Counterflow chiller, a fixed flow rate

[scooterism]

Hi All, I use a home made CFC and it work very well, I'm more than happy with it's performance.

There is just one aspect thats brings hassle to the brew day and that is controlling the flow of wort and water.

I use a ball valve from my pump (hot side) and I have a ball valve on the cold water exit on my chiller.

But for me there just seems to be too much dickin' around to get the flow rates ideal.

I'm toying with the idea of making and fitting fixed aperture restricters on the exit side of both channels ie; a stainless disc with a hole of say, 1/4 or 5/16 diameter and work from there.

What are your thoughts?

Do you have a tried and tested method?

Keen to hear..

cheers

 

[TwoCrows]

Another way one can minimize the finicky control hassle is to recirculate the cooling wort back into the kettle until you can control to wort temps coming out of the CFC into the fermenter.

 

[scooterism]

Another way one can minimize the finicky control hassle is to recirculate the cooling wort back into the kettle until you can control to wort temps coming out of the CFC into the fermenter.

So I may need to invest into a thermomerter (Thrumometer) to monitor out going temps. At the mo' I'm going by feel. There is a small exposed part of copper tube I can get a finger on.

 

[TwoCrows]

time4another1 ran a test, direct to fermenter and recirculate to kettle and then onto fermenter. Worth a look.

 

[TwoCrows]

I am planing on chilling and returning back to the kettle via a whirlpool tube to help cool faster ( thermal layering) and to gather the trub into the centre cone. Then last chill onto the fermenter with O2.

 

[scooterism]

time4another1 ran a test, direct to fermenter and recirculate to kettle and then onto fermenter. Worth a look.

I've watched this before and I've just watched it again. May Paul Rest.

Still, even he dicks around a bit with the flow rate/temp.

I'm looking for a way to fix it.

(Would be nice to have 14 degC water coming out of the tap tho')

 

[Hermies]

Hi All, I use a home made CFC and it work very well, I'm more than happy with it's performance.

There is just one aspect thats brings hassle to the brew day and that is controlling the flow of wort and water.

I use a ball valve from my pump (hot side) and I have a ball valve on the cold water exit on my chiller.

But for me there just seems to be too much dickin' around to get the flow rates ideal.

I'm toying with the idea of making and fitting fixed aperture restricters on the exit side of both channels ie; a stainless disc with a hole of say, 1/4 or 5/16 diameter and work from there.

What are your thoughts?

Do you have a tried and tested method?

Keen to hear..

cheers

I saw flow rate restricters on a you tube channel and proved to work very well unfortunately I don't remember which one for I do watch a lot of brewing videos

 

[klangers]

It's better to make a bypass from the pump outlet to the pump inlet, and put a valve in there. This will more accurately control your flow than simply throttling the pump.

What you really want is an atemperation loop, as we call it. The problem is you'll need another pump, and a cooling water vessel. On the coolant side, you bypass the HEX outlet to the pump inlet, put a valve in there, and then this allows you to "temper" the wort outlet temperature by adjusting the coolant temperature.

I'd strongly advise against orifice plates - aside from being a potential place for scum and hop matter to build up, you want to maximise your flowrate through your heat exchanger. As you say, a constant flow rate is better so you don't start introducing more non-linearities from the varying heat transfer rate.

 

[TheWiggman]

I don't see that there should be too much dicking around if you have water coming out of your tap that is going to be at a constant temp. I've beaten around this bush before but when it comes to heat exchangers, more flow = better transfer. If you're not concerned with the water usage, here is what I would do -

1. Turn the water on flat out
2. Adjust the flow of the wort through the chiller until it comes out at your target temp
3. If after opening the wort valve 100% the wort temp is below target, leave it at 100% and throttle back the water flow until the wort comes out at your target temp.

Straightforward.

So I may need to invest into a thermomerter (Thrumometer) to monitor out going temps. At the mo' I'm going by feel. There is a small exposed part of copper tube I can get a finger on.

If you don't already have a thermometer how do you know what temp you're getting to? No need for a fancy inline job, sticking a sanitised thermometer in the wort flow into the fermenter will do the job.