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Old 06-19-2010, 07:22 PM   #31
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Nice build, minus the gear clamps. Replace them with some Oetiker ear clamps and you'd have a much prettier design.


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Old 06-20-2010, 12:28 AM   #32
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Very nice! I especially like your temp probe at the end


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Old 06-20-2010, 02:24 PM   #33
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Thirteen View Post
Nice build, minus the gear clamps. Replace them with some Oetiker ear clamps and you'd have a much prettier design.
Agreed; that would look a bit better. And thanks for comments.


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Old 06-20-2010, 09:47 PM   #34
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Used my new counterflow wort chiller last night. It worked pretty good, but not well enough to make me totally satisfied. Even using the prechiller, I had to really throttle the wort flow in order to get it cool. Flow was throttled so much that it took about 30 minutes to cool a 5 gallon batch to about 75 degrees.

I think my setup has two major problems.
1.) I hooked it up to my sink and I think maybe my sink doesn't provide enough pressure to overcome the headloss through the prechiller and wort chiller while providing enough flow. It did have a nice solid stream out of the discharge though.
2.) I need a better what to cool my prechiller. I used about 20 pounds of ice and it still all melted prior to being done.

Next batch, I'm considering sticking my prechiller in a bucket of water and freezing it solid. If the freezing water doesn't crush the tubes, it ought to super charge my prechiller. Also, I'll hook it up to my hose to see if I can get more flow.

All and all it's way more convenient and sanitary than my immersion chiller. Its performance just suffers from my high tap water temperature.
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Old 06-20-2010, 10:19 PM   #35
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Don't freeze the coil in a solid block of ice. Water will form around the coils and warm up and you'll be left with no way to break up that stratification. In an icewater bath, you can just move the prechiller around a little.

Also, are you running it in the proper counterflow orientation? The chilling water should enter at the same fitting that the cooled wort is exiting.
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Old 06-20-2010, 10:48 PM   #36
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Don't freeze the coil in a solid block of ice. Water will form around the coils and warm up and you'll be left with no way to break up that stratification. In an icewater bath, you can just move the prechiller around a little.

Also, are you running it in the proper counterflow orientation? The chilling water should enter at the same fitting that the cooled wort is exiting.
Hmmm, that makes sense. Yeah, it's definitely counterflowing. Maybe I just need to freeze more giant bowls of ice. Maybe I need to move somewhere with lower taxes and colder tap water--emphasis on cold tap water.
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Old 06-20-2010, 11:18 PM   #37
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Come on over to the northern midwest! Cold tap water, lots of good beer, nice people, lower taxes...



I hope you find a way to make your chiller work. How many feet long is your pre-chiller? Are you agitating the ice water bath? Is the pre-chill water container insulated at all?

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Bottled:
About 56 gallons of beer & 7.5 gallons of mead
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Old 06-21-2010, 02:24 AM   #38
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It's just shy of 20 ft. Ice bucket isn't insulated, but I was agitating it. Agitating makes a huge difference. Maybe a little dry ice in my ice bucket will help. We'll see in a couple weeks.
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Old 06-21-2010, 04:13 PM   #39
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Try adding some rock salt to the prechiller water. It is required to make home made ice cream.
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Old 06-22-2010, 02:18 AM   #40
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LMAO!


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