What is the best pump for high temperature liquid transfer in home beer brewing?

[bassplayer142]

I have recently gotten heavily into home beer brewing with some people. To improve on the cooling of the wort (boiled beer before fermentation), I want to pump the boiling liquid through a long copper coil. This coil will be inside a cooler filled with ice and the cooled wort will come out on the other side.

In order to do this I will need a pump that accepts high temperatures ~100 degc and have enough pressure to push through the copper coil of somewhere around 20-40 feet. The flow rate doesn't need to be that high considering that the wort needs to be fully cooled when it exits the system. Does anyone have any suggestions or input as to a good pump that will do this.

I'm not looking to spend a ridiculous amount of money either. Just something to get the job done. Any help is greatly appreciated!

 

[edgepflow]

If you have an air compressor, a simple stainless steel diaphragm pump will work. If you use a centrifugal pump, you may need to flush the mechanical seal at this temperature.

 

[Jobrag]

Why not have your hot tank higher then your cold tank and get gravity to do the job for free?

 

[S_Happens]

Here's a pump from a local homebrewing supplier. There are numerous online suppliers where you might be able to find it cheaper, but I use them because they're local to me. The searching is up to you though.

http://www.defalcos.com/virtuemart.html?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=1403&category_id=58


Other than that, you can use gravity feed and a cooler, or instead of running the wort through the copper tubing, immerse the copper tubing directly into the wort towards the end of the boil. When you're ready to cool you can run tap water through the copper tubing. Using 40-50' you should be able to cool a 5 gallon batch quite quickly (10 minutes or so even with warmer tap water). Personally I'd rather not run the wort on the inside of the copper tubing either, as it could be difficult to clean and much more prone to fouling/buildup that way. With the pump it may not be much of a problem, but still.

This thread also has some advice in it, or you can post your own questions and I'm sure somebody will answer.

https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=468902

 

[bassplayer142]

Thanks for the replies! Our original way of cooling is by immersion of a copper coil with a hose connector. It works no problem, but were hoping to improve cooling and speed up the process by cooling and transporting the wort at the same time. It would save a lot of time, energy, and potential infection of the beer due to oxidation.

As for that march pump, I have been looking into it already. I'm just not sure if I want to put the money in...

 

[meplumber]

If you have a hydronic heating supplier in your area, a Stainless Steel Taco 007 circulator will do what you wish for around $100. In the plumbing and heating world, we use these circulators to move hot potable water from tank to tank or recirculate through a system. They can withstand the temperatures that you wish and can be easily controlled. They operate on 120VAC and use about the electricity of a 75 watt lightbulb.