What IS the best way to cool?

[Talisman]

Ok for ages ive had a copper cooler i lob into the boiler, this worked great when i was doing 25 Ltr brews in a bucket, but since i move onto beer kegs as a setup this isnt to practical anymore.

So ive been reading the posts about CFC's

My Q is, if making a new cooler from scratch what would be the best (prefered) method of cooling wort?

Copper coil to lob in the brew, CFC's, Heat Exchange Plate (you know what i mean )

Thanks

 

[Zwickel]

Hi Talisman,
I´d say, most effective works a plate counter flow heatexchanger.

positive: high efficiency, small dimensions, easy to handle
negative: high water consumption

to compensate the water consumption, I have two rainwater tuns in our backyard, each at a volume of 500l, one is filled with water, the other one empty. When I start cooling, I´m going to pump the water from one tun through the cooler to the other one; next time other way round.

The temp difference between water inlet and wort outlet lies around 1°C, that means, if the water is at 10°C, the wort flows out at 11°C.
That way I´m cooling 60l of wort in around 20min.
To achieve that result, the water flow should be 5 times higher than the wort flow, means I´m using around 300l of water.

That works very well for me.

:

 

[Aleman]

As Quickly as possible . . . . Not the answer you wanted, but it is a correct one.

Personally I've tried all the methods you've suggested, and unless I can get hold of a Commercial Plate chiller like Vossys, I would steer clear of PHE's . . . mine has never been completely successful.

I'm going to make a CFC from 6mm copper (2 by 5m coils) in a 10mm hose to see if that is more effective than my BMF CFC (22mm of 10mm copper in 3/4" Hose - 2 by 11m coils)

I also have and still use an immersion chiller which is 2 coils of 8mm copper one inside the other - With stirring its still effective.

 

[Talisman]

Im looking to make this as efficient and cost effective as possible. (water consumption)

My Immersion Cooler worked really well but now using a beer keg with 2 elements in and the hop strainer, the current coil isnt being used to its potention, so wanted to work on something outside of the keg to cool.

i have thought of running a few lenghts of 15mm copper through some 22mm copper, linking together and pumping the wort through the 15mm, and the water through the 22mm to cool.

But again want to make this Water Meter friendly (and dont have room for 2 500Ltr water Butts in the garden.)

My current setup works in a garage where the water supply is Meter Free (bonus) but this may all have to change shortly and so the next setup maybe in a water metered location. :cry:

 

[Screwy]

Plate chiller, 30 plate if you can get one, watch ebay use bidnapper.

Screwy

 

[commsbiff]

I know that probably no-one does it and it's probably a daft idea anyway. I was wondering if air-cooling would be possible?

eg pump/gravity feed hot wort through small diameter copper pipe (6-10mm?) which runs from the boiler directly outside. There it would run through a longish (30m?) snake (similar to a radiator, possibly with vanes attached for extra dispersement) and then back into the garage / shed and the fv.

Considering an outside ambient temp of 15 deg C, and a slack (5-10 kts) wind, how long do you reckon it would take to cool 40L? Or is it not even worth considering? :hmm:

I was also contemplating the effects of a similar system, but inside, with blown air (from a fan) over the copper piping.

 

[Zwickel]

commsbiff, at first I had the same thoughts as you, driving the hot wort through a long winding copper tube. But soon I was reckoning how long the copper pipe should be to cool down the boiling wort to ambient temps? ...and how much the copper would cost?
...then the volume of it....need a fan or just put it in the wind? how to handle the whole equipment?

No way, such a little plate heatexchanger gives you all the convenience you need.

When I was talking about water consumption, I meant cooling down to around 10C°, because I´m a Pils/Lager brewer.
If you´re going to cool for an Ale or Wheat or other top fermenting beers, you´d need only a target temp around 20°C, that means much less water than I usually need for Lagers. Of course it depends very much on the water temp.
Don´t underestimate the heat capacity of a batch of boiling wort, that´s a lot of energy you have to dispose of.

Cheers :

 

[ano]

I'd be tempted to say no.

The back of my fag packet says that water has a higher specific heat capacity so you need 4 times as much air (by mass) to absorb the same amount of heat that a like amount of water could. Then water is much denser so your flow rate (by mass) can be significantly higher. The main thing restricting it must be surface area, if it's just going through a few metres of copper it won't have cooled. However, with that said car radiators can throw off a lot of heat and cores are usually measured in kW so you should be able to guesstimate how long it would take, but the fins are narrow, it must be a bugger to clean and god only knows what solvents are used in the manufacturing process, if you see what I mean. Am tempted by an oil based coolant system