I am setting up a winter brewing area in the basement, and for chilling water I am going to use/recirculate from a plastic 55gal drum filled nearly full with water. I think I can get a 5gal brew chilled to a stable temp and I will let it finish dropping in the cool basement before pitching. I have a 12V DC centrifugal pump I bought to run a CIP unit, it didn't work for this so it is extra right now. It pumps to 50psi and 300gpm. I power it with a battery charger.
My question is, can I put a valve inline with this pump and slow the pumping rate? 300gpm seems to be too fast to run chilling water through a 3/8' copper IC. I don't want to be blowing hoses off the chiller and shooting water everywhere. I don't know what rate I need, if I can't slow this pump I guess I can buy some other kind of pump. I have a March pump but I want to use it to transfer wort and mash water, and this cooling water is going to be a little dirty.