Lawrence Brewers Guild

Considering a new chiller for my system... and it's been a while since I've heard everyone raving about their new plate chillers vs. CFCs. SO, I thought I'd see if everyone who bought plate chillers are still happy with them X number of brews later, or if I should just stick to making a cheap new CFC (the original plan).

I'd like to know two things:

1) Is $89.00 (free shipping) a good price for a Shirron plate chiller? Or can I do better?

2) What's the price I should expect to build a good CFC these days? High temp garden hose? Copper (how much length seems to work best for you)? fittings, thermometer and some sort of bulkhead for it?

I just ordered my burners and stands -- I think I'm going to be VERY happy with them. They arrive in five days. Last things I need are a good pump (pretty sold on the March pumps on ebay -- unless anyone can help me save some money) and a better wort chilling system. Oh, and plumbing hoses and disconnects.

Things to keep in mind when giving suggestions:

I've got free water here at the apartment, but I'll have to run like 40-50 feet of hose from the sink, out a 2nd story window, to the ground below. Suggestions and advice is GREATLY appreciated on that subject. I'm currently planning on just getting a 50 foot length of RV hose. Several people have suggested this, so it's looking like the plan -- but I'm always open to other suggestions. If only I could just hook up a hose at the ground level -- but I've looked, and that's not likely.

As for the wort, I'm considering ways to simply bring the wort upstairs and inside and cooling it there, as opposed to chilling it outside. But carrying 10 gallons+ of wort up two flights of difficult stairs is going to suck enough as it is, without making it boiling hot wort on top of that.

A pump that could handle that kind of gravity push to literally pump the hot wort up a hose, through the window and into a copper coil sitting in a sink full of ice would be a way to go -- and is obviously VERY appealing. Since water is free, ice is practically free also, or I could still use a CFC in the sink -- but I'm guessing that I'd need more than a typical pump for that kind of job. Any suggestions on where to look for that kind of workhorse? I don't want to spend 100 bucks on a pump only to burn it out pushing liquids that far and that high.

Thoughts? I'm considering all kinds of crazy ideas -- so nothing is too ridiculous to suggest. :) Especially if it's cheap and means I don't have to carry heavy barrels of wort up dangerous stairs.

Thanks!
Matt

The march pump is only good for 11 head ft-- not quite enough for what you are looking for. You would need a pro pump like in the big boy breweries, and you are not talking hundreds... could be lots more to push the feet head you are talking about. Get used to the idea of carring your wort. Instead of a CFC I strongly suggest you entertain the idea of an immersion chiller with your march pump as a hotnwort re-circ apparatus. You will get chilled just as fast, but the whole volume of hot liquid at once-- drastically cutting down on the dms.

Yeah, I didn't think the March pump would handle the 15-20 foot climb, but surely there's a food-grade pump that could that wouldn't be completely cost-prohibitive... I mean, it's a PUMP fer cryin out loud. :)

I like the idea of using an immersion chiller, hell, I've already got one -- well, I think John has it (I hope), but I do have one somewhere. :)

So with the immersion chiller in the boil kettle, the hot wort is recirculated through what with the pump? Not entirely sure I followed that part of what you were suggesting.

Thanks for the input Jeff. Exactly the kind of stuff I wanna hear.

As for carrying wort up stairs, well, I had pretty much resigned myself to that already, but I'm always open to other ideas.

Hell, a dumb-waiter of sorts would RULE, if only I could make it "safe" and not something that my landlord would get pissed about. Would be great for groceries and everything else I have to carry up those stairs also.

Any of you engineer types wanna help me design a cheap one? :)