I live in Florida so a chiller plate has its limitation. Especially with Lagers. I'm using an aquarium chiller to chill the water before it goes through the plate. My first try should be this Sunday. I can't wait.
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tally350z
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Do you use that for fermentation temp controls? curious as to why you say it has its limitations, especially with lagers.
I think he is saying that his groundwater is warm so hard to chill to lager temps. Looks like he will try to remedy that with prechilling the water going into the plate chiller
bucfanmike you are correct.
I have a well with a 86 gal pressure tank. When it is 90 degree out my water is up past 70 degree. I should be able to set my main chiller 5 degree below my desired wort temp and let the plate do the rest. The chiller is suppose as low as the 30's . So far on paper it looks good, but we will see.
I have a well with a 86 gal pressure tank. When it is 90 degree out my water is up past 70 degree. I should be able to set my main chiller 5 degree below my desired wort temp and let the plate do the rest. The chiller is suppose as low as the 30's . So far on paper it looks good, but we will see.
tally350z
Well-Known Member
Ahh ok. thanks for the clarification. Let me know how it works out, as I am in Florida too.
Of coarse it ended up being cold out this weekend, but I will take readings and let you know.
Bad news I forgot one of the ports was cracked. Good news I'm boiling a batch now and the pool water is 59 degrees. I guess my science project will have to wait till the next batch.
bja
Well-Known Member
That chiller isn't made to cool water fast enough to keep up with what the plate chiller needs. I doubt if you see any difference using it.
I live in FL as well and have been kicking around some design ideas in my head for a "2 stage" chiller.
Essentially I was thinking about building two of the common DIY wort chillers made from coils of copper tubing and connecting them together with some hose. I would drop the first chiller in a bucket of Ice water, and the second in my boil. I would then run fresh water from the hose through the coil in the ice water to drop the temp, and then through the second chiller coil in the pot in hopes of dropping the temp more quickly.
I'm sure I am not the first to think of this, has anyone with warmish ground water ever given this a shot?
If worst comes to worst I have a huge rubermaid barrel that I used for an icebath on my first brew. I could drop the pot in the icebath, run the 2 stage chiller and drop a frozen 2 liter bottle of water in the pot for good measure...
Essentially I was thinking about building two of the common DIY wort chillers made from coils of copper tubing and connecting them together with some hose. I would drop the first chiller in a bucket of Ice water, and the second in my boil. I would then run fresh water from the hose through the coil in the ice water to drop the temp, and then through the second chiller coil in the pot in hopes of dropping the temp more quickly.
I'm sure I am not the first to think of this, has anyone with warmish ground water ever given this a shot?
If worst comes to worst I have a huge rubermaid barrel that I used for an icebath on my first brew. I could drop the pot in the icebath, run the 2 stage chiller and drop a frozen 2 liter bottle of water in the pot for good measure...
tally350z
Well-Known Member
I do a 2 stage with my plate chiller and my old IC. I put the IC in a homer bucket with it half filled with water and then I recirculate my wort through my plate chiller to sanitize. After about 10 minutes of running the boiling wort through the chiller I turn on the garden hose and run water through it for about 15 minutes to start chilling. Then I put ice in the bucket and cut back the flow of the wort on the output of the chiller and run it into the carboy. The wort temp going into the carboy is right around 68-70..
The chiller I'm using is a 1/4 hrs that is rated to drop 30 degrees at a minimum flow of 10 gpm. I figure worst case if my water is 90 degrees it will move it down to 60 degrees.
The chiller is fixed and ready for testing. Now I just have to clear out one of my beers in the fermentation chamber.
The chiller is fixed and ready for testing. Now I just have to clear out one of my beers in the fermentation chamber.
bja is right. It will not cool fast enough. It will cool, but from my test I would have to chill 90 gals of water below my target temp then pump it through the plate. Kinda defeats the purpose of making things easy. Back to the drawing board.
tampa911 and tally350z have got the only other solutions for hot states I have found or maybe I better look back at the MythBusters chilling a beer as fast as you can.
tampa911 and tally350z have got the only other solutions for hot states I have found or maybe I better look back at the MythBusters chilling a beer as fast as you can.
I'm not sure if you found a solution but I live in Houston so I feel your pain. I have a 14 cuft kezzer so I had extra space and dropped a 32 gal trash can with a $40 submersible pump from northern tool. Now I can chill as fast as my pump will pump the wort through my plate chiller to the low 60's and still have over half the trash can full of 40* water.
grunt69
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I'm a first time brewer so cut me some slack on this.
I have a small personal refrigerator that has a shelf for an ice cube rack. I was thinking of running a plate chiller in the ice cube rack and putting a 3 gallon tank in the refrigerator. I picked up two 12 v pumps from Harbor Frieght and was going to run one to circulate the water and the other to circulate my wort.
Will this work or do you see some problems?
I have a small personal refrigerator that has a shelf for an ice cube rack. I was thinking of running a plate chiller in the ice cube rack and putting a 3 gallon tank in the refrigerator. I picked up two 12 v pumps from Harbor Frieght and was going to run one to circulate the water and the other to circulate my wort.
Will this work or do you see some problems?
Any system that uses a tank of water that will be chilled down should be run through the exchanger (or immersion coil) in one pass where the heated coolant is collected in a separate tank. As soon as you start dumping it back into the cold water tank, you're fighting an uphill battle.
No consumer grade refrigeration unit is capable of removing 180F of heat out of 5 gallons real time. You have to give a long time to condition your coolant and then let it rip.
A small chest freezer setup to make a bunch of ice would work (mix the ice with water and pump that water through the chiller). You could also modify the controller to reach 33F and fill the entire freezer up with water.
Do not use a Harbor freight pump to move wort. They are not food grade.
No consumer grade refrigeration unit is capable of removing 180F of heat out of 5 gallons real time. You have to give a long time to condition your coolant and then let it rip.
A small chest freezer setup to make a bunch of ice would work (mix the ice with water and pump that water through the chiller). You could also modify the controller to reach 33F and fill the entire freezer up with water.
Do not use a Harbor freight pump to move wort. They are not food grade.
Considering I'm using 1/5 of the water I used to need to chill my wort, I feel pretty good about wasting it. However, you could collect the output and add it back to your kezzer when finished.
If my pool water is cooler than my well I will use it on my plate chiller then run it through an exchanger in a cooler with ice and some salt to be anal on another couple degrees.
If this will not work chime in. I do not want to reinvent the square wheel.
If this will not work chime in. I do not want to reinvent the square wheel.
