Boil Kettle Upgrade: Whirlpool Port

During a recent brew day, I discovered what a big difference recirculating hot wort through my chiller and back into the boil kettle could make, on both chilling time and making sure my chiller was properly sanitized. While it's not a huge concern, just dropping the hose in the top of the boil kettle does leave me open to accidentally spraying wort everywhere if the hose falls out, or I trip over it, or whatever. Additionally, if I'm going to recirculate, I might as well get the benefits of whirlpooling too, right? So I decided to add a whirlpool port to my boil kettle.

The Nitrog-inator

I may not be Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz, but I've been known to whip up an -inator from time to time. No, I don't mean a doppelbock, though I'd like to at some point. I mean a contraption. A thingee that does something. None of them ever conquered the tri-state area, and not all of them have been particularly successful, but when it comes to homebrewing, most of them have worked out pretty well. I attribute this to the wealth of knowledge out there on the various homebrewing forums as well as the YouTubes. So far, I've built two kegerators, one based on a cheap fridge that was living in my house when I moved in, and one based on a Danby DAR125SLDD mini-fridge I bought online. I've also wired up a Control Products TC-9102D-HV high voltage dual-stage digital temperature controller, and assembled my all-electric brewery, including soldering together temperature sensors, adding twist-lock plugs to pump cords, modifying kettles, re-sweating a leaking chiller joint, and so forth. It's been a journey, with a lot of learning.

So when I was casually browsing Craigslist one day and saw a used mini fridge (a Kenmore 564.95499400) with no freezer for not very much money, and remembered that I was planning on brewing a Dry Irish Stout for St. Patrick's Day, I jumped at the opportunity. I want to put that stout on nitro!