Beer Forum

OK, I'm looking for opinions and what y'all do. I just did my first ten gallon batch in a keggle. I have a cfc but in my water-only runs it took a long time for the wort to gravity drain and I am worried about the cold break clogging or just nastifying the cfc. So, this time I used my 25' copper IC just to see how low I could get it. Went from boiling temp to about 85 in 30 mins using 75 degree summertime water here in VA. This was okay as I chilled the fermenters in water/tshirt baths down to 70 in my basement in another two hours before pitching. I guess I'm thinking about going to a pump through the cfc, back into the keggle until cooling and then removing the cfc and draining. Can this get the temps down to cooling water temp and how long does it take y'all? Other option would be go with a 50' ic but that would cost nearly as much as a pump!

Thanks to y'all who chime in.


Oh, BTW, chilling the way I did this time I got rid of a lot of cold break but some still made it to the fermenters.

I think there is enough evidence that some of the quickest chilling times for homebrewers can be achieved using a "whirlpool immersion chiller", like the one Jamil invented.

See http://www.mrmalty.com for more info, or check out my rendition of it at : http://www.wortomatic.com/articles/Mylo ... -O-Chiller

Mylo

oh, word. I hadn't seen that but I'm getting a hint here. that's the second time in as many posts I've been referred to jamil's page. Guess I'll ingest the whole thing! Since listening to BN i have the feeling his way is a great way in most cases. Who can argue with his success?

CB

i also wonder how well this would work with 25' for the time being. I seriously manually whirlpooled my wort inside the ic this time - wouldn'tve got near the drop in temp in the 30 min if I hadn't.

cb

Hmm, doing some complex math here....


.....



alright... it will be half as fast!

(ok, you can say it... I'm an )



Mylo

you lost me





mr. wizard

If you added a recirculation circuit to your 25' coil, it would chill the wort half as fast as my 50' coil (well, a little slower still, because mine is 1/2" ID).

Sell that one to a friend (or keep it as a prechiller) and build a nice big one for your 10 gal batches. You'll thank me later.


Mylo

I would by a pump and pump your wort thru the cfc,

I used to to that, but now I gravity drain from my garage into my basement, and the cfc is located in my basement.

Currently I have a whirlpool chiller rigged up with my cfc, but I'm going back to just cfc.

Not to bash the whirlpool chiller, but it's added too much time to my brewday. With my CFC whirlpool, I can chill 11 gallons to 70 degrees in 30 minutes. But I need to let it sit for an additional 30 minutes so the cold break will settle out. If I don't the first carboy is full of cold break the the second one is clear. Before I hooked up the whirlpood chiller, I could have my carboys filled and yeast pitched, in 30 minutes after flame out.

Maybe the cfc whirlpool does not work as well as the immersion whirlpool, but in either case I would think that cold break would be continuously recirculated, so in either design you would need some settling time.

I'm thinking that if I'm doing a pilsner and am concerned with dms and coldbreak, I could quickly move 10 gallons thru my cfc and say cool it to 100 degrees or so, chill it to 40 degrees overnight, then rack it off the cold break in the morning, then pitch.

Again, I'm not bashing the whirlpool chiller, but after spending the time to build one, I just can't deal with the additional brewtime.

When I used a pump and the cfc, I would back flush it with 5 gallons of boiling water to clean it. Recirculating pbw thru it would also be a good idea. I would not worry about gunking it up with coldbreak. Usually the cold break does not form until the wort sits in the carboy for a few minutes.

Mark