help with CF

Cheyco or other CFC users,
So this morning is my 1st test drive with the CFC. I got the mash going currently and was testing the CFC with some boiled water. I knew I had to use gravity to work through this but with a 15g keggle on a turkey fryer (valve about 24" off the ground, and then the CFC; how in the heck am I going to get this to flow thru into a carboy? Lifting the full keggle up higher isn't a very safe thing. I'm hung over and not thinking straight or do you actually use a pump?!?

Hmm, I lift my kettle when I use my CFC, sorry. Have you tried digging a hole for your carboy?

Like you said, unless you have a pump you will have to lift it. All you need to get it to work is to have the final liquid level of the carboy be lower than the keggle's, if it's not, you're screwed.

Yup - I think I'l rig up my keggle on a stand for the boil. I'd rather lift it when it's at 150 degrees than when it's at 210. Other than that, it worked about as good as I could expect for a couple gals running through it. Went down to 85 which is the best I'd get with my immersion. Summer tap water sucks out here.

I want to move up to 10g eventually. I think a pump will then be required...

I recommend using some cinder blocks to raise your burner/keggle system. I've seen plenty of picks with folks doing that. Sturdy and fireproof. I hope your burner has 4 legs.

desertBrew said:

Yup - I think I'l rig up my keggle on a stand for the boil. I'd rather lift it when it's at 150 degrees than when it's at 210. Other than that, it worked about as good as I could expect for a couple gals running through it. Went down to 85 which is the best I'd get with my immersion. Summer tap water sucks out here.

I want to move up to 10g eventually. I think a pump will then be required...

Click to expand...

Make a wort wizard. You can do it for under 10 bucks (provided you have soem other misc parts/pieces laying around) and I swear it works.

I forgot about the wort wizard. Will look into that before the next batch. Pic below is just downright scary and wasn't an easy task.



Why not 3-leg Ed?

I used to use old pallets to get a little more height out of things. . . of course, you'd have to rig up some sort of stand to use your burner with. . .. which would negate the need for pallets. . .

hmm. that's a tough one. . .

desertBrew said:

Why not 3-leg Ed?

Click to expand...

3 legged turkey fryers are not as stable as 4 legged ones. Bump one accidentally and you can knock it over. As I've said before, you probably won't burn your house down with 212 degree wort, but you can burn yourself or someone else.

If you take you CFC and open the vlave till you see wort coming out of it the raise the height of the cfc with the carboy end still in the carboy then you can still get it to work. Works on the same principle of siphoning. As long as you have enough felxible tubing attached to each end of the cfc.

Dennys Fine Consumptibles said:

If you take you CFC and open the vlave till you see wort coming out of it the raise the height of the cfc with the carboy end still in the carboy then you can still get it to work. Works on the same principle of siphoning. As long as you have enough felxible tubing attached to each end of the cfc.

Click to expand...

Unless the kettle is too low to begin with...

Chairman Cheyco said:

Unless the kettle is too low to begin with...

Click to expand...

Yeah, but he said the bottom of his kettle was 24" off the ground. That's high enough to drain to another sanke even.

The whole day was a f'ing mess. Keg gravity issue as seen in picture. Stand started bowing making me really panic (put a support underneath in case). I forgot to put the mash manifold in; not that big of a deal, dump and install and put mash back in. Biggest problem was I forgot to put in my kettle filter so using the CFC was a mess. 4oz of hops for the LWPA. Creative thinking finally got it done through the cfc. Oh yea, I busted my auto-siphon. 1st time I didn't take gravities and don't give a crap. Somehow I still made beer.

Did I mention I'm a bit hung over?

I had my manifold detach from where it attatches to the ball valve ( the only peice not soldered so I can remove for cleaning) and I used brand new chemical/liquid gloves to reach in and reattach.

Thos are those big honkin' green or blue gloves with a light fleece lining. Used for handling caustics.

Dude said:

Make a wort wizard. You can do it for under 10 bucks (provided you have soem other misc parts/pieces laying around) and I swear it works.

Click to expand...

Didn't you have a write-up thread on yours? I searched and can't seem to locate it...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=8408

Here it is, post #5.

Yeah so I have to revive an old thread. Is there any concern about allowing air bubbles into the cold water path of the CFC? This is effectively reducing the water to wort surface area and potentially reducing the cooling effects of the chiller as far as my logic goes.

Bobby_M said:

Yeah so I have to revive an old thread. Is there any concern about allowing air bubbles into the cold water path of the CFC? This is effectively reducing the water to wort surface area and potentially reducing the cooling effects of the chiller as far as my logic goes.

Click to expand...

Since the water is flowing pretty healthy through it, I don't think you'll have a problem. If the wort is coming out a little warm, you're going to increase the flow (less air/bubbles)

Wait. Maybe I wasn't clear enough. The wort wizard and other venturi based suction devices work by creating a low pressure zone by flowing air or water passed a hole. In this case, that hole is connected to a carboy cap to create a vaccum.

Just as I typed this I realized the answer. You put the venturi on the output of the CFC instead of the input. DUH!

Aye - I don't have a wort wizard yet, but need one. It's too slow of a feed w/o one and my last batch was a nightmare (pellets). But you are right. They go on the output of the CFC.

http://www.wortwizard.com/Tech/tech1.htm