Northern Brewer's stainless counterflow chiller

[stevehaun]

https://www.northernbrewer.com/coll...northern-brewer-stainless-counterflow-chiller

Anybody pull the trigger on this one yet?

 

[Boydric]

I bought one have not used it yet. It is a solid piece of hardware and like that it came with a mounting bracket.

 

[stevehaun]

Please give us feedback after using.

 

[Stand]

I feel inbevalent about it, bud it might sell out. They've sold their soulutions before.

 

[LeeH]

Looks solid. What’s the advantage over a cheaper plate chiller?

 

[Dog House Brew]

The 3/8” is a killer for me.

 

[stevehaun]

Why? The resistance through a plate chiller is likely higher. I have always had to ramp back my wort flow significantly to maintain temps < 70F and I am blessed with 55F well water in northern WI. I think it would be fine for 5 to 15 gallon batches.

 

[Dog House Brew]

I use a 1/2” copper tube that is surrounded with a 1” Goodyear Horizon hose. The flow is too low. I’m going to make my own. We will see, but it has to be as good as anything I’ve seen.

 

[Wizard_of_Frobozz]

Nice to see another stainless counterflow chiller arrive on the market, but my preference (when the money is available...) is the one from Stout

31 ft long tube vs. 18 ft. Wort tube is 10 mm (ID), which is significantly bigger than 3/8" (OD). Tri-Clamp fittings can be nice, but do cost more for the clamps, gaskets, and fittings, so that could be viewed as a positive or negative, depending on your preferences. The Stout one is around $50 more, but the difference in size and capacity seems worth it to me.

See this thread for some pictures and reports from people who have bought the one from Stout.

 

[tofuguy]

I pulled the trigger on this cooler and it comes tomorrow. I was trying to decide between this and the stout. I when for this due to the price and I only run 5 gallon batches. Also I run with camlocks versus tri-clamps, so the 1/2 npts actually were a plus for me. I am coming from a 25 ft copper immersion chiller I had for 6 years, so I am pretty stoked.

 

[Wizard_of_Frobozz]

I pulled the trigger on this cooler and it comes tomorrow. I was trying to decide between this and the stout. I when for this due to the price and I only run 5 gallon batches. Also I run with camlocks versus tri-clamps, so the 1/2 npts actually were a plus for me. I am coming from a 25 ft copper immersion chiller I had for 6 years, so I am pretty stoked.

Excellent! Report back when you've had a chance to use it and let everyone know how it performs.

 

[mongoose33]

@Wizard_of_Frobozz has pointed out a big difference between them--the NB offering is much shorter in length, 18' versus 31'.

I have the Stout offering, and even then, I'm rather disappointed in its ability to chill rapidly. That's always a function of the temp of the water, but when recirculating about 6 gallons of boiling wort it takes a good 20 minutes plus for me to get it down to 70 degrees. Considering it used to take my Jaded Hydra about 5 minutes at these water temps, it's...disappointing.

I'm doing LODO stuff so that's why the stainless, but clearly you give up something when going w/ SS.

I can't imagine how the NB offering would compare, but I can't imagine it's going to be anything but slower.

 

[BrewerBrad82]

The 3/8” is a killer for me.

I use a 1/2” copper tube that is surrounded with a 1” Goodyear Horizon hose. The flow is too low. I’m going to make my own. We will see, but it has to be as good as anything I’ve seen

I would have to disagree. 3/8" tubing will offer a greater ratio of surface area to volume of wort compared to 1/2" tubing. The higher surface area to volume ratio will chill the beer more rapidly, as there is less overall wort to chill in the same amount of surface area when using 3/8".

@Dog House Brew are you using gravity or a pump?

 

[tofuguy]

It has arrived! Overall build quality is spot on. I have to wait for my fittings to arrive from BobbyM then I will run a test run with 6 gallons of water at boil to pitch temp. I have too much beer in the backlog right now to brew anything (2 fermenters filled currently). So this is my best compromise.

 

[stevehaun]

It looks nicely built.

 

[EmmtBot]

Hopefully the NB chiller doesn't suffer the same fault I discovered on the Kegco counterflow I just bought.

Looking a couple inches inside either end of the wort line on the Kegco there is a visible weld ring with some rust on it where the tee fitting was welded on (the outside). It appears the inside of the tube wasn't backgassed while the outside was welded, causing the inside to lose corrosion resistance. Might be worth a peek with a flashlight.

 

[tofuguy]

Hopefully the NB chiller doesn't suffer the same fault I discovered on the Kegco counterflow I just bought.

Looking a couple inches inside either end of the wort line on the Kegco there is a visible weld ring with some rust on it where the tee fitting was welded on (the outside). It appears the inside of the tube wasn't backgassed while the outside was welded, causing the inside to lose corrosion resistance. Might be worth a peek with a flashlight.

I just got back home and checked this evening, I did not see any corrosion or rust. Now I could only see 1-2 inches inside.

 

[tofuguy]

So I ran a performance check on the chiller with 6 gallons of water starting at boiling with recirculating the water for 5 minutes at boiling to simulate a standard sterilization process. Then I cut the power to my element, and turned on the tap water (58 degF) and began recirculating. I then recorded the temperature from my controller every minute. Below is a plot of the performance.

Edit:
I produced a video to document my results of this CFC. It can be found here: