Got a counterflow wort chiller for Christmas

[hoserbrau]

So my awesome wife got me a counterflow wort chiller for Christmas! The only problem is, I don't have a march pump and my brew kettle does not have a spigot. What is the recommended way to get my hot wort into the chiller? Should I drill a hole and install a spigot in the side of my kettle, or should I look into buying a march pump?

If I try to install a spigot, is it difficult to drill into my aluminum pot? Any recommendations on where to get a decent spigot? I kind of prefer this idea so that I can try using the whirlpool method to keep the hops out of my fermenter.

If I go with the march pump, do you guys have any recommendations on places to purchase? Are they difficult to keep clean?

 

[Chrisl77]

If you get a pump you still need to put a ball valve at the bottom of your pot. I use a hops spider to keep the hops contained and use my pump to recirculate through my chiller and whirlpool back into the pot via another ball valve around the middle of my pot. Aluminum is easy to drill and http://www.bargainfittings.com/ sells easy to install weldless bulkheads.

 

[eastoak]

you can use the pump without a ball valve on the BK but it's a pain, to say the least. a weldless fitting is super easy to install bargainfittings.com has kits and so does brewhardware.com both of those are vendors here and there are probably more. the march pumps are pretty much the same price everywhere, i caught the last of the free shipping deals from austin homebrew so i went with that to save on tax. hops in the fermentor are no big deal but you don't want to clog your chiller with them, i use an all stainless steel hop spider and a hopstopper screen on my diptube.

 

[pelipen]

I gravity feed through mine and it works just fine. I haven't put a valve on my newest pot yet, so I just use a stainless racking cane.

I put hose clamps on the farthest end of the tubing, one by the carboy, one by the cane. Then I run sanitizer through it and close the clamps when it's full. an auto siphon works well for this, but a bottling bucket outlet works too.

Turn the heat off, swirl the wort with the cane to whirlpool. The carboy end I keep in a bowl with sanitizer. Open the top clamp by the cane, then the bottom, sanitizer flows out, when it turns to beer I put the end in the carboy.

Sounds complicated, but it's easy. The pot with the valve is definitely easier though. No need to mess with clamps or priming the siphon.