Wort Pump

thedhndrsn · March 14, 2012, 8:42pm

New to brewing. Have made only a few batches, my most recent of which was a huge disaster. Seems the laws of physics stopped working in my kitchen at the point I was transferring wort to the fermenting carboy. Was never able to establish the siphon through my counterflow chiller.

I have a pump which for all purposes is identical to a March pump (e.g. 809), but not a food grade andefinitelyly not polysulfone. Will nohandlede the heat. Wort comes out of mcounterflowow chiller at under 65°. With proper sterilization, can I use this pump on the outlet side of the counterflow chiller?

Impeller, pump design, the entire pump looks essentially identical to a March, just no polysulfone.

tom_sawyer · March 14, 2012, 8:50pm

Whats the pump head and impeller made of, plastic or brass or steel? If its plastic you run some risk of extracting phthalates into the beer. Brass can have some lead in it, but I wouldn’t worry too much about that.

Its odd that you can’t get wort to flow through your CFC by gravity flow. You might practice this, it should work. Definitely whirlpool first (by stirring) and position your pickup tube so you aren’t pulling trub right off the bat.

brewbeer22 · March 15, 2012, 1:11am

How about installing a valve on your boil kettle? No siphon necessary.

tom_sawyer · March 15, 2012, 8:05pm

I also don’t think you can use your pump on the cold side of the chiller unless you can get the liquid to flow through first. March pumps aren’t self-priming, they need to be full before starting up. and if you could get flow through your CFC, you wouldn’t need the pump I suppose.

mike_f · March 16, 2012, 2:04am

I had the same issue. Just buy a march pump and a few ball lock valves. you will not regret it after the inital shock of the bill:) much less time and just as cool of wert. Cheers!

thedhndrsn · March 16, 2012, 9:41pm

Great feedback.

The impeller in the pump is a rubber-like polymer over brass. Picture included of the pump, internal assembly and the impeller. A lot of porous surface. May cause problems down the line if not properly cleaned. But a very simple design. The kettle is already valved, so not actually siphoning out of the kettle. Technically it is a gravity feed. It just refused to feed in this instance. I have polysulfone disconnects on the Chilzilla, half inch line, so I flush with StarSan during set up. The pump is self priming. Pump was cheap. $80 at Lowes, Bought it initially to pump water through the Chilzilla. If it works for the wort and doesn’t kill the beer…

Will give it a whirl and see what happens. If my beer tastes rubbery, I will know it is a bad idea.