For many years I used an imersion chiller. It worked well, especially when I used hose water to cool my wort, then recirculated iced water. But it always took a little longer than I wanted and I was always concerned about the risk of infection so I bought a counter flow.
When I use my counter flow I start to recirculate wort through the cooler and back in to the kettle right after the boil. This is done to basically ensure the chiller/pump is steralized. After 5 minutes of this I start the typcial counter flow process and dump the wort in to my fermentor. Typically it comes out at high 70s to low 80s, not bad considering 5 seconds prior to that it was damn near 200!
Anyway, I talked to a brewer at a local microbrewery and he said to NOT use a counterflow and use an immersion chiller. It makes no sense to me as I can steralize my chiller/pump with hot wort and chill it very rapidly.
What are your thoughts?
BTW, when I'm done transfering my wort I rinse the chiller/pump, then recirculate heated PBW for 10 minutes or so to ensure all my equipment is clean.
When I use my counter flow I start to recirculate wort through the cooler and back in to the kettle right after the boil. This is done to basically ensure the chiller/pump is steralized. After 5 minutes of this I start the typcial counter flow process and dump the wort in to my fermentor. Typically it comes out at high 70s to low 80s, not bad considering 5 seconds prior to that it was damn near 200!
Anyway, I talked to a brewer at a local microbrewery and he said to NOT use a counterflow and use an immersion chiller. It makes no sense to me as I can steralize my chiller/pump with hot wort and chill it very rapidly.
What are your thoughts?
BTW, when I'm done transfering my wort I rinse the chiller/pump, then recirculate heated PBW for 10 minutes or so to ensure all my equipment is clean.