CFC questions and thoughts...

[Cruzn4aBrewzn]

So I just made my first counter flow chiller yesterday and while I had 20" of 3/8' soft copper already being used as a chiller. Basically a jocky box for wort chilling I had set up in an old cooler. Just ad icewater and stir while the wort goes through. Worked pretty well but was a pain and I'm sick of buying ice all the time. So I bought another 20" length just in case I broke the old one by unwinding and rewinding it as its already been wound once.

Well it was fine so I ended up just splicing them together to make a 40" CFC! Well I'm now thinking that this may be way overkill.
I was wondering if a temp equilibrium will be reached like half way and just be a waste of the rest of the chiller.

On the other hand will this allow me to run the hot wort a lot faster through the chiller to get to the same temp thus allowing a faster chill?
If so that might be worth it as I usually brew10-12gal batches and am running on all gravity for now so being able to run with the valve wide open would be rad!

On another note I was thinking of all the wort that may be left sitting in the chiller and just get wasted durning the cleaning and how to remedy that. So what I was thinking is to use my o2 to push the last of the wort out of the chiller at the end as I will be using the same o2 to aerate with anyway. That would eliminate any blowing on the tube and possibly infecting or pushing with clean water and possibly watering down the beer.

Any thoughts would be appreciated. And if the consensus is to just cut the bastard in half and sell one that's what I will do. But I like the idea of bing able to chill super fast if it would work that way.

 

[Cruzn4aBrewzn]

I hate to be "that guy". That shamelessly bumps his own thread but does anyone have any input? I was going to go into town tomorrow morning to get some more fittings if I was to cut and make two.

 

[voltin]

I wouldn't cut it in half, there is really no need for that since I assume your ground water is almost always around pitching temps. Here it Texas the only time we have cool ground water is in the winter, so I would have used that extra copper as a pre-chiller.

It is possible that you will cool the wort before it reaches then end, but there is really no harm in that other than it maybe taking a little bit longer to flow through the entire CFC. Your plan to clear out the CFC with O2 sounds good.

 

[Cruzn4aBrewzn]

I wouldn't cut it in half, there is really no need for that since I assume your ground water is almost always around pitching temps. Here it Texas the only time we have cool ground water is in the winter, so I would have used that extra copper as a pre-chiller.

It is possible that you will cool the wort before it reaches then end, but there is really no harm in that other than it maybe taking a little bit longer to flow through the entire CFC. Your plan to clear out the CFC with O2 sounds good.

Cool. Thanks. I might just give it a few test runs and see how it goes then. I was hoping that the o2 push idea was at least somewhat solid. Thank's

 

[voltin]

Cool. Thanks. I might just give it a few test runs and see how it goes then. I was hoping that the o2 push idea was at least somewhat solid. Thank's

My only concern with using O2, is how much gas it is going to take to clear out the CFC. If it uses too much O2 and you keg, you could get away with CO2.

 

[Cruzn4aBrewzn]

Nice. I didn't even think of using co2 as I keg so I have it.... Is co2 really any cheaper than o2 though. It's been a while since I've filled my oxygen tank. I have a damn huge one?

 

[voltin]

Nice. I didn't even think of using co2 as I keg so I have it.... Is co2 really any cheaper than o2 though. It's been a while since I've filled my oxygen tank. I have a damn huge one?

If you have a big tank use it. I was assuming you had one of the small O2 tanks from Home Depot or Lowes. In fact it is probably easier to use the O2 tank, because you don't have to disconnect your CO2 from your kegging setup.

 

[fletchsj]

if it is chilling too much pump faster and reduce the flow of water through the garden hose... also, if you don't want to use co2/o2 to push it out, once you are done just unhook the water and lift and left gravity drain it in the fermenter. works fine for my plate chiller and worked fine when i was draining my immersion, when i used that.

 

[Cruzn4aBrewzn]

Nice. I do like gravity! Thanks for the thoughts guys.

 

[Cruzn4aBrewzn]

Well I used the chiller for the first time last night and it works amazingly well! I had my wort on full gravity flow and I had to turn the hose water down to just a trickle. It worked so well. I'm really happy. I think that If I had a pump I would be able to rock a full 12 gal batch in a few min. I was going from boiling to 60 instantly with the hose on as slow a flow as I could manage with the valve and the kettle valve wide open. I would like a bit faster wort flow as 40' of 3/8" copper tubing dose restrict the flow speed a little more than I would like but once I get a pump I will be a chilling rock star.

 

[voltin]

Well I used the chiller for the first time last night and it works amazingly well! I had my wort on full gravity flow and I had to turn the hose water down to just a trickle. It worked so well. I'm really happy. I think that If I had a pump I would be able to rock a full 12 gal batch in a few min. I was going from boiling to 60 instantly with the hose on as slow a flow as I could manage with the valve and the kettle valve wide open. I would like a bit faster wort flow as 40' of 3/8" copper tubing dose restrict the flow speed a little more than I would like but once I get a pump I will be a chilling rock star.

Glad to hear it worked for you. I love my CFC, especially with my pump. Before I got my Chugger I gravity fed it, which worked fine but was slower and clogged one time. I also use my pump to sanitize the CFC by recirculating during the boil. Did you clear it out with O2 after all?

 

[Cruzn4aBrewzn]

Glad to hear it worked for you. I love my CFC, especially with my pump. Before I got my Chugger I gravity fed it, which worked fine but was slower and clogged one time. I also use my pump to sanitize the CFC by recirculating during the boil. Did you clear it out with O2 after all?

Thank's. Actually once the siphon broke it all drained out just nicely. I imagine though once I get a pump and it's not all setup in a gravity friendly configuration I'm sure I will end up using ether o2 or co2 to push the remaining wort out of it.