

Anyone overcome this problem for us immersion chiller users?  I still use hop bags for pellets, but find myself questioning their efficiency in delivering hoppy goodness.  Because of that, I mostly use leaf hops, but they sure do take up a lot of space in my freezer (when you buy them by the pound).

Offline HoosierBrew

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  • Indianapolis,IN
Re: love my hydra
« Reply #6 on: August 09, 2015, 05:33:23 pm »
but when you add the chiller for the last 15 minutes of the boil, the filter would have to get yanked. 

Are you talking about a hop spider,Chumley?  I bought my SS hop spider sized (www.stainlessbrewing.com) to fit the ID of my old school IC. Don't know the dimensions of the hydra, though.
Jon H.

Offline wingnut

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  • Plainwell MI
Re: love my hydra
« Reply #7 on: August 09, 2015, 09:41:30 pm »
I have one of the "side filters".  Essentially it is just a large stainless mesh cylindar, with two hooks on it to hold onto the lip of the pot.   Starting out, I just moved it to hook onto the coil instead of the lip of the pot.

The strainer I use is this one:

http://www.homebrewing.org/Stainless-Hop-Filter-4-x-10--300-micron-mesh_p_3180.html

-- Wingnut - Cheers!

Offline chumley

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Re: love my hydra
« Reply #8 on: August 10, 2015, 10:44:54 am »
Yes, the side filter is what I was looking at. I didn't think of picking it up and attaching it to the immersion chiller during the last 15 minutes of the boil. That may work!