Wort Cooling Concept

[beerthirty]

Not grain, but trub and hop debris would be my concern. I'm just not convinced that everything would pass through the narrow gaps of the plate chillers. Too many hard to reach corners for my peace of mind. OTOH, I know several people who use them without problems, so maybe my concern is unfounded.

To solve that issue I put mine in the oven on self clean. When its done just rinse the ash out.

 

[Catt22]

I think Catt's design will work for what the goal is but switching between two different chillers (that have to be sanitized) seems like a waste of energy to me.

If you wanted faster flow through a CFC, you can build one with a 1/2" OD core and 3/4" ID hose. I wouldn't go any bigger on the core without using convoluted.

I personally picked up a huge plate chiller on ebay for $100 and with tap water around 45F, I can empty 11 gallons into the fermenters at 60F output in less than 8 minutes.

Yeah, there probably won't be a need to switch back to my original chiller. Might have to slow the pumping rate for the final trip into the fermenter, but that shouldn't be a problem at all. Cleaning and sanitizing isn't really much trouble. I just hook everything up in a looped circuit, including all of the hoses and circulate hot cleaning solution through it. While probably overkill, I sometimes let it circulate overnight.

I also considered making another tubing in hose chiller with larger copper tubing as you suggested. I experimented a little with some 1/2" ID soft copper, but had trouble bending it without it kinking. There's probably a way to do it, but it may require some special equipment that I don't have.

 

[WortMonger]

To solve that issue I put mine in the oven on self clean. When its done just rinse the ash out.

Yep, I bought a pressure canner that can handle it and love the sterilization factor. Star-San is awesome, but can't compare to 30 minutes at 15 psi in the P-canner.

 

[Catt22]

Yep, I bought a pressure canner that can handle it and love the sterilization factor. Star-San is awesome, but can't compare to 30 minutes at 15 psi in the P-canner.

Plus with the pressure cooker you can can wort for starters and store the jars at room temperature. A pressure cooker is near the top of my want list.

 

[Catt22]

My High Volume Rapid Chiller fabrication in progress. Should have it completed this evening. Hope to try it out before the end of the week.

Thought I'd post an update. Ran a test this evening using plain water. It worked very well exceeding my most optimistic expectations. Dropped the temp from boiling to 130 deg. F in under four minutes. I forgot to measure the tap water temp, but I think its around 55 or so. I continued chilling down to typical pitching temperature of 75 deg F. Approxmately twelve minutes total time elapsed.

I plan to use it for a twelve gallon batch of IPA tomorrow. We'll see how well it performs under actual brewing conditions.

 

[WortMonger]

Well, I am so glad it worked. I admit I was skeptical, but am very pleased you didn't pay for copper you can't use.
Keep the information coming and "Rock it man!" :rockin:

 

[Catt22]

Well, I am so glad it worked. I admit I was skeptical, but am very pleased you didn't pay for copper you can't use.
Keep the information coming and "Rock it man!" :rockin:

You were hardly the only skeptic. I had serious doubts myself. This was a low risk experiment as I had most of the materials on hand. Gonna brew with it today if all goes well.