Cold crashing in a conical

[philly224]

I was thinking about ordering a Spike CF5 conical and I have a question about cold crashing.

I was thinking about using my chest freezer, filling up a keg with cold water, setting it to 32 degrees, and running that water through the temp control lid with a pump. Realistically in a 50-60 degree basement how cold could I get the wort to?

 

[pennengr]

My guess is you’ll have trouble getting into the mid 30s but I’ll be interested in what you find out. I’m running 5 gallon batches in a CF10 with glycol, and without good insulation, 33-34 was a challenge.

I’m thinking that I remember Elco from BrewPi trying something similar to what you’ve suggested and running into trouble. It may be on his blog. The issue is the rate of heat transfer in the air of the chest freezer to the cooling reservoir.

 

[philly224]

My guess is you’ll have trouble getting into the mid 30s but I’ll be interested in what you find out. I’m running 5 gallon batches in a CF10 with glycol, and without good insulation, 33-34 was a challenge.

I’m thinking that I remember Elco from BrewPi trying something similar to what you’ve suggested and running into trouble. It may be on his blog. The issue is the rate of heat transfer in the air of the chest freezer to the cooling reservoir.

Interesting thanks! I guess ill find out.

If I can get it down to 50-55 degrees for lagering I will be happy, then I can just cold crash in my kegs. I had a few homebrews and ordered the CF5 tonight.

 

[pennengr]

Found the thread:
https://community.brewpi.com/t/water-flow-control/2082

 

[philly224]

Found the thread:
https://community.brewpi.com/t/water-flow-control/2082

Interesting. Do you think I would be able to get it to like 55F for lagering? Even if I can't ill just use my brew bucket in my chest freezer to lager but it would be nice regardless.

 

[pennengr]

Sorry - not sure.

 

[pocketmon]

I used a keg inside my small fridge. the temperature outside is around 75-77. I even couldn’t keep the beer at 68F. I ended up bending the plate into water.

 

[philly224]

I used a keg inside my small fridge. the temperature outside is around 75-77. I even couldn’t keep the beer at 68F. I ended up bending the plate into water.

Hmm interesting. Maybe I need to rethink this.

If I kept the fridge at 33F, insulated the lines and got the Neoprene jacket for the fermenter I wonder if I could get it to at least 65F. Not sure I want to try it if chances arent good though...

 

[pocketmon]

I use two layers of reflex to wrap my fermenter. What I saw was the the temperature of chilling water drop less than rise. The air chills chilling water too slow that eventually the temp. rose to a temp. that can’t keep the desired temp. of beer. The compressor did keep working all the time, resulting frozen plate, which makes it worse.
If you want to try, I would suggest to have a fan inside the fridge or freezer.