anyone tried this??

BuzzCraft · 06-09-2009, 04:45 PM

I read a method in a book suggesting to fill a corny with ice water and push it with CO2 thru an immersion chiller to rapidly cool boiling wort. sounds like it'd speed things up considerably with minimal $$ outlay and less hassle than a pre-chiller.

anyone tried this?

**arturo7** · 06-09-2009, 04:50 PM

It would work but probably not as well as your garden hose. The flow off of your cornie is quite slow compared to your hose. Flow rate is important for heat removal.

**Homercidal** · 06-09-2009, 06:07 PM

Not to mention that 5 gallons is not very much volume. I imagine it would be gone well before you got your wort chilled.

**Cpt_Kirks** · 06-09-2009, 06:36 PM

I use a bucket of ice water and a $12 submersible pump from Harbor Freight. I put a garden hose in the bucket and adjust the flow so the water level remains the same. Then, I just add ice as needed.

My tap water is over 70*F now and I managed to cool 8.5 gallons of wort from 200* down to 70* in 25 minutes Saturday. And it was HOT Saturday.

**Bobby_M** · 06-09-2009, 07:05 PM

It will work but it would be better to push it out with city water pressure. Not only will you keep feeding it new water, which you'd need anyway, but you save CO2. Given that the temp will be under 40F, you don't need that much volume. Just make sure you stir the heck out of the wort while you're running it or you'll be wasting ice.

BuzzCraft · 06-09-2009, 09:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bobby_M

It will work but it would be better to push it out with city water pressure. Not only will you keep feeding it new water, which you'd need anyway, but you save CO2. Given that the temp will be under 40F, you don't need that much volume. Just make sure you stir the heck out of the wort while you're running it or you'll be wasting ice.

thanks for the replies....good idea to run city water thru it for the push. i'm looking at it as a way to reduce water waste using an immersion chiller. i figured that even though the flow rate would be lower than blasting a hose, the low temp of the water flowing thru would make up for the low flow rate...true?

thx again.

HomebrewJeff · 06-09-2009, 10:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BuzzCraft

thanks for the replies....good idea to run city water thru it for the push. i'm looking at it as a way to reduce water waste using an immersion chiller. i figured that even though the flow rate would be lower than blasting a hose, the low temp of the water flowing thru would make up for the low flow rate...true?

thx again.

Possibly, but you'd be much better off using a submersible pond (i..e pond / sump pump) to push the colder water. Lots of people use water from the hose to drop the temp to 100-110, and then switch to a recirc. ice bath to lower the temps the rest of the way.

**weirdboy** · 06-09-2009, 11:00 PM

Quote:

I use a bucket of ice water and a $12 submersible pump from Harbor Freight.

I do this too, only I didn't buy my pump from harbor freight.

pen25 · 06-10-2009, 12:03 AM

too fast of flow and it doesnt pull as much heat off the thing. too slow and same. use a temp probe to fine tune the flow rate and you'll be good to go.