Grainfather - Counterflow into kettle first and then into fermenter

[Barge]

Hi everyone,

Just bought a grainfather and it specifically says to NOT recirc the wort back into the kettle.

However, my tap water is 28C so I want to pre-chill with ice water to get the wort down to 18C or so. I'm thinking of recirc wort through counterflow and back into kettle to get the temp down to 50-60 and then use the prechiller and counterflow to go to the fermenter.

Anyone think that will be an issue? Or know why the manufacturer says not to do that?

Cheers

Barge

 

[FatDrew]

No issue with doing that, mate. It’s not recommended on the basis of being an inefficient way to cool the entire batch, but it’s certainly not harmful to the equipment.

 

[raturay]

Your suggestion is exactly how I do mine. Although with my last couple of brews I have connected the pre-chiller within a couple of minutes of the recirc starting. Temp in the fermenter has been mid to high 20s.
The pre-chiller is from a full pack of copper pipe from Bunnings. It may have been around 18 meters??. In an esky with two bags of ice and water for a slurry. I've found that getting the tap water flow rate right is key to getting the most efficient cooling. What the "right" flow rate is pretty much guessing it at the time. I should connect a temp gauge to the outflow.

Love your profile pic Barge. My wife was related to Lucky....

 

[theredone]

Just curious, u intend to cool a bucket or esky of water down and then u drop ur counter flow chiller in that while transferring to lower ground water temp? Or are u actually pumping the cooled water through chiller instead of ground water?

 

[huez]

Not sure how efficient their counterflow chillers are but i just pump ice water through my plate chiller. 20litres of water, 3 bags of ice. Pitching temp in one pass to the fermenter. 4 bags and i can get to lager pitching temp if i get the flows right. End up using the water to do a load of washing.

 

[user 37368]

Tap water was 30c and wort was 34c straight out of the kettle/cfc. There's very little point to recirc back into the kettle.