I am looking at buying a plate chiller. The particular one I am looking at is set up for a garden hose to feed the cooling water. Unfortunately I live in Wyoming and running the hose isn't really an option during the winter. I was wondering if anyone has tried a gravity feed system for the cooling water.
Gravity feeding a plate chiller?
- Thread starter Wyo_brews
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I use a hose fitting to 3/4 inch npt adapter fitting then have a 5/8 inch hose barb that is 3/4 npt that fits into this. I also use a hose barb that fits on my sink that is also 5/8 inch. I have the same problem in Colorado that a hose is not an option in the winter. This slows me to use the kitchen sink as my water source in the winter. I found all of this in brass at homedepot.
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You want the cooling water to be moving as fast as possible. You could theoretically gravity feed the hot wort; it would take a long time (giving you issues like DMS and hop utilization to deal with), but the beer would come out cool. Slow water, though, means the wort won't get sufficiently chilled. I would suggest a sink aerator to GHT adaptor like TNGabe suggested.
LordUlrich
Well-Known Member
I would get a pump and take advantage of all that free cooling outside. What I did (before moving inside with my winter brewing) was fill a 30 gallon garbage can with snow (and a bit of water) and recirculate using a pump. About half through I added a few shovels full of snow after most of it melted.
