Counterflow chiller methods

[Zippox]

I was thinking about picking this counterow wort chiller (hose surrounding copper tubing) for $50.

I also own a fountain pump. What method would you recommend for me to chill if I picked it up. Would/should I use the fountain pump submersed in a tub with ice? In the winter I would probably not be able to have access to a constant flow of tap water in the garage so I'm hoping to hear some suggestions on how I should cool.

My batches are around 10-15 gallons currently. I'm not too happy with the 50 minutes it takes to chill my wort using my 25 ft stainless steel immersion chiller and fountain pump submersed in an ice/water bucket.

 

[iijakii]

Are you putting your water return back in the bucket? That ice water is quickly becoming quite warm when you dump some boiling water back in. I'd collect another bucket of cold water and run that through before the ice one. Or maybe you should just run a long hose so you can get tap water.

Or just go set it out in the snow since youre in MN heh.

 

[Zippox]

Are you putting your water return back in the bucket? That ice water is quickly becoming quite warm when you dump some boiling water back in. I'd collect another bucket of cold water and run that through before the ice one. Or maybe you should just run a long hose so you can get tap water.

Or just go set it out in the snow since youre in MN heh.

I was letting the hot water circulate back in the same bucket. l will use two buckets next time with your suggestion. I assume this applies both to using my current one or using the new one I am thinking of buying?

In case anyone was wondering, it took 20 lbs of ice in my bucket + 15 ice cream pails of Minnesota snow to get the temps down to 85*. And a total of 50 min. I would bring the keggle outside and set it in the snow but I can't lift 10 gallons of hot wort.

Back to the talk about the wort chiller I was thinking of buying. What would be the suggestion for using that and chilling my beer?

 

[iijakii]

I think in this case you are limited by your lack of water, not how efficient your chiller is. Since you have good ground-temps there in MN, really you shouldn't have to worry about prechilling with ice. Even your 25ft should get it down to ground temps fairly quickly, if you had running water. So really the best thing you could do is try to get a few more buckets of water/snow, I think.

The first bit of water that comes out of your chiller is like the beer it's chilling - near boiling; you really don't want to dump that back into your chill water. You said you already have a 25ft SS CFC? I wouldn't spend money just to get a larger copper CFC. Unless you meant that you had a 25ft IC.

 

[TIPA0303]

You could run this with your current CFC in parallel if you had two pond pumps and a little extra gravity (or wort pump of you have one of those).

Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Home Brew mobile app

 

[Zippox]

You were correct in assuming I mis-spoke. I currently have a 25 foot immersion chiller. So I should probably pick up that CFC, get a few buckets of ice water and make sure to not recirculate from the first bucket.

 

[Zippox]

So I've been reading talks about using an IC as a prechiller and then use the CFC at the end. Anyone have a picture of how this works?

Also, I'd need to raise my boil kettle if I wanted to gravity feed through the CFC into the primary fermenters, right? Right now it the boil kettle is just high enough to allow that, so if anything needed to feed lower, I know I currently wouldn't be able to get it into the fermenters.

 

[Indian_villager]

I use a coleman cooler full of icewater and it works perfect to cool down 5gal batches working as you mentioned.

 

[fpweeks]

It's more $$ but I have a convoluted counter flow and it is super efficient. If you are limited on water and are buying ice, a more efficient chiller may be worth it.

 

[Misplaced_Canuck]

Buy a garden hose long enough to reach an indoor water source (along with matching adapter) and use a garden hose long enough to reach outside the garage for discharge. You're in MN, the water is PLENTY cold coming out of the tap year round.

That's what I did in Canada, anywas.

MC

 

[Zippox]

Yeah I can for sure get access to a water source in the summer from one of the taps on the outside of the house, but I'm pretty sure SWMBO wouldn't be too happy with having the garage door open to the house with a hose going up to the kitchen in the middle of winter. Maybe that will just be what I have to do though.

 

[Misplaced_Canuck]

Yeah I can for sure get access to a water source in the summer from one of the taps on the outside of the house, but I'm pretty sure SWMBO wouldn't be too happy with having the garage door open to the house with a hose going up to the kitchen in the middle of winter. Maybe that will just be what I have to do though.

Dedicate that garden hose *specifically* for that purpose so that it doesn't get muddied up and puts dirt all over the floors/carpets. It doesn't really have to be the kitchen sink... nearest water access point would work too.

MC

 

[LandoLincoln]

I wouldn't buy that CFC in the picture. It looks like the person that built it used galvanized pipe for the water fittings. Galvanized pipe and copper don't play nice together. The copper pipe is going to corrode fast where the galvanized pipe is touching it.

 

[Zippox]

I wouldn't buy that CFC in the picture. It looks like the person that built it used galvanized pipe for the water fittings. Galvanized pipe and copper don't play nice together. The copper pipe is going to corrode fast where the galvanized pipe is touching it.

Darn, I was planning on picking it up tomorrow for $40.

 

[Zippox]

Does this look like copper or the galvanized steel?

 

[Cathedral]

Does this look like copper or the galvanized steel?
View attachment 175251

Looks like a brass t, but hard to tell. Take a knife and scratch it. If it's gold, it's brass. If it's gray, its galvanized. How corroded it is, I would say no chance it's SS.

 

[LandoLincoln]

Actually, the copper is only touching brass fittings, so you should be okay.

The tee in the middle looks like it's made of red brass.

 

[Zippox]

Here is a pic after a scratch. So the word is it's brass then? And that's fine?

 

[Misplaced_Canuck]

Does this look like copper or the galvanized steel?
View attachment 175251

Looks like rusted black pipe to me...

MC

 

[LandoLincoln]

Yeah, it looks like it's brass.