CIC? (Counter Immersion Chiller)

Has anyone ever taken their immersion chiller and used it backassward? Meaning, run the hot wort through the copper coil while having it immersed in a big tub of cold water?

I was considering trying this just to see how it worked, but thought I'd ask the experts here before f*cking something up.

It sounds lto me like it'd be inefficient and you'd have to cycle the wort a bunch of times. That big pot of water won't be able to draw as much heat off as it warms up.

Buford said:

That big pot of water won't be able to draw as much heat off as it warms up.

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I already thought about that. I could leave the garden hose running in the tub to constantly provide new cool water.

It would be like a poor-man's CFC.

I guess I can bench-test it with just some boiling water before giving it a go on some real wort. I think I have a project for tonight.

What size tubing do you have.

It's gonna be a pig to clean and sanitise after.


It takes me 30 minutes to chill my wort with a 10mm copper immersion chiller.

How long does it take with a CFC?

There is a type of CFC that involves the coil being inside a cylinder that has water flushed through it. If your pot has a drain valve and you constantly run cold water into the top of the pot you will in effect have created one of these.

The reason why traditional CFC's are so efficient is because it exposes the heat to every drop of cold water flowing past the copper coil. When you expose that coil to a larger body/column of cold water, it quickly transfers heat to the water in close proximity to the coil and then stops. Now you have hot wort flowing past a "coil" of hot water while the coldest water in the tub is being ignored. Of course, the garden hose will circulate the water a bit, but nothing says you won't be losing cold water over the top, while hotter water is still hanging out near the copper coil.

Let's step back a second. Once you already have the means to push/gravity feed your hot wort through a copper coil, you're 80% of the way into a real CFC. What's stopping you from running that coil into a garden hose? We're talking about a $20 garden hose and about $5 for two copper tees and two 1/2 to 1/4" reducers.

You are really just talking about a counter flow chiller set-up. It should work just fine. I did the same thing for a pretty long time and didn't notice any ill effects to my brew. Cleaning the breast is a trick, but with all the chemicals at our deposal it should not be a trick. I used to bake mine in the oven.

Bobby_M said:

What's stopping you from running that coil into a garden hose?

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Two things:

(1) I am lazy.

(2) I don't know if I'll like the CFC because of the fact that the cold break ends up in the fermenter. I'd like to have the option of using the IC as a regular IC without having to rip a CFC apart.

Buford said:

There is a type of CFC that involves the coil being inside a cylinder that has water flushed through it. If your pot has a drain valve and you constantly run cold water into the top of the pot you will in effect have created one of these.

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Yup.. that's what I was thinking. I have a small round cooler that I was planning to use here, and I could leave the spigot open at the bottom to drain as I fill from the top.

Brewpastor said:

You are really just talking about a counter flow chiller set-up. It should work just fine. I did the same thing for a pretty long time and didn't notice any ill effects to my brew.

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COming from you, BP... this is all I needed to hear.

Brewpastor said:

Cleaning the breast is a trick

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Who said anything about tits?

I meant to write "beast' but obviously my mind was on something else.

If you wanna give it a try, I would suggest you give yourself a way to slow down the flow of wort through the coil. Maybe just put a clamp on the output hose that you can open or close a bit. If it normally takes you 15 minutes to chill the wort in normal immersion mode, you'll want to have the draining of the kettle through your CFC take about the same time. You'll know if you're flowing too fast if the output wort temp is still too high. The only way to fix it is to give it more time in the coil by restricting the output.

Bobby_M said:

If you wanna give it a try, I would suggest you give yourself a way to slow down the flow of wort through the coil. Maybe just put a clamp on the output hose that you can open or close a bit. If it normally takes you 15 minutes to chill the wort in normal immersion mode, you'll want to have the draining of the kettle through your CFC take about the same time. You'll know if you're flowing too fast if the output wort temp is still too high. The only way to fix it is to give it more time in the coil by restricting the output.

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That shouldn't be a problem. This would be attached to the spigot on my keggle, so I could slow the flow by partially closing the valve.

I'm interested in how this works for you. I have a homemade immersion chiller that needs a rebuild for the new keggle, and a 2-gallon rubbermaid cooler that currently does me no good. Make sure to let us know how this works for you.

Walker-san said:

(2) I don't know if I'll like the CFC because of the fact that the cold break ends up in the fermenter.

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What are you planning to do with the cold-break in your bastardized setup?

Chairman Cheyco said:

What are you planning to do with the cold-break in your bastardized setup?

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I'm not saying my set-up is any different. In fact, I'm saying my set-up is essentially a CFC, break problems and all.

The point about the cold break is that using either my bastard set-up or a real "hose" CFC, the break ends up in the fermenter. I don't know how keen I am on that idea.

So.... if I don't like the results, I'd like to go back to an IC without having to rip apart a hose set-up. That's why I don't want to run my coil through a hose (yet).

-walker

Cold-break won't hurt you until you try to brew an ultra-clean lager and in fact helps with fermentation. Un-oxygenated wort with cold-break in it ferments better than oxygenated wort without the break material. You brew mostly ales, don't you?

Chairman Cheyco said:

You brew mostly ales, don't you?

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ONLY ales. I've never made a lager.

You make some good points, Crabmeat.

Brewpastor said:

I meant to write "beast' but obviously my mind was on something else.

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Even the good pastor has a freudian slip...:rockin: