guitarist_713

Recipes 

I live in Decatur, Illinois, and as there are in many other parts if the country with this devestating drought, there are mandatory water restrictions in place that don't allow residents to water their lawn or wash cars, etc. The penalty is a $500 fine. With that having been said, it makes it impossible to use my counter flow wort chiller, which requires me running my water for about a half hour. Any ideas on an alternative method for rapidly cooling wort?

Stretch1991

Recipes 

Ice Bath, Cold Water (I mean fill up a giant container and put your brew kettle in it, drop frozen water bottles and stir around the brew kettle), Frozen Towels, Counterflow Chiller Inside

Yooper

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Is it possible to use a pond pump or something to recirculate some water (and add a few bags of ice) for the CFC, and then use it for cleaning? Say, enough water to bring the temp down to 80, and then an ice bath for the rest of the way, and then use the water that was being recirculated for cleaning up afterwards?

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Broken Leg Brewery
Giving beer a leg to stand on since 2006

BronxBrew

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My plan is to use a standard wort chiller with a submersible pump. Frozen bottles of ice added to a bucket.

djt17

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I know you asked for alternative methods of quickly chilling the wort, but have you looked into no-chill? I am on a shallow well & don't like the amount of water wasted with chillers. I know you can save water for clean-up, plants etc. but, it still uses a lot of water. I have "no chilled" my last 4 batches in a corny keg. I have not noticed any difference in taste or clarity. It also takes 30 - 45 minutes less on brew day. (I had a cheap 20' X 1/4" immersion chiller)

MisterTipsy

Recipes 

Drive three hours north and brew in my backyard?

No water restrictions and I get charged a flat rate for Lake Michigan city water, even if I fill a swimming pool every day!

bwarbiany

Recipes 

What's your system? Do you use pumps?

When I'm in the summer (hot hose water) or need to brew a lager, I recirculate ice water through my CFC going opposite the wort direction. Doing that I can get the wort down to temp *FAST*, and without too much water. If you plan ahead and make *a lot* of your own ice, you don't spend any money, but either way, $10 in ice is a lot cheaper than $500 in a fine to the city. It would be hard to do this without pumps, but if you've got a system with pumps, it'll do what you need.

guitarist_713

Recipes 

So you just let it cool down on its own? Over a period of a couple of days?

Hex

Recipes 

Solution:

http://forums.morebeer.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=27957

guitarist_713

Recipes 

Now that's what I'm talking about !!