Gravity Feed Plate Chiller Questions

Hello resident brew nerds, I wish to pick some brains!

What I'm trying to do is to set up a gravity feed plate chiller set up, but I'm not sure I will have enough gravity at my disposal. I wanted to double-check if I'll need some way to raise my ketlle before take the plunge and buy a plate chiller.

My goal is to use a 30/40 plate chiller to go straight from kettle into primary. I'm in Vancouver, Canada where the ground water actually comes from a mountain resevoir and is nice and cold all year around.

What I'm not sure of is if I'll be able to siphon out of the kettle into the primary because of two potential issues;

• My kettle is tall (82L) and doesn't have a spigot, so I need to siphon up and over the top.
• My burner is quite low, maybe a foot off of the ground.

With this in mind, do I have any hope of setting up a siphon with the plate chiller on the ground, and still be able to get it up and into the Primary bucket?

Thanks!

 

I really don't think you will ba able to achieve what you want this way. If you go with a Plate chiller, you need a pump. Otherwise go with a IC.

 

I gravity feed my plate chiller. I just put the kettle up high, the chiller on the table that the kettle is sitting on, and then the 'Out' from the chiller hose lower than the source. It works like a charm. Just find something that the chiller can sit on thats intermediary between the kettle and the fermenter and you should be fine.

 

Do you syphon though?

 

It'll work fine. You just need the terminal end of the siphon hose lower than the beginning end.

 

Siphoning boiling wort is a bad idea. For the OP I would suggest an IC. If you coolant water is really cold it shouldn't take very long.

 

No I have a valve on my kettle. As long as it's a closed system, a siphon will work. Just get the liquid to the end of the hose from a lower place than where it started and gravity takes over from there.

Dangit Passed Pawn and your huge member! For once I felt I could help someone and you beat me to it. Well played sir, well played. =)

 

I was referring to the OP who said he doesn't have a spigot on his BK. Using and auto siphon with boiling wort is a bad idea IMO, unless it's SS. As to the siphon with a spigot, I agree with MyNameIsPaul and passedpawn.

 

Good point. An easy way to get a siphon started is to use a hose already filled with something (water?), drop the beginning end into the pot, lower the terminal end, then open the terminal end. It will just start flowing. There might be sanitation risks here, but I used to do this.

I got a pump same time as my plate chiller, so I've never gravity fed through that. But gravity is a fairly dependable force.

 

First off - thanks for all of the replies everyone.

Regarding starting a siphon with boiling wort - isn't it possible to start the siphon from the wort out / cold wort part of the plate chiller? That would remove some risk?

I'm still not sure I have enough height because the burner is so low, so even it would be pretty hard to get the chiller below that, and the primary below that.

Need some sturdier tables for the patio on my apartment. Damn you city living!

 

Drill a hole in your kettle and add a ball valve. I put it off forever too, but you'll be so happy when it's done. Height will still be a factor. I just switched my burner to one with leg extensions. Beyond draining right into the bucket, it's nice having the boil kettle a bit higher.

 

My friend and I use gravity to push our CFC system. Yes, you're going to need some more height to get it working. We put our kettle on a piece of wood (because the kettle's really hot) which sits on a cooler which sits on a table. The chiller sits on the table. The carboy sits on the ground.

Siphoning is a huge pain in the ass, but it can be done. Before you start siphoning, make sure all hose fittings are clamped nice and tight. Any air leaks and your system is going to fail. Have a spare plastic bucket next to the carboy. Fill your hoses and chiller with Star San (using a funnel). And I mean FULL. Any pockets of air and you are going to have cavitation problems. Somebody put their thumb (or close an in-line valve) on the end of the tubing near the carboy. While they do that, somebody else put the siphon in the pot. Release the carboy end of the hose and drain the Star San into the spare bucket. Once wort starts coming out, then move the hose to the carboy and start collecting wort. Make sure the end of the hose does not go higher than the level of the wort in the pot. Oh yeah - the person holding the tubing near the pot better have some thick gloves on - his hands are going to get hot real quick.

It's a nice theory. Seldom actually works that way. Bernoulli was an ass.