Stout Stainless Counterflow Chiller

[DRog00]

Anyone interested in buying one of these? I have one that I've used for 6 months and recently switched to a plate chiller. My tap water is nowhere near cold enough to use this thing effectively.

 

[milldoggy]

Anyone interested in buying one of these? I have one that I've used for 6 months and recently switched to a plate chiller. My tap water is nowhere near cold enough to use this thing effectively.

Me me me

 

[jdpils]

Did a test:

- 8 Gallons in a 10 gallon kettle
- Starting with boiling water
- Tap water was 46 f
- Water was pumped from the BK through the chiller and returned into the bottom of the BK creating a whirlpool.

Results:

- 140 f in 4 minutes
- 88 f after 10 minutes
- 57 f after 20 minutes

Here's a graph of the kettle temperature over time:


View attachment 566932
Also, attached are some photos of the welded joints.

View attachment 566929 View attachment 566930 View attachment 566931

So I received my stout chiller and have been impressed with the construction. My goals were first to speed my chilling process up as my old chiller was taking longer than I wanted, second switch to all stainless. I did not like the idea of a plate chiller as I boil whole hops loose and whirlpool through my chiller. Since 1998, over 300 batches, I have used a Heart's Homebrew CFC, which is 16 feet of 1/2 straight copper inside 1 inch cold rolled steel. Overall I highly recommend this chiller for up to 15 gallons Prior to upgrading from a 15 gallon keggle to a 20 gallon kettle, I estimated my chilling took 25 - 30 minutes for 11 - 12 gallons via gravity and I generally reached 10 to 12 F over the water temp. I never paid much mind to it frankly as it worked well.

With the larger wort volume I have found the Heart's chiller alone to take more than 30 minutes. With an added immersion chiller it worked OK for my first few batches but want a faster process that was less complex. Hopefully today I will repeat your test today with both my old and new chiller. However, here are the results I have so far. I connected the stout chiller in series with my old chiller and a dial thermometer at the outlet of each. So the boiled water from my kettle passes through the Stout chiller first then the Heart chiller. Chill water was 68F. At 2 gallons per minute which is fully open on my March 13gpm pump the Temps were 116F out of the Stout (stainless) and 86 after the Heart's (copper). At 1 gallon per minute (My goal for 17.5 gallons of wort is .75 gallons per minute min), the temps were 96F and 78 F. So at this flow rate it appears I need both chillers. Next I ran boiling water through each separately at my old flow rate of .5 gallons per minute and the temperatures were 80F and 84F for the Stout and Heart's chillers respectively. I would make the comment that my wort appears 4F cooler than the dial thermometer and have noticed this on several batches. While my digital probe thermometer correlates well with the bi metals at mash and boiling temps, I wonder if it's response time is too slow or affected by the ambient some?

So right now I can conclude the Stout chiller has given me a 4 degree delta over the Heart's chiller. For me it seems there is no reason not to keep both connected if it speeds the process and with an ice bath get even cooler I plan to run your test above but with 15 gallons of water for both chillers and experiment. I also plan to test recirculating an ice bath through the Heart's chiller as well as an immersion chiller. More to follow. Cheers!

 

[Schreiner]

Well I finally got a chance to do my first trial run with the chiller today with water. All I can say is WOW!. Absolutely amazing the difference between this one and my old stainless kegco counterflow. I tested with only 15 gallons of water which is about 8 gallons less than a normal brew for me. My ground water is right at 75* right now, I started off with the water boiling, started circulating it to whirlpool (which did not go well with my single pump and so much tubing, I might have to try dual pumps like vtipsy.) Within 30 seconds of circulating I turned on my chill water, in literally under a minute the water in the kettle was at 180* and the output from the chiller was 74* close enough that I would transfer straight to the fermenter at this point.. Unbelievable how well it worked I am very pleased. View attachment 581295

What are your flow rates of the wort and chilling water to achieve this?

 

[Drumminguy81]

What are your flow rates of the wort and chilling water to achieve this?

First off I misspoke. My ground water is closer to 65* not 75. I am unsure what my flow rates are, the water is on full blast and wort flow reduced to about 3/4 open ball valve.. maybe next brew I can do some flow rate timing and let you know..

 

[Schreiner]

First off I misspoke. My ground water is closer to 65* not 75. I am unsure what my flow rates are, the water is on full blast and wort flow reduced to about 3/4 open ball valve.. maybe next brew I can do some flow rate timing and let you know..

It would be great if you did! When are you brewing next?

 

[TheFlyingSparge]

Stout chiller looks great! I have a cheap stainless counterflow hooked up to my 1/2bbl setup and haven’t looked back either. Cools at about 8-10 degrees per minute. Agree counterflow is the way to go especially with hops in the line. Love that the stout whirlpools in. That’s a really nice feature.

 

[Drumminguy81]

It would be great if you did! When are you brewing next?

Hopefully in the next couple weeks. I will let you know. Unfortunately I just brewed a couple days ago and didnt think to check. I also went a different route, I just ran the chiller while whirlpooling until the wort was almost to pitching temp and then shut off to let settle before transferring. I did also added a second pump at the outlet of the stout chiller and replaced the inlet pump with a chugger for a little more flow. I now get a better whirlpool but not sure I like 2 pumps to do so. Looking into a chugger max to hopefully achieve the flow with only 1 pump..

 

[alphakry]

anyone using the Stout SS counterflow - how have your results been further into your use?

Also how is everyone mounting theirs?

 

[milldoggy]

Used mine twice, much better than my ss convulated one. How much faster, hard to say. I made a shelve under my brew stand. Can snap pics if you want

 

[postalbunny]

anyone have the dimensions on the exterior of the stout unit? Considering upgrading over the kegco stainless... need to be sure this unit would fit under my brewstand.

 

[HDBagger]

anyone have the dimensions on the exterior of the stout unit? Considering upgrading over the kegco stainless... need to be sure this unit would fit under my brewstand.

From their website.

Total length = 31 feet. Inner tube 12mm OD x 1mm thick
Outer tube 19mm x 1.5mm thick
Overall diameter = 300mm
10 loops
Wort connections: 1.5" Tri Clamp. Water connections: 1/2" Male NPT
All stainless steel counter-flow wort chillers for homebrew use with tri clamp ends for the wort.
300mm=11.81" according to my calculater.

 

[SanPancho]

Duplicate

 

[SanPancho]

Still have the Shell and tube, sitting on a shelf with my copper chillzilla. I have a stainless one that Williams sold a few years back. I debated running both the Shell and tube with my CFC, but I like simple. Rather have one efficient unit.

You use the shell tube at all? Wondering how that worked for you. Need to chill 1bbl batches and cfc probably not gonna cut it.

 

[postalbunny]

Heads up on this.. i ended up getting the stout CFC as well. The tubes are smaller than 1/2" diameter and due to the length it provides considerable pressure drop. The fittings are 1/2", but the length and the diameter cause a significant drop in pressure. Using a pond pump to pump chilled/icebath water struggles, a garden house has no problem. My chugger pumps does pump through fine, but it's considerably (1/2 speed maybe?) slower compared to a plate or the normal kegworks CFC. I can still get a slight whirlpool effect and trub does cone up in the middle no problem. But it takes longer to cycle through 5g or 10g of wort than at full speed. The temps exiting are a lot closer to the water temp than the kegworks CFC; i'm able to get 113-115degF with 212degF wort and 80degF ground water. With the kegworks CFC i was upwards of 120-130degF. That's on first pass... i recirculate into the kettle to drop temps until the egress is pitching temp.

I ultimately ended up just getting a plate chiller though which is giving me 89degF and significantly faster speeds (enough to push a small sprayball again).

 

[RPh_Guy]

kegworks CFC

Are you talking about the KegCo stainless CFC?

 

[postalbunny]

Are you talking about the KegCo stainless CFC?

yes sorry... the kegco one. Basically this:
https://www.amazon.com/Kegcos-Stain...rds=kegco+stainless+cfc&qid=1582583709&sr=8-4

I liked this initially because it was stainless (lodo guys have a field day with copper stuff), no need for hop screens, and it had high flow rate. Just not enough contact area to efficiently cool it.

After trying the stout and then plate chiller again i'm back to plate chillers. I'm able to egress the plate chiller at almost the same temp of the water chilling and flow rate is unaffected. Just have to use a hop screen when doing NEIPAs to make sure i don't clog it up.

 

[RPh_Guy]

Thanks for the info. I chill the entire batch down to pitch temp in the kettle, so for my process the higher flow rate will compensate for the reduced surface area.

Cheers!

 

[postalbunny]

i do the same... recirc back into the kettle. however, the temp drop on the kegco one was not sig enough. i have 40degF water due to using an something similar to an icebath. i would get a good drop first few passss, 212degF to 130fegF, then tempz would drop to around 95-100 when inlet temps were 130. but toward the end with 40degF water instead of hose water i would struggle to get down below 70 exit with 80-85 inlet. to go from 212 to 65 using a combo of hose water (texas 85deg water) and ice eater (35degf) would take over 30m on a 5g batch

the stout cfc was faster to chill from 212 to 65, aprox 15-20 minutes. the flow rate was slower, but the temp delta was more than compensating.

the plate chiller beats the pants off both... basically single pass so im chilling the kettle down to 65 in aprox 5-10 min. i have to use a hop spider or filter though.

ill prob be listing both my CFCs in used section if your still wanting one. imo, the plate chiller is cheaper unless you count the price of an SS hop spider.

 

[milldoggy]

Not any more, the stout if the best of the bunch. A large enough shell and tube would be fine, this one was just too short. It for work though.

You use the shell tube at all? Wondering how that worked for you. Need to chill 1bbl batches and cfc probably not gonna cut it.

 

[kd7ugy]

i do the same... recirc back into the kettle. however, the temp drop on the kegco one was not sig enough. i have 40degF water due to using an something similar to an icebath. i would get a good drop first few passss, 212degF to 130fegF, then tempz would drop to around 95-100 when inlet temps were 130. but toward the end with 40degF water instead of hose water i would struggle to get down below 70 exit with 80-85 inlet. to go from 212 to 65 using a combo of hose water (texas 85deg water) and ice eater (35degf) would take over 30m on a 5g batch

the stout cfc was faster to chill from 212 to 65, aprox 15-20 minutes. the flow rate was slower, but the temp delta was more than compensating.

the plate chiller beats the pants off both... basically single pass so im chilling the kettle down to 65 in aprox 5-10 min. i have to use a hop spider or filter though.

ill prob be listing both my CFCs in used section if your still wanting one. imo, the plate chiller is cheaper unless you count the price of an SS hop spider.

Which plate chiller are you using? Did you end up selling your CFC's?

 

[postalbunny]

Which plate chiller are you using? Did you end up selling your CFC's?

I can't recall exactly.. I think I ended up with a B3-36A-20, can't recall if i got the '-20' or '-30'.. the length is what equalizes temps better though. You'd stack plates on if you're needing higher flow and less pressure drop. Pretty sure I got the '-20".

I still have the stout chiller bolted to my stand... in case I ever need it. I tried to sell a ss brewtech infusion mash tun but found out that shipping on heavy items like this runs $50-100 for us normal consumers. Prob best to try and sell them local...

 

[coolitfast]

No problem! I'm laying the full court press down for Father's Day with the family right now, so I'll post pictures if/when I get one.

I really hope Stout does well with this one; the Kegco one was really the only stainless counterflow option on the market before this came out, but it isn't enough surface area to be effective. If I'm going to drop $200 for something, I want it to be worth it. If it sells well, other manufacturers will take notice and start putting new stuff out.

I'd really like it if Exchillerator were available with a stainless tube; I like the design of those with the plastic wire wrap on the outer surface of the tube and using PEX for the outer tube should keep the cost lower. I don't know if I'll wait though - the Stout one looks way too sweet and is basically the same price as a copper Exchillerator Maxx but has a longer and wider wort tube (31ft & 12mm diameter vs. 25ft & 3/8" diameter).

 

[coolitfast]

Yes we offer a Stainless Maxx. Maxx Counterflow Wort Chiller In configuration choose stainless

Configuration

Fitting Type
Add A Pump
Inner Coil Stainless