I plan on breaking in an early Christmas gift this weekend. I don’t have a pump yet, so it’ll be gravity fed for now. My groundwater is pretty cold, esp with the recent snow. Are there any gravity fed users here who can give me an estimate for how long it should take? It’s a for a stout that only calls for 1.95 oz hops, which I’m going to put in bags, so it shouldn’t clog.
In cold northern Utah, a 5.5 gallon batch from post whirlpool temp to pitching temp of 64 degrees is 15 to 20 minutes.
Gotcha. A bit longer than I thought, but I’ll take it. I suppose I can start cleaning up during the downtime.
Good question and the answer surprises me, too. Shouldn’t the wort cool as fast as you can drain it? Does the Therminator slow down the gravity flow rate?
I think its the fact that there is no pump there to move the wort faster then a 2-4 foot drop. Sounds pretty restrictive to me:)
Jeff
Update: Wow. A single pass to empty the BK took about 5 minutes and the temp went dropped to 55! I put the chiller on a small ladder a few inches below the valve on the kettle (on a stove), then it was probably the same drop from chiller to carboy. This thing is awesome.