overwhelmed

Well, my beer-brewing-teacher left town and took his equipment with him...

Since I knew his departure was coming - I started acquiring my own supplies:

MLT, HLT, 15 gallon SS pot, etc.

Then I was deciding on which chiller to get, and since I was planning on starting to do 10-gallon batches (since I had the capacity in my MLT, HLT, and brew pot), I was leaning towards a CFC or a plate.

Today I bought a CFC, and am now feeling overwhelmed. I need to get a spigot on my pot (welded or weldless? how to drill?), I need to look at getting a compressor or pump or something to clean and sanitize the CFC, I need to look at getting a hop screen or something so I don't clog the CFC.

I still can't decide on a burner - SQ14 or KAB

ugh.

I sorta miss my early brewing days of 1/2 boils with extract and grains and 25' IC.....

talk me down folks

Sir, take a step back from the ledge. Take just one step back...

OK, so welding or not welding... not my strong suit. I hope somebody else can help you there. But with regards to the CFC - that I do have some experience with. You don't need to get a pump to clean it. Here's what I do. Finish chilling your wort and getting that all sorted out.

Heat up another gallon or so of water. It doesn't have to boil, but I do. Run that through your CFC without the hose running(don't wait too long after you use it or else this rinse won't be enough). Afterwards, run a few gallons of starsan solution through as well. Keep collecting the starsan and reusing it. Usually (if I remember) I'll cap the CFC and trap starsan solution inside to ward against infection (I picked up that technique somewhere on this board).

I've never run into problems using this method. So unless you want to, don't worry about the pump!!!

how do you get all of the liquid out of the CFC? seems that without a compressor, there'd be something left in the coils?

still on the ledge - but a step back

If you run enough of a liquid through, the natural suction that occurs will force the vast majority of the liquid out. I know "majority" isn't a great sanitary word. That's exactly why I run the gallon of hot H2O in first - to get rid of anything vaguely sticky. So if there is anything left inside when I'm done, it will be the last thing through. In this case, starsan. There are worse things to be kept inside! And as I mentioned, if I remember to do so, I try and cap the CFC full of starsan to constantly sanitize in between brew sessions.

okay... this sounds do-able with what I have...

Are we off the ledge yet?

cimirie said:

Are we off the ledge yet?

Click to expand...

well, yeah - I've brewed a crap load of brews with my buddies equipment and I'm getting into wines/meads, so I'm good......

the change in chillers has me worried though!

I have a Banjo and an SQ14. The SQ14 is my primary workhorse, I use it for strike/sparge and boiling 5 gallon batches. The big boy is used for boiling 10 gallons and to heat some of the strike water so I can dough in quicker with big batches... The Banjo tends to freeze up the tank when it drops below 1/3 full or so, so I don't think it would be practical to use the Banjo all the time, although some folks claim success by dropping their propane tank in a tote full of hot water to keep it warm. I just keep an extra tank on hand and use the fullest tank on the Banjo, problem solved.

You can gravity feed a CFC if your kettle is high enough, but I worry about sanitizing it properly without a pump. With a pump you can recirc for the last five minutes of the boil to sanitize the chiller, pump, and the lines. I'll try to get pics of Soperbrew's setup on his next brew day. I use a 50' IC and siphon my wort out of the kettle so I can't help on that end.

AZ_IPA said:

Well, my beer-brewing-teacher left town and took his equipment with him...

Since I knew his departure was coming - I started acquiring my own supplies:

MLT, HLT, 15 gallon SS pot, etc.

Then I was deciding on which chiller to get, and since I was planning on starting to do 10-gallon batches (since I had the capacity in my MLT, HLT, and brew pot), I was leaning towards a CFC or a plate.

Today I bought a CFC, and am now feeling overwhelmed. I need to get a spigot on my pot (welded or weldless? how to drill?), I need to look at getting a compressor or pump or something to clean and sanitize the CFC, I need to look at getting a hop screen or something so I don't clog the CFC.

I still can't decide on a burner - SQ14 or KAB

ugh.

I sorta miss my early brewing days of 1/2 boils with extract and grains and 25' IC.....

talk me down folks

Click to expand...

Weldless or not weldless.........if you are adding a spigot to an existing kettle, this decision will probably be based on what resources you have available. If you have a welder on hand capable of handling the job, it's pretty easy. You just drill the hole, then take a nut of the desired thread size and type, and weld it over the hole. Then simply wrap the male thread of your ball valve fitting with teflon tape and thread it in. Most any metal fab shop could handle the job as well. The trick is making a nice clean weld that won't trap particulate matter. Bacteria is not an issue on a boil pot, but you want the inside to be as clean as possible and you don't want to leave a lip between the drilled hole and welded nut where hops/trub/yeast etc and collect. The weldless is "easier" to do with the tools available in the average home shop. Drill the hole of the appropriate size for the spigot you are going to use. The smaller cordless drills may not have the "oomph" to do it with a single battery.....so depending on your tools, it may take a couple of recharges, or batteries. You can get the ball valve and all the appropriate pieces and gaskets at any hardware shop for considerably less than the weldless conversion kits sold by the brew shops, but it depends on how much time you want to spend assembling the parts yourself as opposed to simply tearing open a single plastic bag with everything ready to go.