Counterflow chiller, tips on how to use it

[hotbeer]

If you have an old immersion chiller, you could add that back to the system and put it in a pot with water and ice. That will get your water supply down to a nice much cooler temp before going into the counter flow chiller.

 

[WesBrew]

As I read this your recomending slowing the cooling water to be more effective, and letting the wort go full speed that the pump will deliver? That makes no sense. The wort needs contact time to transfer the heat to the cooling water. Short of adding additional length to the tubing, the only way to provide adequate contact time is to regulate the flow rate.
[/QUOTE

thats not what i'm trying to say. The coolant water should be unrestricted. the wort has to be slowed down, as you said for more contact time. the valve to restrict it should be on the outlet end of the chiller. it might work both ways but its better on the outlet to let full wort volume flow into the chiller and slow its exit. i think there is better contact and heat removal inside the chiller.

 

[user 254557]

I completely agree with WESBREW, the cold water flow should be able to be unrestricted and slow down the wort, I have a CFC that I made from my old immersion chiller and food grade hose, although I do agree with the cold water flow being unrestricted I dont believe that it should flow "wide open", I found that with mine I slow the slow of the wort to about a third of my valve open, I am using three piece valves with a Mark II wort pump, I don't run the cold water wide open because the flow can be too fast and prevent the thermal transfer from wort to water just because of how fast it is flowing, all faucets are different but I would try slowing the chilling water flow little bits at a time until you can get the hot water out that your looking for, with my set-up I do 10 gallon batches and start recirculating through the chiller with no water running to sanitize for about the last 15 min, then with my recipe I kill the boil have a 10 min hop stand and then turn on the chilling water, but at that point I am coming out of my chiller at about 73 degrees and go straight into my fermenter from the kettle. Getting the flows for both just right is kind of a pain but just as long as the hoses are connected correctly youll just have to play with the flow rates.

Good Luck.....................CHEERS

 

[eric19312]

thats not what i'm trying to say. The coolant water should be unrestricted. the wort has to be slowed down, as you said for more contact time. the valve to restrict it should be on the outlet end of the chiller. it might work both ways but its better on the outlet to let full wort volume flow into the chiller and slow its exit. i think there is better contact and heat removal inside the chiller.

I agree if water conservation is not an issue your chiller will work better with unrestricted flow of the coolant water.

I disagree that it matters whether the valve restricting flow of the wort through the chiller is before the chiller or after the chiller. You can't possibly flow more wort into the chiller than is exiting the chiller unless you got a chiller designed by Mary Poppins or Dr Who.

 

[stealthfixr]

I struggle with post-boil cooling with fairly warm ground water here in southern AZ. I've been using a CF chiller, but 80-ish water in the summer led to very long cooling times and a lot of water used.

So, I decided to try something new/better and bought a Exchillerator Maxx. First time using it last weekend, the wort went from near boiling to 82F (with 78F garden hose water) in ONE PASS. I was astounded--grabbed my fermentor and filled it within minutes of ending the boil. I used so much less water than my previous CF or immersion chillers. Well worth the $$$s spent.

 

[Tobor_8thMan]

You want to balance the flow between the hot wort and the chilled water to achieve the desired chilled wort temp. Adjust the valves accordingly.

If tap water isn't cold enough, then do some sort of pre-chilling of the water.

 

[DuncB]

@schmurf
I'm brewing this weekend and will be using the coolossus. I'll set it up after the whirlpool phase and see how the temp drops. Rate, cooling water temp etc and get some pictures see whether I can achieve the boiler to fermentor step. Will also have a look at it recirculating back into the boiler and see how the temp drops with that.

 

[Tobor_8thMan]

"recirculating back into the boiler" Was the wort filtered leaving the boiler (brew kettle)? If so, recirculating isn't helping as you're putting filtered wort back into unfiltered wort.

If really want to do, I'd recommend putting into a different clean and sanitized kettle (in other words not back into the boiler.

 

[DuncB]

Well it's recirculating thru the cooler whilst whirlpooling, so the trub trapper is catching the cone in the middle so I suppose it's part of the "filtering".
Then when whirlpool finished and it's doing final settle the wort is normally just above pitching temp and then I disconnect the cooling circuit and clean it. Then just pump from the kettle into the fermenter, oxygenate and pitch the yeast.

 

[Tobor_8thMan]

Any oxygenation problems with this method?

 

[DuncB]

Well I'm not making turbulence with the whirlpool and I oxygenate when in the fermenter using pure oxygen.

 

[Tobor_8thMan]

Adding oxygen with the wort temp too high is bad.

 

[DuncB]

Yes but I'm adding the oxygen at pitching temperature!

If it's Kveik then it's 35 celsius and if its something else it's cooler.
After that I keep the oxygen out of the fermenter and the rest of the process and packaging.

 

[schmurf]

Thanks everyone for your input!

 

[DavidWood2115]

the cold water flow should be able to be unrestricted and slow down the wort

Both the wort and the water need to flow fast enough that you achieve turbulent flow in both "sides" of the heat exchanger (Reynolds number > 2900). If either is slow enough that you have laminar flow (Re < 2300), then it will take a very long time to chill, e.g., because the wort along the inside of the tube will chill, but won't mix with the hot wort in the middle. If your cooling water is flowing fast already, I would guess that you need to turn the wort flow rate UP so that you achieve turbulent flow in the wort.

That chiller has an 11.9mm i.d. wort tube. According to my spreadsheet, if you are taking more than about 5 1/2 minutes to pump 20L of 1.065 wort through that tube, you will have fully laminar flow, which almost certainly will not result in adequate chilling. If you pump that same 20L through in 4 minutes or less, you will have fully turbulent flow, which will vastly improve your heat exchange. Of course, if the surface area of the heat exchanger is too small or doesn't have enough thermal conductivity, then you have a different problem. But since others have had good luck with that chiller, my bet is on laminar flow.

 

[Brewski_59]

thats not what i'm trying to say. The coolant water should be unrestricted. the wort has to be slowed down, as you said for more contact time. the valve to restrict it should be on the outlet end of the chiller. it might work both ways but its better on the outlet to let full wort volume flow into the chiller and slow its exit. i think there is better contact and heat removal inside the chiller.

OK so I mis understood when you said no one should restrict wort flow into the chiller. Well in my case, and probably a lot of others. the valve to regulate wort flow is on the outlet of the pump. So thats where wort flow regulation occurs. Placing a valve on the outlet of the chiller would result in the same effect. but an unnecessary addition to a system that already has the means to regulate flow with a valve on the pump outlet. If anything I would agree that no one should restrict the inlet to a pump.

 

[ScrewyBrewer]

I use gravity and the ball valve on the kettle to adjust the flow of wort through my CCFC. The way the system is arranged there is no need to pump the wort through the chiller.