Ah crap

I have been informed that my wort chiller is MIA. Long story, don't ask. As it stands, that was really my only means on cooling the wort. I have an 8gal brew pot that just barely fits in the sink, so there's no way I'll be able to get enough cold water/ice in there to make much of a difference. Any suggestions would be welcome and appreciated. I'm brewing this weekend, so I need some kind of solution soon. Thanks guys.

FWIW - I have dumped near boiling wort into my fermenter before and dropped it into my swamp cooler overnight, but that's a last ditch option. I really don't want to destroy the integrity of my one and only bucket. I do have 3 empty kegs though.

Leave it in your bathtub for a few hours?

I say put it in an empty keg. then into the kegerator to chill it.

Bathtub and a couple bags of ice. If you can get a fan to blow on it, all the better. (Lid on the kettle of course)

Do you have a lid for that pot? You could no-chill it where it sits.

You have time to build a CFC before brewday?

Brad, I think this is going to be my only viable option unless I do a no chill where it sits. The biggest prob I have with the no chill is that I brew in the garage and I don't want random garage stuff finding its way into the kettle even if the lid is on. This is my first brew with this kettle and it has a ball valve spigot on it. What's the probability of water seeping through that valve while it sits in the swamp cooler?

Naik, I WISH I had the time to do that. But between yard work that has to get done and keeping an eye on a 3yr old, I just don't have time to do all that I'd like to. I also have to bottle the current batch to free up the fermenter. SWMBO wasn't thrilled that I planned on brewing again this weekend. I think she'll come around when she tastes this one though. How can you say no to a southern pecan brown ale?

? if you have a long enough hose fill a bucket with Ice water put a coil or two of hose in the water then adjust the flow to get it cooled down. If you had a pump you could even recirculate through bucket of ice water then back into kettle super counter Flow.

I'm interested in the long story of the MIA chiller

BradleyBrew said:

I'm interested in the long story of the MIA chiller

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I let a friend borrow it and I think his wife either threw it out or he broke it. Can't prove it either way, but those are my suspicions. His wife was never really thrilled with his hobby. I'm gonna have a little talk with him and give him the directions on how to make a 50' IC.
I ended up just letting the pot sit around with the lid on while it cooled off. Took for friggin ever, but it turned out fine in the end. It took off like crazy about an hour or two after I pitched.

Now...to figure out how I boned my efficiency so bad on this batch.....

Whattawort said:

I'm gonna have a little talk with him and give him the directions on how to make a 50' IC.

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I tried that one, but could only get to 30' because I started it in my basement and my basement is only 30' wide lol. ANYWHO, the CFC is the best thing I've done. My ground water is 65 ish here in Syracuse and the wort was 75 going into my fermenter.:rockin:

Our groundwater (if I had to guess) is somewhere in the neighborhood of 74. Gotta love Alabama in the warmer months. How long did it take to make your CFC?

I haven't bought a wort chiller yet mostly because I've had great luck with letting my ice maker fill up a few times and saving the cubes in a pot in the freezer then i sit the entire 10 gallon pot in my sink and wait...25-45 minutes later (depending on the amount of water I used in the boil) and I'm at 90F which is good enough to pour on top of cold water that I put in the carboy... 3 gallon boil + 2 gallons of cold water in the carboy and mix them to get right at 65F and you're good.

Haven't felt a huge desire to get a wort chiller yet.

That what I would do when I was doing partials or extracts, but not entirely feasible with AG. I was halfway tempted to use some cold top off water yesterday since I had such a poor efficiency, but I thought better of it. My 8gal pot won't fit in the sink with any spare room for the cold water or ice and I don't like the idea of submerging a pot that has a ball valve on it. Too much could go wrong.

@whattawort

I did it over a few weeknights because my wife doesn't leave me alone for longer than an hour or so in the workshop. All said and done, I figure 2 hours to cut, assemble and sweat the copper pipes for the hose connection then another 2 or 3 wrestling the copper line into the rubber hose. Then figure another hour of cleaning and testing. Its a good Saturday project, but overall, completely worth it.

I installed a cam lock connection for the wort in and a ball valve on the water in to stream line connections and so I could control how much water I'm pushing through. In the winter months I know I will have to be careful as to not get my wort too cold.

CannibalAJ said:

@whattawort

I did it over a few weeknights because my wife doesn't leave me alone for longer than an hour or so in the workshop. All said and done, I figure 2 hours to cut, assemble and sweat the copper pipes for the hose connection then another 2 or 3 wrestling the copper line into the rubber hose. Then figure another hour of cleaning and testing. Its a good Saturday project, but overall, completely worth it.

I installed a cam lock connection for the wort in and a ball valve on the water in to stream line connections and so I could control how much water I'm pushing through. In the winter months I know I will have to be careful as to not get my wort too cold.

Click to expand...

Sounds doable. Where did you get the instructions on how to make it?

There's a bunch of how to's on Youtube. I like this one.

I got it off the HBT wiki!