cklages
Well-Known Member
So after a little lurking around on the forums, I decided that i really needed an immersion chiller, i figured for 5 imp gallon batches with water that is quite cold most of the year that 25' of 3/8" would do me. As it happened, a friend was able to donate the tubing, and all i needed was some fittings from the local hardware store. Unfortunately I could not find a 1/2" to 3/8" solder fitting, but i did see a compression fitting that looked like it would fit the bill, so i used that instead. The first picture below is what i came up with.
So this morning, after cooling an extract batch only two days ago with said chiller, I did a test run after replacing a fitting on the top end only to find the compression fitting down below was leaking just a little bit. Now i presume that the leak would have added cooling water to my beer rather than sucking wort out although I'm not completely sure of this, maybe there would have been some venturi effect because the water line goes from 3/8" to 1/2" where the leak would have happened. Any experts care to chime in?
Unfortunately, this is possibly a slightly bigger deal for me, due to the source of my water. Picture #2 shows where my water comes from, and if you look really closely, you can see the fish pooping in it. I do run 5 micron filtration, but it isn't nearly enough to take out much more than gravel and minnows. The fermentation looks healthy so far, and hey who knows, maybe the beer gods will give me a free pass this once.
Anyway, the battle is on between US-05 and whatever the lake wanted to contribute, wish the yeasties luck!
Chris
So this morning, after cooling an extract batch only two days ago with said chiller, I did a test run after replacing a fitting on the top end only to find the compression fitting down below was leaking just a little bit. Now i presume that the leak would have added cooling water to my beer rather than sucking wort out although I'm not completely sure of this, maybe there would have been some venturi effect because the water line goes from 3/8" to 1/2" where the leak would have happened. Any experts care to chime in?
Unfortunately, this is possibly a slightly bigger deal for me, due to the source of my water. Picture #2 shows where my water comes from, and if you look really closely, you can see the fish pooping in it. I do run 5 micron filtration, but it isn't nearly enough to take out much more than gravel and minnows. The fermentation looks healthy so far, and hey who knows, maybe the beer gods will give me a free pass this once.
Anyway, the battle is on between US-05 and whatever the lake wanted to contribute, wish the yeasties luck!
Chris
). I kind of doubt the contribution of lake water based on the size of the leak was much more than a teaspoon, but unfortunately that is a complete unknown. I'm just going to hope for the best, the fermentation started right on time and based on the krausen looks healthy. I also have temperature control in my fermenter that should help to favour the yeast, so basically everything else is working to my advantage.
