gravity fed cfc

I've got to make my IC into a CFC b/c my tap water is 80* in the summer. I don't want to buy a pump, so I'm going to try to do this using gravity. The 30 gallon turkey fryer I use for my kettle has a spigot on it, but I haven't made a hop bag so it gets clogged up before I even start to use it. Surely I wouldn't want to stick my autosiphon into hot wort would I? Do I need to build a hop bag or is there a way to get by with what I have?

You can get 5 gal paint strainers from Home Depot and use them as hop bags. No need to build anything. They're cheap and they last long time. Although to use them, you will need to switch to whole hops only.
I used to use a CFC without a pump and I have to say it was a pain in the arse. It would get clogged with the trub all the time, and it was difficult to sterilise it without a pump. CFC would work better with a pump IMHO.

On that note, and with no meaning to hi-jack, where is the best place to find a good cheap pump?

KyleWolf said:

On that note, and with no meaning to hi-jack, where is the best place to find a good cheap pump?

Click to expand...

That was my next question. Depending on the cost of a pump, I may just by some more copper and make a pre-chiller instead.

Scooby_Brew said:

Although to use them, you will need to switch to whole hops only.

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Really? I use pellets with a paint strainer bag all the time with no problems.

Back to the OP...you can run your wort through a cfc via gravity no problem, if you have a bulkhead at the bottom of your kettle and a dip tube in the kettle. I move my kettle to the top of my steps leading into my house, so that the kettle is 3-4 feet above the cfc. I usually sanitize by recirculating about a half gallon of hot wort through my cfc before turning on the hose water for cooling.

I do 5 gallon batches like this, but would need a pump to do a 10 gallon batch since moving that much hot wort becomes very tricky.

I've yet to have a problem with trub clogging up the works...knock on wood.

Hope this helps.

I use a gravity fed CFC currently, works without much trouble. Do as Scooby suggested and build a Hop Bag like this
.

Scooby_Brew said:

You can get 5 gal paint strainers from Home Depot and use them as hop bags. No need to build anything. They're cheap and they last long time. Although to use them, you will need to switch to whole hops only.
I used to use a CFC without a pump and I have to say it was a pain in the arse. It would get clogged with the trub all the time, and it was difficult to sterilise it without a pump. CFC would work better with a pump IMHO.

Click to expand...

I use a Plate Chiller, mostly Pellet Hops, and 5gal paint strainer bags with no issues. I also used to gravity feed this setup without an issue.

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LX7194&P=SM

Is this the kind of pump we should be looking at?

I built one of these:

http://www.homebrewchatter.com/board/f18/diy-hop-stopper-kettle-screen-pickup-t2550/

It works great with pellet hops. i do have to use a wrench to remove it to clean, but that is really not a big deal at all.

KyleWolf said:

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LX7194&P=SM

Is this the kind of pump we should be looking at?

Click to expand...

The most commonly used pumps in homebrewing are the March 809 & LG 3-MD-HC. The pumps need to handle boiling water temps and be mag drive so you don't tear up the motor or pump head when you limit the flow.

I use a gravity fed CFC without a hop bag. I use a SS Scrubbie around my diptube. Never a clog in over a year. I used a hopbag to begin with, but I thought it was a pain.