Several years ago I went through a learning/experimenting process with cacao nibs. This link goes directly to the experimenting part, but the thread describes my education.
Re: Cacao Nibs in the Secondary
When I built my glycol chiller I found the fins on the evaporator coil impeded the flow too much. So I used a diagonal cutter and needle nose pliers to remove the fins from the copper tubing underneath. Turns out the fins are not physically attached to the coil, so it was fairly easy to remove...