Cooling wort

I was thinking if adding a cooling with running water through it does such a nice job wouldn't pumping your wort through the coil submerged in an ice bath cool it quicker and safer? Just a thought and thinking of a better mousetrap

This has been brought up a few times. Search for "reverse immersion chiller" or something similar.

The general consensus is that it is: less efficient at cooling, more complicated to set up, and if using an ice bath more expensive.

I've never really seen one done though. If you like the idea give it a try and post a how to and some numbers!

Edit: the set up basically becomes a giant counter-flow chiller. Its easier in the long run to just make a standard coiled CFC.

It would also be a nightmare to clean and sanitize the INSIDE of a 50' copper coil! just pumping clean water though it leaves no residue for bacteria/mold to grow on.

Copper surfaces kill pathogens within a few minutes without the aid of sanitizers. You would just need to rinse any gunk out.

I think that the biggest challenge isn't the cooling coil but the pump that must be a slow pump and with stainless steel impeller to avoid contamination ...because if you have an in and our 1/2 copper pipe into your wort and the coil in a 7 1/2 gallon insulated bucket you can basically add 10-20 lbs of ice and a little water,place lid to avoid evaporation and basically pump wort through coil into iced water and back to the wort vessel which would need to be covered to avoid contamination since wort will be moving hmmm

So are you trying to pump the wort to the fermentor or back into the kettle?

If you're trying to set up a recirculation system for cooling:

1: its cheaper to recirculate cold water than wort(pump prices)

2: if your going to recirculate wort you can use that for a IC w/ whirlpool, a proper CFC, or a plate chiller

I looked at doing an ice bath chiller for a while, and once you break it down its ultimately easier to do it another way.

You can pick up a pond pump from home depot for about $30-$40. This can be submerged in ice water and used to circulate ice water through your chiller in a continuous loop. This way you don't have to worry about sanitizing pumps or the inside of the chiller. I can't remember off the top of my head, but I think my pump is in the 200-300 GPH range.

BryceL said:

You can pick up a pond pump from home depot for about $30-$40. This can be submerged in ice water and used to circulate ice water through your chiller in a continuous loop. This way you don't have to worry about sanitizing pumps or the inside of the chiller. I can't remember off the top of my head, but I think my pump is in the 200-300 GPH range.

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That sounds like a great idea...

Big_Cat said:

That sounds like a great idea...

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Here is pics of my setup. With stirring I am down to ten pounds of ice and 25 to 30 minutes.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/thought-i-would-share-my-wort-chiller-setup-350725/

If you have a Harbor Freight near you the pond pumps may be less expensive. A lot of times pet supplies are marked up because they know people will pay for it to keep their pets healthy (I used to work at a pet store).

itzkramer said:

If you have a Harbor Freight near you the pond pumps may be less expensive. A lot of times pet supplies are marked up because they know people will pay for it to keep their pets healthy (I used to work at a pet store).

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I bought a Harbor Freight pond pump for this use a couple of years ago for 9 bucks. It holds up well. A couple of things I found while using this method. First, when you start off after killing the fire, use tap water. I run tap water till my wort temp approaches 100F. Then switch over to running ice water through the the wort chiller to bring down the temp to where you need it.
I also recycle my ice water by using a cooler with the pump in it, at one end. I pump the ice water into the wort chiller then out of it into the other end of the cooler so it has to run over the ice before it gets back to the pump.