Counterflow chiller question

[dierythmus]

I've been using my CFC for some time now, and it's worked like a charm. My ground water has always been cold enough to bring it to 60-65 degrees. I did not, however, anticipate the crazy heat we've had in NJ the last couple of days.

I brewed on a super hot evening, and the ground water could only get it down to ~72 degrees. No a big deal, as I just placed the wort in the fermentation chamber for a few minutes, and it cooled down to pitching temps.

My question is: Would the wort have been cooled down even more if I ran it through the CFC a second time? Or once it exits the CFC, it's as cold as it's going to get?

 

[feinbera]

Depends on how cold your groundwater is, that's the ultimate limit. Maybe your chiller is long/efficient enough that it gets wort all the way down to groundwater temp, in which case, you'll have done all you can do (at least, without a pre-chiller and/or ice bath), but maybe you're only chilling to within, say, 20° of water temp, in which case, a second pass probably would help. You'll have to measure your water straight out of the faucet to tell which scenario you're in.

 

[LandoLincoln]

An efficient CFC should be able to get the wort to within 2° of whatever your tap water temperature is in a single pass. In the wintertime, I have to throttle my water way back or else I'd have 50° wort. In the summertime, I go full blast with the water and throttle the wort flow back a little bit.

 

[daksin]

exactly, depends on the groundwater temp. If you want to get to a lower temp (within a few degrees of groundwater) you can slow the flow down and that will help. Personally, if it's going to take a long time and the beer is hoppy enough I'd be worried about losing hop character, I just run it fast to get the cold break and let the ferm chamber do the rest. You could also run the CFC back into your kettle at full speed to get the total temp down quickly and then run off slower into your fermenter for pitching temp.

 

[TheMerkle]

How does cold break effect hoppiness?

 

[daksin]

How does cold break effect hoppiness?

They're not really related, but cooling the beer quickly develops a good cold break, and also prevents dissolved hop oils from evaporating and alpha-acids from isomerizing, which will degrade hop character if you leave the wort at boiling temperatures for too long after flameout.