As you may know already, NY Brew Supply has a wide variety of excellent home brew supplies. The cover a lot of ground providing everything you need to brew and serve beer. Among the many wort chillers they have available, the counterflow wort chiller may be one of the best.
This chiller works differently than the immersion chillers you may be used to. You do not submerge the chiller into the wort. Rather, the wort and water flow through the chiller. This counterflow method drastically reduces the time it takes to cool your boil. You might also find interest in other features it has to offer.
NY Brew Supply Counterflow Wort Chiller: General Features
The super efficient 25’ counterflow Wort Chiller is different than immersion wort chillers. The purpose is the same, that is to quickly cool your wort. However, this is a counterflow wort chiller. What this means is that the water and wort move against each other to reduce the time it takes to cool.
Looking at the picture, you will see it still kind of looks like a coiled immersion chiller, but you will also notice the copper isn’t exposed. Instead, it is covered by black hosing. The copper tubing actually runs through the black hose. This allows wort to flow through the copper while water can flow in the opposite direction through the rubber hose.
The hose attachments are made of brass, and the coils are made of copper. The hosing is made of a high-temperature rubber that will not become brittle over time. Its overall tubing length measures 25 feet.
To use this product you will need two garden hoses and two silicone hoses. Place the hose below the bottom of your kettle and attach the silicone tubes to both ends of the hose. After this, you can connect both of the garden hoses to the chiller. When you are doing this, make sure that you are setting it up in a way that the water is going to flow in the opposite direction of the wort.
To get things flowing, first open your water source, and it gets it to the desired temperature and pressure. Next, place the wort end of the silicone tubing either in sanitation water or boiling water. On the exiting tube, use your mouth to draw the water through and create a vacuum in the tube. Allow the water to run through the tube and then plug the wort end with your finger. Take that same end and place it into the wort. This will draw the wort through the tube.
One pass through the hose should bring your wort to temperature so you can allow it to move right into your fermenter.
This counterflow method drastically reduces the time it takes to cool the wort because the water is continuously moving against the current of the wort and taking away the heat. This speeds up the heat transfer rate. And as you probably noticed, it can also move your beer into fermentation in the same motion. That is pretty cool.
Pros
- Counterflow pressure
- Faster cooling time
- Transfers beer
- Easy to use
- Easy to clean
Any Shortfalls?
More hoses, more problems. Anytime you add more parts there is a possibility that, that part may fail. In this case, a rubber hose has been added that may find a way to leak. This will most likely occur where the hose meets the brass garden hose fittings. However, if this does happen, you can reinforce it with clamps and silicone.
Also, because you are running trub filled wort through the tubing, it also runs a chance of becoming clogged. Try to make sure you are keeping an eye on your wort levels and consider using a front end screen of some sort. Another option great option would be to use a brew kettle that has a spigot for bottling. Many times these will also include a screen.
Cons
- Can become clogged
- Can leak
- Slightly longer set up
Is It Worth It?
If you are looking to upgrade from your immersion wort chiller and aren’t looking to spend an arm and leg on something from Blichmann, then I would seriously recommend this wort chiller by NY Brew Supply or something similar. The cooling time will reduce drastically, and the price is comparable to an immersion wort chiller.
Counterflow wort chillers also allow you to move your beer. This means that while drastically cutting down the time that it takes to chill your wort, you can move it from your kettle and into primary fermentation. This saves you time and work. You will be very satisfied with NY Brew Supply’s counterflow wort chiller.
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