Ice Water For Immersion Chiller

The Pol · 01-19-2008, 03:03 PM

Anyone circulated say 10 gallons of 32F water through thier immersion chiller, back to the tank, through the ice water again, then back through the immersion chiller? Will the ICE water remain cold enough (10 gallons) to cool (5.5 gallons) of wort?

Pol

Blender · 01-19-2008, 03:09 PM

I always do the final chilling this way. I use the ground water to get the wort to 120-100 and then make the switch to ice water. It works great.

Blender · 01-19-2008, 03:13 PM

I forgot to add there is more dicussion on this thread.
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/recirculating-ice-water-chiller-38235/

The Pol · 01-19-2008, 03:16 PM

Well, I was hoping to use ONLY ice water... I may have to run a test with boiling water and see how well 10 gallons will chill it without becoming heat saturated.

Blender · 01-19-2008, 03:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Pol

Well, I was hoping to use ONLY ice water... I may have to run a test with boiling water and see how well 10 gallons will chill it without becoming heat saturated.

If that's the case then I would not add the initial output back into recirculation until it gets to around 150 or so, I think it will melt the ice to quickly to get the wort to pitching temps. Let us know how that works and how much ice you used, I am sort of interested to see if it works well.

The Pol · 01-19-2008, 03:39 PM

When I get all of my plumbing finished I will do a dry run... If I fill the 10 gallon tank with 32f water and run about 5 gallons of it out, then start to recirculate, it may work. I am trying to keep the system self contained and save water, even if it means stocking up on ice once every 8 weeks.

Blender · 01-19-2008, 03:47 PM

You can use the initial output of water when its hot for cleanup. I save my output in a 25 gallon trash can and also use it to mix 5 gallons of iodaphor for the carboys, tubing and such, then I recirculate. Gotta save water out here in my town.

Kaiser · 01-20-2008, 01:01 AM

For one of my last batches I chilled with only snow, mainly because all my hoses were frozen, and I didn't like that I didn't have warm water for cleaning.

You don't have to go through the effort of using 32*F water for the initial chill. Just use room temp water and save the ice for later. The few more degrees initially won't make a big difference.

Kai

DIY Brewing Company · 01-20-2008, 01:12 AM

You should dry water with dry ice in it. The melting temp of dry ice is significantly lower then water. I use dry ice for this and it works perfect.

nicksteck · 01-20-2008, 02:25 AM

just did that last brew day, had no hoses. started out with 20 pounds of ice took another 20 pounds to get down to 68 degrees. normally i use tap water to get down to 100 degrees and 20 pounds of ice to get to 68 degrees with some ice left over for seebee John to use.

Nick