OMG Why have I not done this earlier.

[landshark]

Wow, finally decided to try my counterflow chiller I've had sitting around. It was a gift from an ex-homebrewer. Typically I only used an Imersion Chiller, but it seemed to take forever. I kept thinking I didn't have a pump so I couldn't use the CFC. Boy was I wrong.

I set up my auto-siphon and attached it to the CFC and then just tiered it down to the fermenter. what used to take well over an hour to cool to 85 or 90 I just chilled to 64 in 28 minutes. Thank you gravity.

Time and water saved. And I'm never using my IC again.

 

[EnzoPynn]

Run the cold water output on the CFC thru your immersion chiller and it'll cool even faster. The water coming out of the CFC will always be less than that of the wort so you end up with more cooling with even less water

 

[ChrisJPassarelli]

Cold water input, you mean? Definitely, this works great. I just use two ICs, one in ice water and the other in the beer. Works great, especially if I don't bother adding ice 'till the wort temperature is down to about 100.

Thank you plaudits should probably be awarded to surface area rather than gravity, but gravity's cool too!

 

[SpeedYellow]

... what used to take well over an hour to cool to 85 or 90 I just chilled to 64 in 28 minutes. Thank you gravity.

Time and water saved. And I'm never using my IC again.

You must live in Texas or something. Instead of "well over an hour," last weekend I got 5.5 gal of wort to 85f in under 15 minutes with a copper immersion chiller. It's a PITA though since you do need to keep it (or your wort) moving around a bit. I can only dream how fast my ice-cold tap water would chill with a CFC.

 

[landshark]

I'm in Mo in the KC area. Typically I'd just leave it there and let it sit without doing the moving around. Or if I did, it would only be a little bit to drop a few degrees. Typically I'd just let it sit for a while and come back later, play on HBT. pretty happy with the CFC. Now I need to do something different than my auto-siphon, as it warped the hell out of it sticking it in boiling wort.

 

[SpeedYellow]

I'm in Mo in the KC area. Typically I'd just leave it there and let it sit without doing the moving around. Or if I did, it would only be a little bit to drop a few degrees. Typically I'd just let it sit for a while and come back later, play on HBT. pretty happy with the CFC. Now I need to do something different than my auto-siphon, as it warped the hell out of it sticking it in boiling wort.

maybe it's just me, but I would never ever stick anything plastic in my boiling wort, especially since few if any of the plastics we use are rated for that temp. Maybe I'm just paranoid, but petro chemicals and stuff like BPAs kinda freak me out. Not to mention flavors that could leach out.

 

[landshark]

My autosiphon is pretty warped now after the wort. Looks like a sin wave. I'll need to figure something else out for the next batch.

Luckily the siphon still works, just isn't pretty anymore.

 

[odawg82]

I made an immersion wart chiller with 20 feet of 3/8 inch flexible copper which hooked up right to my faucet and I had no problem chilling my wart down to 80 degrees within 10 minutes.

 

[kombat]

I bought a 23-inch 40-plate Duda Diesel plate chiller through a group buy with the local home brew club. Last weekend I put together all the fittings and hoses and gave it a "wet run" with plain tap water to make sure the pump will be strong enough and there are no leaks. Everything went flawlessly, I'm really excited to try it out with real beer in a couple of weeks. The spec sheet says the model I have should chill 5 gallons of boiling wort in 2.5 minutes! Can't wait to see it in action!