Grainfather wort cooling question

[Midlife]

I am interested in how you cool with the counter flow chiller, when I read instructions and watch the video I'm not entirely clear on the process. On my current system I have a immersion coil and I circulate the wort until it's down to 21/22 then move the pipe to the fermenter and drop the wort in.

Do you do the same with the grainfather? How I understand the grainfather cooling process is, circulate the hot wort to sterilise the counterflow chiller and get flow right, then turn on cold water and dump to the fermenter and it will be 22C in 20 minutes? Does it really come come out 22 when put straight into the fermenter?

So interested to know what users do.

Thanks.

[Manngold]

I pretty much do that. Sometimes I have to adjust the cold water tap, but normally it is ok.

[chefgage]

Does it really come come out 22 when put straight into the fermenter?

So interested to know what users do.

Thanks.

My last one i did it was coming out of the counter flow chiller at 18'c. So the CFC is very good at what it does.

[chefgage]

What i do is when the boil has finished put the lid back on and put the chiller on top of the lid. Then connect up the pipe with the connection that ataches to the pipe that comes from the pump. The other end that is just open goes through the middle of the chiller back into the boiler.

Then i circulate this for 10 mins to sterilise the chiller. Whilst this is happening i connect up the cold water pipe. Tip- Make sure the chiller is the right was up. The red pipe needs to come out the top and the blue out the bottom.

After 10 mins i then switch on the cold tap (with the red pipe going back into the sink of course) and let the water flow untill the pipe going through the center of the chiller starts to feel 'cool'. At this point i switch of the pump then put the pipe thats through the middle of the chiller into my fermenter and switch on the pump again.

[Midlife]

Thank you, that was very helpful. I am certainly getting interested in moving to this equipment.

[Kingfisher4]

In addition to the above helpful tips, it depends on the cold water temperature, you adjust the flow rate of the cold tap to chill your wort to desired pitching temp. You can tweak this during the process.

Yesterday, my cold water was running at 9 deg C, at start of chilling into FV wort was about 30 deg. So I just turned up the cold tap flow rate to cool wort further and adjusted on the fly to reach the final desired pitching temp.

Whole 25 litres took about 20 mins to chill down. I also run the hot outflow water into my empty Burco type water heater ( having used it to heat sparge water earlier) and use this "waste" hot water during the cleaning process.

That was only my 3rd brew and it is a fantastically simple and effective chiller.

[chefgage]

In addition to the above helpful tips, it depends on the cold water temperature, you adjust the flow rate of the cold tap to chill your wort to desired pitching temp. You can tweak this during the process.

Yesterday, my cold water was running at 9 deg C, at start of chilling into FV wort was about 30 deg. So I just turned up the cold tap flow rate to cool wort further and adjusted on the fly to reach the final desired pitching temp.

Whole 25 litres took about 20 mins to chill down. I also run the hot outflow water into my empty Burco type water heater ( having used it to heat sparge water earlier) and use this "waste" hot water during the cleaning process.

That was only my 3rd brew and it is a fantastically simple and effective chiller.

It is a very good chiller. You have to be carefull though as like you said depending on the temp of your tap water you could chill the wort to far. So adjustments in flow rate do come into play.

[Midlife]

Sorry another question, as I've took the plunge and bought a grainfather....

When you have cleaned the counterflow chiller out i.e. circulate cleaner, then flush with clean water... do you just let it dry/drain naturally? Then I assume you wash out again before use? Would be interested to know what you do for storage.

Cheers.

[Fil]

Sorry another question, as I've took the plunge and bought a grainfather....

When you have cleaned the counterflow chiller out i.e. circulate cleaner, then flush with clean water... do you just let it dry/drain naturally? Then I assume you wash out again before use? Would be interested to know what you do for storage.

Cheers.

just ensure its drained dry before stashing inside the bone dry g/f, stand the gf on its rim upside down to drain fully, Any retained moisture left behind is a no-no then come the next brewday its clean n dry and just needs a flush through to clear any spiders/bugs that crawled in to build a nest (which they are unlikely to do if there is no moisture).. and off you go.. if in a damp environment invest 2-£3 in a bag of sodium silicate cat litter and bag up a hand full or 3 to stash in the g/f between brews.. you can cook it in the oven at a low heat to reduce the water content and re-dry it between storage periods..

If yo have co2 or a clean air compressor you can blow through the chiller to help dry...

[Kingfisher4]

Sorry another question, as I've took the plunge and bought a grainfather....

When you have cleaned the counterflow chiller out i.e. circulate cleaner, then flush with clean water... do you just let it dry/drain naturally? Then I assume you wash out again before use? Would be interested to know what you do for storage.

Cheers.

Another tip re draining:
Beware once you have disconnected the cold inflow pipe from your tap, after I thought I had emptied all the water from it I inadvertently let it dangle below the level of the chiller and had a small puddle of water on the floor. Drain it well into a jug or the sink, it retains a significant volume which doesn't all immediately drain out.

[chefgage]

What i do is take the chiller off and sit it on the sink draining board. Then using my mouth i blow through the chiller pipework to remove the trapped water. I then dry everything else and also the inside of the grainfather. Another tip is to blow down the pipework that leads down to the pump. You will have to remove the non return valve first. I have found if you do this you get rid of trapped water in the pump. I then leave it a day open to the
air to fully dry.

Then i put it all away in the grainfather bag you can buy. Well worth the £20 or so it costs. I am even buying another one to put my 7 gal chronical fermenter in

[Midlife]

Hello, thank you for the tips and advice, I did a test run on the chiller and it landed at 22. Amazing piece of kit, great efficiency. It will certainly cut down my brew time.

Cheers.

[steviebobs83]

[quote="Midlife"]Hello, thank you for the tips and advice, I did a test run on the chiller and it landed at 22. Amazing piece of kit, great efficiency. It will certainly cut down my brew time.

Cheers.[/quote]Another quick tip: I keep the chiller run off (especially the first hot bit) to use for cleaning the GF once the wort is out. It saves time heating it back up to 60°c for a cleaning cycle if it's already halfway up to temp.

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