Counter Flow Wort Chillers

[kmar92]

Have any of you brewers tried 1 of these?

https://www.kegland.com.au/wort-heat-exchanger-counterflow-chiller.html

They are el cheapo but I have purchased one to try out, I have only just received it so I am still working out the plumbing which I think that I have solved. Duotight connections to the copper tails (duotight to 1/2" male BSP) so all you duotight disbelievers will not like that but I will see how they go. It is a copper tube that the wort is recirculated through so that should be good for heat transfer, just some poxy looking reinforced poly for the outer but it has a flow control valve for the cold water side so hopefully that will not blow with town water pressure regulated through the flow control valve. Should be fine to keep clean as the copper tube can just have some PBW re-circulated through it when I clean the Nano and then just rinsed. I will of course circulate boiling wort through it initially to sanitise it before starting the cooling.

[iBooz2]

@kmar92 , best to call in @Shamus O'Sean here as I think he used to use one of these or similar.

I have the much bigger brother, an SS one but not tested it out yet but will post results once I have had a chance to put it though its paces.

[Shamus O'Sean]

2 hours ago, kmar92 said:

Have any of you brewers tried 1 of these?

https://www.kegland.com.au/wort-heat-exchanger-counterflow-chiller.html

They are el cheapo but I have purchased one to try out, I have only just received it so I am still working out the plumbing which I think that I have solved. Duotight connections to the copper tails (duotight to 1/2" male BSP) so all you duotight disbelievers will not like that but I will see how they go. It is a copper tube that the wort is recirculated through so that should be good for heat transfer, just some poxy looking reinforced poly for the outer but it has a flow control valve for the cold water side so hopefully that will not blow with town water pressure regulated through the flow control valve. Should be fine to keep clean as the copper tube can just have some PBW re-circulated through it when I clean the Nano and then just rinsed. I will of course circulate boiling wort through it initially to sanitise it before starting the cooling.

@iBooz2 is right.  I use the one that came with the Grainfather.  In winter, it does a great job.  18°C easily.  Its effectiveness is only limited by your tap water temperature.  This time of year, I get the circulating wort down to about 30°C.

With my Grainfather counterflow chiller it says to run the water through around 2 litres per minute.  I adjust my garden tap to fill a 300ml plastic cup in about 10 seconds.  I think if you run water through too quickly, it could burst the outer tube.

If using Duotights on the copper inlet/outlet, use a pipe cutter to score a ring in the surface of the tube.  The Duotight teeth will hook onto the score.  Otherwise they may slide off.

[ozdevil]

12 hours ago, kmar92 said:

Have any of you brewers tried 1 of these?

https://www.kegland.com.au/wort-heat-exchanger-counterflow-chiller.html

They are el cheapo but I have purchased one to try out, I have only just received it so I am still working out the plumbing which I think that I have solved. Duotight connections to the copper tails (duotight to 1/2" male BSP) so all you duotight disbelievers will not like that but I will see how they go. It is a copper tube that the wort is recirculated through so that should be good for heat transfer, just some poxy looking reinforced poly for the outer but it has a flow control valve for the cold water side so hopefully that will not blow with town water pressure regulated through the flow control valve. Should be fine to keep clean as the copper tube can just have some PBW re-circulated through it when I clean the Nano and then just rinsed. I will of course circulate boiling wort through it initially to sanitise it before starting the cooling.

I have one of these myself in which i have just retired  as i have just upgraded to the collosos  counter flow chiller

I agree in what shamus   has said about   hose pressure, i actually blew the black hose type material off due to the Water pressure and was a pain in the back side to get back on

so i thought bugger it will upgrade  to the colossos one   


I only used duotights with the water points    and just used tubing with a clamp  on the wort 


what i usually do   at the end of filling  my fv    is i will switch it over to my sparge tank  that i have  cleaning water in and i will boost the temp upto around 85°c  just run that through it  
to clean out what wort is left in it

when i  go yo use it again  i hook it up to the sparge water tank  and will up the temp to 80°c  run that through  for  then will then recircluate the boiling wort for 5 minutes to sterilise 

its probably the only piece of equipment i dont run pbw or sanitiser through

[Pezzza]

It may be anathema to you Brewers of excellence not doing a rapid chill... but being on rainwater I don't have the capacity to pump water for cooling.  And trying to recirc and use ice - wouldn't be able to produce enough ice to do the job I believe.  I guess I could try the HDPE containers but am sorta not that keen pouring v hot wort into plastic meself 

Fortunately a lot of the time in the evening the temps drop and I use a fan to cool the finished Wort overnight and transfer and pitch in the morning.

John Palmer notes in his fourth edition of How to Brew:

Ideally, the wort should be at fermentation temperature and your yeast pitched within minutes - rather than hours - of finishing the boil to reduce the risk of bacterial contamination before fermentation.  However, if your sanitation is good the batch should be fine, even if the wort cools slowly overnight and you don't pitch your yeast until the next day.

Palmer talks about putting hot wort into the Fermenter and cooling... I prefer putting the lid on the SS Boil Kettle while still hot and steamy - seal the Kettle as much as possible with a heavy weight sitting on top of the lid - cool overnight - and transfer to FVs in the morning.... as then yer reduce any likelihood of contam prior to pitch.  Also it allows time to flocc some of the suspended particulates out of the fresh wort post boil. 

I believe this methodology has worked pretty well so far (touch wood) and my AG brews have been pretty good (I think - and my fellow slurpers seem to agree).  I don't know whether the beers would be even better if I did a rapid chill.  I think I would have to be in the money and get a glycol refrigerated chiller (see link below) to find out  - but I would still chill the hot wort down to 50 deg C or so via fan (which is quite quick when the ambient temp is cool) prior to pumping through the 'refrigerated chiller'.  Maybe one day but not for now.

Cheers Brewers 

https://cheekypeakbrewery.com.au/g20-glycol-chiller-2-integrated-pumps-dual-temp-control

Edited February 5, 2022 by Itinerant Peasant

[kmar92]

20 hours ago, Shamus O'Sean said:

 

With my Grainfather counterflow chiller it says to run the water through around 2 litres per minute.  I adjust my garden tap to fill a 300ml plastic cup in about 10 seconds.  I think if you run water through too quickly, it could burst the outer tube.

If using Duotights on the copper inlet/outlet, use a pipe cutter to score a ring in the surface of the tube.  The Duotight teeth will hook onto the score.  Otherwise they may slide off.

The unit I have has a flow control valve on the duotight for the water in so I should be able to adjust that so there is not a failure of the outer poly tube.

I would have thought that the duotights would grip the copper well enough as they have SS claws that should grip the copper well - hard SS with soft copper?

[Shamus O'Sean]

1 hour ago, kmar92 said:

The unit I have has a flow control valve on the duotight for the water in so I should be able to adjust that so there is not a failure of the outer poly tube.

I would have thought that the duotights would grip the copper well enough as they have SS claws that should grip the copper well - hard SS with soft copper?

You could be right about the SS claws on the softer copper. 

I was drawing an analogy between my SS wand for my aeration stone and a Duotight.  But they are SS onto SS.  Kegland say to use a tube cutter to score the SS wand 10mm from the end.

Still, I reckon I would score the cooper.  The thought of a Duotight coming off mid chilling is enough encouragement for me.