CFC Performance

[KatoBaggins]

I'm moving to all grain brewing and the thought of cooling all 5 gallons of wort in my small kitchen sink seems ridiculous.

I've pulled up treads on DYI CFCs. All the ones I've seen so far seem to be about 25 feet. But I haven't seen anything on how well these things cool. What kind of cooling performance can I expect to get out of a 25 foot CFC?

My ground water is about 50-55F in the winter and about 60-65 in the summer.

 

[cimirie]

The CFC I use is also 25ft. The hose water isn't quite as cool as yours. I'd say it's about 70*. It'll take 5 gallons down to 85~ from boiling temps in about 15 minutes. It's inconvenient that that's still too high for pitching temps, but dropping the temp 130* in 10-15 minutes is pretty f-ing cool!!!

If you can, I'd go a bit longer than 25 feet (maybe 30-35ft). If not, you'll still love the results.

 

[ajf]

I only have a little one. It's about 20 ft. I use gravity (about 32 inch drop from the bottom of the kettle to the end of the outlet hose) to feed it, and drain 5g in about 15 minutes. In that time, it cools from boiling to high 60's - low 70's depending on the season, and that's using a kinked hose that severely restricts the flow of cooling water.

-a.

 

[krausenmustache]

I use a 24ft CFC and I actually have to adjust the water temp from my faucet warmer. If I run straight cold water my wort comes down to about 65F. The key is the diameter tubing you run from your facet to the CFC inlet/outlet. I use 5/8"ID vinyl tubing.

 

[pcarrigg]

When I got my pump I converted my 20' IC into a CFC and I've never looked back. Running the tap at full blast I am going from boiling to ~60deg as quickly as I can pump the wort through the thing.

I haven't actually timed it yet, but I'd say it probably takes around 10 minutes to get 10 gallons out of the boil kettle into the fermentor, chilled and ready to pitch.

My tap water is coming out at right around 55 deg.

I think the IC would have been just as good if I'd done the whole whirlpooling/recirculation thing - The trick with IC's is to keep the wort moving across the coils so you get even cooling.

 

[dstar26t]

If I were to make another one it would be longer than 25ft.
50ft would be overkill, so somewhere in between. In the winter, the pump goes full throttle and the hose has to be throttled. In the summer, the hose goes full throttle and the pump is barely going.