Alright, my first time using my homemade CFC went a bit haywire. I was using hop pellets and leafs in the full wort boil. I learned a bunch of things to improve upon for next time. For one, the standard tubing I am sure everybody uses for siphoning and transferring doesn't hold shape at boiling hot temps. Second, leaf hops get perfectly lodged into the 3/8" OD copper, preventing any further cooling. On the plus side, the first gallon of the boil came out of the CFC at a perfect temp.
My question is regarding getting the hot wort through the CFC in an efficient and less problematic manner. I don't have a keggle or pot with side-wall fittings, just standard kettles. I will be getting one in the future, as soon as I find a used keg I can buy. But for know, how would I draw (siphon) the hot wort up out of the kettle without bringing hops along? I am looking at a Bazooka T hop strainer, but it seems this doesn't work well for hop pellets. I guess I could just use whole leaf hops from now on, but I don't want to necessarily limit myself to that. If I used this Bazooka T, how would I hook it up to my siphon tubing that is connected to the CFC (hose clamps, sotter to another straight piece of copper that sticks up and out of the pot, to which I can connect the CFC inlet tube)? Is there a better type of tubing to use at these temps (this clear, normal tubing just goes limp, leading to stopped siphons)? To start the siphon, I have been just leaving sterile water in the CFC and then opening the clamp when the inlet tube is submerged in the hot wort. This didn't seem to work so well, is the autosiphon rated for this high of temp and if so, can it be rigged up to the Bazooka T in some fashion?
I know this is a back-a!@ed way of doing this, but till I find that 15.5 gal keg, I don't want to buy a kettle with a sidewall fitting. I have a hang up about buying things that can be made, though, in the case of the Bazooka T, it looks like that is actually as cheap as making it.
Thanks all
My question is regarding getting the hot wort through the CFC in an efficient and less problematic manner. I don't have a keggle or pot with side-wall fittings, just standard kettles. I will be getting one in the future, as soon as I find a used keg I can buy. But for know, how would I draw (siphon) the hot wort up out of the kettle without bringing hops along? I am looking at a Bazooka T hop strainer, but it seems this doesn't work well for hop pellets. I guess I could just use whole leaf hops from now on, but I don't want to necessarily limit myself to that. If I used this Bazooka T, how would I hook it up to my siphon tubing that is connected to the CFC (hose clamps, sotter to another straight piece of copper that sticks up and out of the pot, to which I can connect the CFC inlet tube)? Is there a better type of tubing to use at these temps (this clear, normal tubing just goes limp, leading to stopped siphons)? To start the siphon, I have been just leaving sterile water in the CFC and then opening the clamp when the inlet tube is submerged in the hot wort. This didn't seem to work so well, is the autosiphon rated for this high of temp and if so, can it be rigged up to the Bazooka T in some fashion?
I know this is a back-a!@ed way of doing this, but till I find that 15.5 gal keg, I don't want to buy a kettle with a sidewall fitting. I have a hang up about buying things that can be made, though, in the case of the Bazooka T, it looks like that is actually as cheap as making it.
Thanks all