Wort Chiller best practice?

Guildenstern · 07-11-2009, 02:50 PM

I just picked up a 25' Copper Immersion Chiller and had a weird question. Sould I leave it all tightly coilled up as it came out of the box? Or should I space the turns out a little in order to allow more exposed surface area and make the chiller taller in my pot? Both ways seem to work for diffrent reasons, any thoughts?

JMSetzler · 07-11-2009, 03:19 PM

It's not going to make a huge difference either way you do it. In theory, the hottest wort is at the top of the water level in the kettle, so spreading out your coils will theoretically provide a better cooling efficiency. Whether or not its a measureable difference is another story

**Malticulous** · 07-11-2009, 03:20 PM

Ideally you want it to be submerged but close to the top of the wort. The hottest wort is at the top. If you agitate it a lot it my not make a huge difference.

rsmith179 · 07-11-2009, 03:20 PM

I would leave it just the way it is. Don't want to kink up a brand new IC... It wouldn't really increase the surface area anyways, it would just increase the height. I usually take my IC and bob it up and down everyonce-in-a-while as well as whirlpool the wort a little bit by swirling with the IC. Works just fine...

**samc** · 07-11-2009, 06:00 PM

If it is tightly coiled and they are touching then you are losing surface cooling area. I would spread them out a bit.

**Hammy71** · 07-12-2009, 02:06 PM

You can spread them if you want... Just make sure that you don't spread the coils so much they come out of your wort....useless then....

Guildenstern · 07-12-2009, 08:25 PM

I spread them out just so they wern't touching and it got my 3gal boil down in the 80's in 15 min. Thanks all. Huge improvement from 1-2 hours in the sink.

mykayel · 07-13-2009, 02:43 AM

Depending on what the temp of your tap water is, I would think it would get your wort cooler than that in a quicker time. My 12 gallon batches I get down to 75F in around 10 minutes. I'm using a 50' coil but and I stirr the wort, stirring the wort makes a huge difference.

**weirdboy** · 07-13-2009, 02:45 AM

Yeah if you stir the wort while it's cooling you'll get *much* better efficiency.