Kit upgrade, but which one?

Spapro said:

You can just use your jubilee clips to hold the hoses on the inlet/outlet of the wort chiller but if you want quick conect/disconnect:

At the wort chiller end of things you will need 2 x male hozelock connectors (B&Q blue are fine) attached to the couplers plus 2 x female hozelock connectors on your hoses (again B&Q blue are fine).

Then you need whatever you need for the water supply tap end, either in your kitchen or for the outside tap.

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Thanks for spelling this out for me! Much appreciated.

Spapro said:

Jubilee clips at the wort chiller end will work well - I went with hozelock disconnects for easy cleaning etc without dragging hose through the kitchen.

B&Q do their own cheap blue range of hozelock connectors at £1 each which I would use instead of the blingy hozelock connected I bought before getting to B&Q.

My wort chiller from HBC used 9.5mm copper pipe - 10mm to 15mm couplers from B&Q worked well but I did use some plumbers PTFE tape on the tube to bulk it out so the 10mm olive fit snugly.

This is the 10mm x 15mm coupler - you ditch the olive and nut off the 15mm side and your hozelock connector screws onto that:
http://www.diy.com/departments/plum...26_BQ&ef_id=Vd7ajgAAADqZ0Dqz:20150827115745:s

You can do this for about £12 if you use B&Q blue hozelock bits (I already had some old hose to use):

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Right, a second trip to B&Q later and I see that the things screwed onto the botton of the 10 x 15mm coupler are labelled Tap Connectors. I picked them up and put them back about 4 times, drove some bloke called Andrew round the bend asking about M / F Connectors etc. Then went home again without any. No explanation why I did not just pick 2 up at £1 each and put any spare in with SWMBO's garden hose spares.

Still, only one more trip to B&Q and we could be in business for the Brewing Holiday Weekend.

Something I read on here with the wort chiller is it is better to have the inflow start at the top and coil downwards.

I am glad I read that as mine was supplied the other way around so I changed it out

Slid said:

Right, a second trip to B&Q later and I see that the things screwed onto the botton of the 10 x 15mm coupler are labelled Tap Connectors. I picked them up and put them back about 4 times, drove some bloke called Andrew round the bend asking about M / F Connectors etc. Then went home again without any. No explanation why I did not just pick 2 up at £1 each and put any spare in with SWMBO's garden hose spares.

Still, only one more trip to B&Q and we could be in business for the Brewing Holiday Weekend.

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Hi Slid,

best to take a 10mm x 15mm brass coupler with you if you already have them - then you can check the hozelock bits you are buying screw onto the 15mm side (after removing the nut and olive from the 15mm side of the brass coupler).

It will be 2 x hozelock style Tap connector (called them male connectors in my previous post) plus 2 connectors which attach to the hoses (callled them female in my previous post). Sorry for any confusion, I was highlighting you need 4 B&Q blue connectors in total along with the brass couplers for the wort chiller end.

Good luck with it, and your brew this weekend.

Here is a shopping list to avoid any confuson to others:

2 x Brass 10mm to 15mm couplers (you ditch the nut and olive from the 15mm side): http://www.diy.com/departments/plumb...m/34126_BQ.prd
2 x B&Q Blue Tap Connectors: http://www.diy.com/departments/bq-1/.../189833_BQ.prd
2 x B&Q Blue Hose connectors: http://www.diy.com/departments/bq-1/.../262127_BQ.prd

Plus some plumbers PTFE tape as the brass couplers are designed for 10mm pipe and my wort chiller was made with 9.5mm copper pipe. 5-6 layers of PTFE tape bulks out the width of the copper tube so the olive fits more snugly for a better seal once tighten up.

B&Q later for me, kit is getting delivered today

Covrich said:

Something I read on here with the wort chiller is it is better to have the inflow start at the top and coil downwards.

I am glad I read that as mine was supplied the other way around so I changed it out

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I read that too, ran mine the other way round for my 1st brew with the chiller and will be swapping round for my next brew

Badseed1974 said:

B&Q later for me, kit is getting delivered today

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What you doing this weekend ? :smile:

Good luck with the brew and enjoy

Can't wait

Will post some pics when I get home :)

Badseed1974 said:

Can't wait

Will post some pics when I get home :)

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I really appreciate this help, guys. What with the surge in interest in AG on the Forum (what's that guy's name again? :drink:) and the great offer from the HBC, I think that the stuff on wort chiller set up could be set up as a "Sticky"?

I probably have (unused) powers to do so, but does anyone mind me cutting and pasting their contibutions to another thread?

Hi Slid,

Here is the shopping list to avoid confusion with male/female parts etc. No problem you copying this to a sticky if think its worthwhile.

2 x Brass 10mm to 15mm couplers (you ditch the nut and olive from the 15mm side): http://www.diy.com/departments/plumb...m/34126_BQ.prd
2 x B&Q Blue Tap Connectors: http://www.diy.com/departments/bq-1/.../189833_BQ.prd
2 x B&Q Blue Hose connectors: http://www.diy.com/departments/bq-1/.../262127_BQ.prd

Plus some plumbers PTFE tape as the brass couplers are designed for 10mm pipe and my wort chiller was made with 9.5mm copper pipe. 5-6 layers of PTFE tape bulks out the width of the copper tube so the olive fits more snugly for a better seal once tightened up.

You will need some garden hose and whatever you need to your kitchen/garden tap. The above just takes care of the wort chiller end of things.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?ie=UTF8&...vptwo=&hvqmt=b&hvdev=t&ref=pd_sl_257sfufluz_b

For your mixer tap, if you want to go down that route...

Slid said:

I really appreciate this help, guys. What with the surge in interest in AG on the Forum (what's that guy's name again? :drink:) and the great offer from the HBC, I think that the stuff on wort chiller set up could be set up as a "Sticky"?

I probably have (unused) powers to do so, but does anyone mind me cutting and pasting their contibutions to another thread?

Click to expand...

Ok, so I finally sorted out the wort chiller thing today.

Actually, SWMBO did it, while I sorted her lunch out. Modern-style division of duties, and all that.

Anyway, should be good to go for tomorrow's fist ever AG brew - it's the HBC Pale Ale single hop with Herkules and Cascade.

And, yes, even I can still count all the way up to two. I just knew that maths degree was going to come in useful one day.

Hope your brew went smoothly Slid ?

Spapro said:

Hope your brew went smoothly Slid ?

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Many thanks for enquiring, mate, and no, I would not describe it as "smoothly", although I suppose it was fairly typical for a first AG.

I am starting a new thread in Beer Brewdays!

Might be worth a look, if you are short of a laugh :hmm:

Finally got round to getting a brew on with the HBC kit and I'm happy to report it went very well!

Had no problems getting 25 litres+ up to a nice boil, though even with the chiller it took an age to get down to pitching temp.

All in all though it's a bargain and I'd recommend it to anyone looking to advance from stove top brewing :)