Counter Flow Chiller

[sosman]

I have nearly finished my counter flow chiller, it will be interesting to see how quickly I can drain the brewpot via gravity.

brewiki: counter flow chiller

 

[roach]

top stuff sosman. i was too lazy and bought one from Goliath's. How much do you reckon it has cost ya in parts?

 

[sosman]

Mate the goliaths one is cheaper.

I reckon if I had gone with the solder fittings it would have worked out around $60 or so. The compression fittings I bought were very pricey (and there are cheaper versions around).

It is also 9m long compared with most I have seen which are 6m long (3rd of a roll). This might be good or bad, depending on how well it cools and how slow/fast it flows.

 

[Andrew]

Hi Sosman,
Like roach I got one from Goliaths, a nice unit, but find I have to pump my wort through it, is way too slow otherwise. Good luck with the gravity feed.

Cheers

 

[roach]

andrew,
haven't used the Goliath CFWC yet - will be on the weekend - without a pump. hopefully not toooo slooowwwww. Will have to get by until i pick up a march pump.

cheers
roach

 

[Jazman]

looks good sos mine is around 8 to 9 metres and works well with gravity

 

[sosman]

Will have to get by until i pick up a march pump.

I rang process pumps a couple of weeks ago and they were all out. He was a bit vague as to when they would get some more.

 

[sosman]

What do people strap these babies together with. Huge cable ties?

 

[ausdb]

Cable ties work well, duct tape is handy but brazing works real well!!

Here's mine

 

[Justin]

Strewth Ausdb, that is one long chiller and all copper-must have been a dear one to build with what I guess is 3/4" copper on the outside. I priced full rolls of 5/8 and 3/4" copper and they were in the order of $180-$200 per roll. Coupled with the inner copper pipe it was going to be dear. Let me guess your a plumber , nah nice chiller though.

So guys what do you reckon the minimum length for a counterflow wort chiller would be? Obviously the real answer lies in how cold your tap water is, but being in Tassie my water is pretty chilly all year round but I'm wondering how well a 6m one would work? (1/3 of a roll-can then make three) Who uses a 6m CFWC, what are your water temps and how low can you go. I like being able to chill my wort to pitching temp and in Tassie I can get my wort down to 10-12C usually with no probs. I would like to go a CFWC in future. Thoughts.

Thanks. Justin

 

[ausdb]

3/8" inside 5/8" outside its about 9m long (what I had left off a roll of 3/8")

I'm an aircon/fridge mechanic so I had those sizes laying around, if you are buying copper go to a refrigeration parts supplier not plumbing for those sizes. Also 5/8" is about the largest size you would want to try and bend by hand around something, especially once you have the 3/8" copper inside it.

I have heard that 6m is about the minimum length, it all comes down to the flow rate in and out, the shorter it is the slower your flow rate of wort to get the same effect

 

[Trough Lolly]

ausdb,
Nice shot of the pickle juice on the bench next to the CFC! My CFC has gaff tape around it - works fine for me!

Cheers,
TL

 

[Tony M]

I recently cut 4 metre off my 1/2" immersion chiller, after crimping it every 40mm to give some turbulence and jacketed it with 20mm poly pipe. It needs to be longer but it was a real struggle to get the poly pipe to slide onto the coil after about three metres.
Some quick figures--- Scarboro scheme water is already up to 19C (it will get to 22C in summer!) but if I restrict the flow to 1 litre per min., I get an outflow at 23C which while not ideal, is adequate. Two hours in the fridge gets me close enough to a reasonable pitching temp.

 

[jayse]

While everyones got their home made CFC shots out!

Heres my big blue one. 12metres.

Jayse

 

[ausdb]

Nice shot of the pickle juice on the bench next to the CFC!

I filled it up and let it soak for a day to clean the scale out of it

 

[sosman]

Cable ties work well, duct tape is handy but brazing works real well!!

You don't have any brazing rod that works with nylon do you?

Thats one cool chiller.

 

[Jovial_Monk]

Mine is 7m long, 6m inside a garden hose.

Typically, even a 40L batch is cooled in 15-20 mins. 23l takes about 40L of water for the chilling

Jovial Monk

 

[Hoops]

Better post a photo of mine then too.
It's 6m of 316 Stainless Steel with black polypie & fittings.
The SS coil cost $50 and the fittings and hose cost $10 (I have 12m of black polypipe left over).
Only used it once and it was a pretty dodgy setup. Because it was gravity fed it was a slow flow but I used my "temprite"/magic box and a small coil of copper tube as a pre-chiller for the tap water. The beer was coming out very cold so I slowed the water flow down. I think that once properly setup it should work well. I intend to get some SS fittings and turn it into a CFWC with inline aeration and thermometer.
Hoops

 

[sosman]

I updated the page on the CFC after firing it up last night.

The flow rate is about 1L/min with about 400mm from top of wort to outlet. The cooled "wort" was 22.5C.