Boiler to get into AG?

[kearnage]

I got the counterflow chiller completed and ready to go.

10m coiled around my corny keg and cable tied to keep it all in place

[Pinto]

I got the counterflow chiller completed and ready to go.

10m coiled around my corny keg and cable tied to keep it all in place

Don't forget cold goes in the bottom union like I did first time I used my CFC - I struggled to work out why it wasn't cooling effectively till I realised my stupidity

Thats also a looong CFC - you might struggle to keep the beer UP at pitching temp without just cracking open the cold tap. Good for water efficiency tho

[kearnage]

Yeah I've got the hose connector on the bottom so the water will be going in the reverse direction to the wort. The pipe coming off from the top end will feed the waste water into another tub that I'll use to clean everything with afterwards. I already get enough grief from SWMBO about the amount of water I use. This way I'll get a good cooling of wort and heat the water to clean things with in one hit. I'll have to do some playing with water flow rates to find the optimum for getting perfect pitching temp. If it's too long I can always cut some off the length. I thought better that than go too short and be up the creek without a paddle.

As a matter of curiosity, the longer it is would I need to have a faster or slower water flow rate? I thought slower but I'm not a chemical engineer so It's not my area of expertise.

Cheers

[Pinto]

Slower, with less volume used. With cold winter water, I was chilling 23l of wort from boiling to 18 degrees with just 10-12 litres of water - took about 30-40 minutes. Like you I outflow to a spare 20l tub and use the hot water for washing up

[kearnage]

Sounds good to me. Do you just keep adjusting the water rate until the wort is coming out at the correct temp? Or do you adjust flow from boiler and water?

[Pinto]

Mine is a gravity fed system, so on 8mm copper I just open the tap on the kettle wide open and then adjust the cooling water until the wort is leaving the coil at pitching temperature - which as I said, is the tiniest cracked opening on the mains for my 30ft cooler. If your system is going to be pumped, then you'll have to turn the mains cold up accordingly.

[kearnage]

That's good, mine is also gravity fed. My aim was to use the min amount of water.

Thanks for the info

[Pinto]

Welcome - its a surprisingly small amount of water too

As surprising is the temperature of the outlet water - well beond hand hot when it enters the catch tub

[kearnage]

I've been amazed at how efficient these things are. I might heat my kids bath with the run off from my beer making. I get beer, they smell less. Winners all round!!

[kearnage]

I've got one question for the counter flow chillers out there regarding post boil hop additions. If I had an immersion chiller I would cool the wort to 80c quickly, add the post boil hops and steep for 30-60 mins, then cool to pitching temp with the chiller. But as I cool as I transfer to fermenter I would have to wait for it to cool naturally to 80c which will take a while in itself, then hop, wait and then transfer to fermenter. Is that how you all do it or am I missing something?

[Fil]

I've got one question for the counter flow chillers out there regarding post boil hop additions. If I had an immersion chiller I would cool the wort to 80c quickly, add the post boil hops and steep for 30-60 mins, then cool to pitching temp with the chiller. But as I cool as I transfer to fermenter I would have to wait for it to cool naturally to 80c which will take a while in itself, then hop, wait and then transfer to fermenter. Is that how you all do it or am I missing something?

Assuming the cfc is sanitised via recirculating the boil through it without the chilling water? simply recirculate the chill back to the kettle till the 80C target is close/hit and steep your post boil addition as usual before continuing with the cfc chill to the FV..

[kearnage]

See, I knew I was missing something simple. Sometimes you can't see the wood for the trees.

Thanks Fil

[kearnage]

Just to update as I've had a couple of PMs asking.

I finally got around to getting the first brew done. Everything went smoothly (except the kids not going to bed when expected, meaning I had to leave the mash for 150 mins instead of the 90 I planned). Thermowell and controller set-up worked a treat. It was good to be able to just set the target temp and get on with other things. The mash only dropped 2 degrees C over the 150 mins so I very pleased with that. The cheapo elements worked well and with the insulation I added to the boiler, even though it was a crisp 5C in my garage, I only needed one 1.5Kw element to maintain a rolling boil. The chiller was crazy (probably helped by the cold temp in the garage), I had to turn the tap on the smallest amount that I could physically manage so water usage was tiny. Hit a perfect 20C coming out into the fermenter. All in all I was really happy with how it all went. It was the Exmoor Gold clone from GW book that I went for. Target OG was 1.047 and I ended up with 1.051. It's now happily bubbling away under my stairs.

Thank again to everybody who helped me along the way. Without most of the advice I got here I'm sure that things wouldn't have turned out as well as they did.

[kearnage]

It ended up finishing at 1.013 and tasting pretty good even if I do say so myself. It's now in the secondary fermenter from which I will transfer it into my corny and a few bottles late this week. It's now time to get the next brew on.

One question I do have is where you get your CO2 cylinders from? I have all the gas regulating setup and a tap for my cony keg, but I used to get my CO2 from my step father who managed a pub. Sadly that's no longer an option.

Thanks

[Pinto]

Where are you located m8 ? would help us identify local suppliers for you