Show me your gravity-fed counterflow chiller setup!

Hey all,

I recently built a CFC according to Bobby M's great thread. I would like to gravity feed the wort from the boil kettle through the CFC and into the fermenter. I would love to see some pictures of your gravity-fed CFC setups. In particular, I am curious as to the best way to run the wort through the CFC. Should it enter from the top of the CFC and exit through the bottom, or vice versa? Any tips for getting the best posssible chilling performance out of a gravity-fed CFC would be much appreciated!

You want to run the water and wort in opposite directions. So using gravity, feed the wort in the top, out the bottom, and connect the hose to the bottom of the CFC, pushing the water up through the top.

I put my pot (very carefully!) on top of my refrigerator which is about 6 ft., then my CFC on a shelf about 3.5 feet down, then my fermenter is on the floor. I run the wort through the top of the CFC and then cold water through the bottom. I will post some pics after work. Maybe sooner if I can get SWMBO to figure out how to get the pics off the camera!

I'll try and get a pic, but I have a bayou burner with a keg on top. That is my boil setup. THe CFC (after burner is off) sits beside that on the same level surface teh burner sits on. It's enough height difference to drain with gravity. My CFC is also wider than most since I wrapped around a bucket instead of a keg to that helps with the setup. It run fly through it, but Sunday I was chilling to 55 with one pass with the water barely on thanks to my cold ground water before I back it off even more to run it through at 60-64.
Do a test with just draining water from your kettle through the chiller though. I had a PITA chilling experience the 2nd time using it because, not thinking, I positioned it differently and couldn't get it to drain. Oh, and once I open the kettle valve it take maybe 10-30 seconds before I see it run out the clear hose on the other end into the fermenter so give it time before getting discouraged.

how important is the height difference between the brew pot and the CFC? I just built the Cheyco CFC and will be trying this out after i finish getting my sink adaptor, bazooka filter and decide how i'm going to attach the CFC to my polarware pot.

Obviously the hose that goes off to the left of the picture attaches to the boil kettle valve

Here's the stand that the kettle sits on. Just have to put the images together mentally

I'm in the process of upgrading my system to a single tier pumped system, but I'm still currently using my gravity fed setup.

My chiller build thread here.

Here's a shot of my setup at my old place:


Here it is at my new place:




TB

in tiber brew's third pic it looks like the CFC is level with the valve on his keggle. As far as gravity works, if your wort goes in the top/out the bottom of your CFC, only the line into your carboy would actually have to end up at a lower position than the lowest part of your valve inside the kettle. The CFC should only have to be level or slightly lower than the valve, then gravity should force the wort into the CFC then the carboy since the carboy is the lowest of all three.

Might need to lower the CFC just to get the wort flowing, but once it's going, you should be able to raise it back up to the level of the wort inside the kettle, no problemo.

nbspindel said:

in tiber brew's third pic it looks like the CFC is level with the valve on his keggle. As far as gravity works, if your wort goes in the top/out the bottom of your CFC, only the line into your carboy would actually have to end up at a lower position than the lowest part of your valve inside the kettle. The CFC should only have to be level or slightly lower than the valve, then gravity should force the wort into the CFC then the carboy since the carboy is the lowest of all three.

Might need to lower the CFC just to get the wort flowing, but once it's going, you should be able to raise it back up to the level of the wort inside the kettle, no problemo.

Click to expand...

When you first let the wort rip into the chiller, there's 5-10 gallons in the kettle, which adds significantly to the head pressure. You'll have no problem just opening the valve and letting the wort through the chiller. Once the level of hot wort in the kettle is below the chiller, you have a siphon effect from the cold wort output line in the carboy being below the kettle valve.

Works like a charm, always has.

TiberfluiddynamicsandbeerBrew

chaulk it up to noobish-ness.. but in searching IC and CFCs, I'm having a hard time grasping the concept on how CFCs work. I've looked at TB's build thread (great thread/howto BTW), but am failing to understand it, I guess...

Can someone explain how a CFC works?


Thanks!

A counterflow chiller is a tube within another tube or hose. The hot wort flows through the center hose as cold water flows in the opposite direction in the outer hose (counter flow).

ah-ha!

I thought this was the case, but was not certain. thanks klyph!