counterflow chiller

[Crut]

since I am on a limited brewing budget, like many others on here, I am working on gathering the parts for my brew sculpture. Things are coming together well, got a lock down on most everything except a pump. The only other expensive part is the wort chiller. Couple days ago I found these plans to make you own counterflower. I started it this morning and its easier than it looks, and will be finished tomorrow. 2 hours of work at most to make it, including the trip to the hardware store. I think it will work really good. Anyone else try something like this?
http://www.thegatesofdawn.ca/wordpress/ ... t_chiller/

Crut

[BDawg]

That will work well, but like several others, I have abandoned my CF chiller and use my old homemade immersion chiller with Jamil's recirc method and that works GREAT, plus it's cheaper to make and easier to sanitize.

I highly suggest you check out going that route before building the CF chiller.

HTH-

[seanhagerty]

Why can't you recirc through a CFC back into the boil kettle?

Same idea, just different way of doing it.

[Bugeater]

Why can't you recirc through a CFC back into the boil kettle?

Same idea, just different way of doing it.

That's just what I did this last weekend and it worked great. The tap water at the fair wasn't cold enough to cool the wort on the first pass so we recirculated the wort back into the pot to cool the whole batch down to where we were able to get the wort within 5° of the temp of the water right out of the spigot. I may just have to get a cfc and a pot with a spigot so I can do that as a regular part of my routine.

Wayne
Bugeater Brewing Company

[Crut]

Why can't you recirc through a CFC back into the boil kettle?

Same idea, just different way of doing it.

That's just what I did this last weekend and it worked great. The tap water at the fair wasn't cold enough to cool the wort on the first pass so we recirculated the wort back into the pot to cool the whole batch down to where we were able to get the wort within 5° of the temp of the water right out of the spigot. I may just have to get a cfc and a pot with a spigot so I can do that as a regular part of my routine.

Wayne
Bugeater Brewing Company

I have a secret weapon though for my CFC usage, my very deep well. I live outside the cities, and our water in northern MI is nice and clean (at least in my area) and its always really cold when coming up from 150-200 ft. I cant wait to test it out, I dont think i will need to recirc it back to the pot with my cold water though.

[seanhagerty]

Im jealous. I got city water thats about 75 right now

can only cool to about mid 80's with no recirc

[DannyW]

One of the guys in my club rigged up 2 therminators in series. Hose water in the first one, a trickle of icewater gravity fed from the HLT through the other. Quick, cold output and didn't run through a ton of ice.

[Crut]

I built one of these a few weeks ago, and got to test it out last week when one of the guys in our mead brew club made a batch of choc cherry stout. After flame out we let it rest for 10 min, temp was then at approx 190-195, we hooked up the CFC to the garden hose and turn on the water, put an inline thermometer on the beer line. Upon first inspection, we actuially had to slow the water down due to it cooling the wort too much. very pleased. No recirc neccesary.