Immersion AND counterflow...why not both?

[BrewKnob]

I could hook up my whirlpool recirculation to go through a counterflow while I was running the immersion...

Anyone do this?

 

[Trail]

I could hook up my whirlpool recirculation to go through a counterflow while I was running the immersion...

Anyone do this?

You have an immediate technical problem in your water supply's rate of flow: no matter how many hose outlets you have on your house, they're all being fed by the same 3/4" pipe in your basement/crawlspace, or a 1" pipe if you are exceptionally lucky. The pressure coming through the meter should be constant, and your hose gets most of that pressure when it's the only valve open (I.E., there isn't much "free" water throughput waiting to be tapped.)

This means that if you open a second hose, the pressure is divided between the two hoses, which reduces the efficiency of both chillers by around half. If you have a 1" mains pipe, you'll have a slightly smaller drop, but only if the pipe doesn't drop to 3/4" before the lines to each hose diverge.

So to do this, you'd need a large reservoir tank of cold water, and a pump to generate the pressure needed to drive the second chiller. This is a lot of expense and work, because...

Immersion or counterflow alone is already "good enough". If there's a hop flavor you are missing due to whirlpool length, odds are good you can compensate with some combination of whirlpool hops and dryhopping.

The additional cleaning burden is nothing to sneeze at, either.

 

[BrewKnob]

You have an immediate technical problem in your water supply's rate of flow: no matter how many hose outlets you have on your house, they're all being fed by the same 3/4" pipe in your basement/crawlspace, 1" if you are exceptionally lucky. The pressure coming through the meter should be constant, and most of it goes into your hose.

This means that if you open a second hose, the pressure is divided between the two hoses, which reduces the efficiency of both chillers by around half. If you have a 1" mains pipe, you'll have a slightly smaller drop, but only if the pipe doesn't drop to 3/4" before the lines to each hose diverge.

So to do this, you'd need a large reservoir tank of cold water, and a pump to generate the pressure needed to drive the second chiller. This is a lot of expense and work, because...

Immersion or counterflow alone is already "good enough". If there's a hop flavor you are missing due to whirlpool length, odds are good you can compensate with some combination of whirlpool hops and dryhopping.

The additional cleaning burden is nothing to sneeze at, either.

Neighbors hose!

 

[Trail]

Neighbors hose!

Now you're thinking with portals. :fro:

 

[metaltim]

A pre chiller would do more good.. get your ground water colder, and there is no cleaning/sanitation considerations.

 

[GoeHaarden]

A pre chiller would do more good.. get your ground water colder, and there is no cleaning/sanitation considerations.

This is what I've attempted to do on the last couple of brews.

Hose water --> inner coil on CFC --> IMC --> water the yard

On the exterior coil of the CFC I recirculated ice water

All while whirlpooling...the last time I did it took 8.5 minutes to get < 100F, and ~15 min to 68F. I still need to perfect the process, but it seems to work pretty good.

 

[brick_haus]

I run my cooling water through an immersion pre chiller while my whirlpool goes through the plate chiller.

 

[k1ngl1ves]

Neighbors hose!

My neighbor is awesome and lets me use his hose when I make 10g batches so I can use an IC and a CFC at the same time. Brewing in the driveway while drinking with your neighbor is the best time to ask. How could he/she say no? Lol!


Of course, we live less than 30 miles from the largest collection of fresh water in the world. No rationing needed...

 

[AkTom]

Easy peazy. Move to Alaska, my well water even on 10 gallons is about 18-20 minutes, boiling to 60*