Wort Chiller best practice?

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Guildenstern

Guildenstern

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 3, 2009
Messages
60
Reaction score
0
Location
Cleveland, OH
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?
 
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 :)
 
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...
 
If it is tightly coiled and they are touching then you are losing surface cooling area. I would spread them out a bit.
 
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....
 
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.
 
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.
 

Similar threads

T
Sold Selling everything all grain brewing setup with pump, fittings, chiller, etc. - NJ/NYC metro area
Replies
20
Views
2K
Tjm276
T
gib_250
For Sale 5 gallon bourbon barrel, herms kettle, immersion chiller, blichmann burner
Replies
2
Views
767
gib_250
gib_250
S
For Sale Indianapolis area - Brew in Basket full set up, lots of other stuff
Replies
9
Views
1K
stmicbarr
S
segallis
SS Brewtech Chronical 2.0 Conical Chiller
Replies
1
Views
2K
dsmith1279
dsmith1279
B
Immersion Chiller on Stilts
Replies
2
Views
647
Barakn
B
Williams Brewing 300

Latest posts

Back
Top