Pumping ice water through counter flow chiller

[Parks]

just in case it hadn't been asked, are you making sure the wort leaving the GF is slowed? dial back the valve on the side.

Slowing it down can't make the wort any cooler than the input water temp.

 

[Bonenose]

My tap water runs about 36 degrees use it until I hit about 45 degrees or so then use pump to recirc from esky full of frozen water bottles, soon as I'm done water bottles go back in freezer for next time also good to have to throw in with a six pack to keep cool when travelling.

 

[XaxisYcross]

I can totally relate to this issue. I am on the mid north coast of NSW and our tap water is rarely cold enough to get close to pitching temp. I have a Grainfather and it was always something that I grappled with. I tinkered and toiled and tried a few different ways to get the CFC to work via a pre chiller.

This included buying a coiled hose to run the tap water through an ice slurry in an esky and then buying a SS immersion chiller which I fitted with hose fittings to attach to the coiled garden hose. This I put in the same esky with an ice slurry.

Neither of these things were particularly effective beyond the first third of fermenter filling and my final pitching temp ended up being 26 degrees. Frustrating.

So I gave up on the CFC and just went to no chilling, which has its positives and its negatives.

I will try again in the depths of Winter and see how it goes.

The earlier suggestions of using the ice water as a trim chilling solution once the wort is a bit cooler sounds like the correct way to go.

I feel your pain. I see all these overseas brewers who struggle keeping their brews warm enough but rapid cooling to pitching temp is my bugbear!

 

[fletcher]

Slowing it down can't make the wort any cooler than the input water temp.

oh i know. i was just checking to make sure he wasn't opening it up. making sure he was getting it the coldest he could with his tap water.

 

[Wolfman86]

Well it was a big day, brewed a porter and a pale. Didnt have the time to organise pumps and ice so just ran with the cfc and the tap water which was at bout 24 degrees, first brew i recirculated to 55 then transfered to fermenter and it got down to 28. Second i just transferred straight from the grainfather through the chiller after 5 minutes of circulating to sterilise, that got down to bout 30 and is still in the fridge waiting ro get to pitch temp. Has anybody ever left a brew overnight to get to temp

 

[Brewno Marz]

I have the same problem in Brisbane. Water was coming out the tap at around 30 C in Feb and March. I brew 40 litre batch (into fermenter) and have found I can chill quite quickly by going short by 4litres of wort into the kettle (48 litres instead of full 52 litres) then from flame out:
- high flow tap water through immersion chiller
- progressively put in 8 x 1 litre hdpe milk capped bottles of frozen water - outside sanitised with phosphoric acid
- at about 35 deg C add 3.6 litres of ice direct to wort (boil water, cool and freeze day before), which is the 4 litres short less my 10% allowance for boil off

Remove bottles as they defrost.

Down to 20 deg C & in the fermenter in 20 min.

 

[Matplat]

Yep, pretty much every brew that doesn't get down to pitching temps is left in the fridge overnight to cool the rest of the way. If you cleaned and sanitised properly, this delay in pitching shouldn't be a concern.