Cfc vs immersion chillers

[Sidman]

So when I upgraded to all grain I went straight to a cfc, an exchillerator, vs my copper immersion chiller. I recently read an article where the author lamented his upgrade to just using a cfc and I realized I have some of the same issues he described. Those were: sanitation- using the immersion chiller in the boil was easier to sanitize, cold break - keep the cold break and excess proteins in the kettle.
His solution was to use both but that started me thinking about using the cfc to do both aspects. Why couldn't I recirculate the boiling wort through the cfc the last 10 mins to sanitize? I would not use the cooling water, just run the wort through.
Then secondarily, when the boil ended I could add the cooling water and recirculate with a whirlpool back to the BK until I get a cold break.
Lastly I could I could stop the recirc and then transfer to my carboys.

Is anyone else doing something similar?
Am I missing anything else in this though process?

 

[JLeuck64]

There are several ways to effectively use a CFC in a sanitary way. What you are suggesting sounds like it would work. I have to rely on gravity to drain everything in my process. So... I use a few gallons of clean boiling water to sanitize my CFC on brew day. I whirlpool at the end of the boil and the first 2 cups I drain through the CFC does contain some hot break. The wort that drains out is boiling so I get some more sanitizing effect from it as well. The rest of the drain through the CFC is much more efficient at cooling the wort versus an immersion chiller in my experience. At the end of brew day I will again boil clean water in my BK to drain through the CFC until it runs clear. On the next brew day I am ready to repeat the process again. Hot water works very well to sanitize in my experience and I can honestly say in almost a year of using my CFC now I've not experienced any issues from an infection yet.

 

[dmcman73]

That's what I do. When there is 15 minutes left to the boil I recirculate the boiling wort through my CFC and then back into the kettle, this also starts a whirlpool. Once the boil is done, turn off the heat, keep the wort circulating through the CFC and back into the kettle then turn on the cooling water.

Effectively I get my entire kettle of 5 gallons down to pitching temps in 15-20 min, depending on how cold the ground water is. Once that's done cooling, stop the circulation, disconnect the hose from the kettles re-circulation port (the one going to the output of CFC) and then connect it to my fermenter. open all valves again, turn on the pump and pump it all into the fermenter. Done.

By doing it this way:
1. Sanitize the CFC
2. Cool my wort in a batch
3. Formed a whirlpool of any hops or material in the wort, keeps it out of the fermenter.

If you really want to, which is what I will be doing this summer, you can use your old immersion chiller as a pre chiller when the ground water isn't so hot. Basically place the immersion chiller in an ice bath, run your water through the immersion chiller then into your CFC. Don't just pack ice around the IC, mix it with ice and a little water.

 

[dyqik]

I have two techniques for sanitizing the CFC chiller (and pump and lines). Either I recirculate hot wort (I guess it isn't boiling, but it's probably at 210F by the time the parts have heated up, which is close enough), or I make my 2.5 gallons of StarSan up in a bottling bucket, and pump it from there, through the CFC and pump to the fermenting bucket. That puts all the parts in contact with fresh StarSan for about 2 minutes, which is plenty.

Actually, the last few batches, the 2.5g of StarSan has first been used to sanitize a keg and auto-siphon. Then I've emptied StarSan out of the keg into the bottling bucket, transferred the finished previous batch of beer from the fermenter to the keg just after the start of the boil, cleaned the fermenter, then done the above to sanitize the CFC, pump and fermenter. And then I've circulated boiling wort through the CFC and pump for a few minutes before the end of the boil, because I've had everything ready a few minutes before the end of the boil.