better compromise

Full boil without a wort chiller, or 2 gal boil on 5 gal batch?

You can do a full boil and chill in an ice bath. It takes a while and quite a bit of ice but can be done. If it is a kit designed for partial boil I would go that way.

If its a kit and calls for 2.5 gallon boil in the directions then do that. They have formulated that recipe so that the hops they use will be correctly utilized with that amount of water in the boil. If you do a larger boil it will throw them out of whack to what was intended. But invest in a wort chiller anyways, even for partial boils.

unionrdr said:

I've been kickin around the idea for a dual coil wort chiller. One coil in an ice cream bucket of ice in the right sink side,BK with the other coil left sink. Water from tap into the right coil,out on the left. Set the BK on a trivet so as not to block sink drain. Quicker chill even in summer. that'd cut off a little time for me,& have to buy a lot less ice. Small bag vs 22lb bag.

Click to expand...

This is just my opinion but I think the water passes through the chilled IC too fast to really get that cold.

Used an immersion chiller for the first time yesterday (borrowed a friend's) and was really surprised at how efficient it was. Went from boil temp down to about 80 in 15 minutes. I put it into a cold water bath in the sink to let it cool down to a final 65-70. I'll be investing in a chiller ASAP. Sure beats waiting forever and spending dough on bags of ice to cool.

The chiller I used has an "inner" and an "outer" coil to it (probably 50ft length total). I put it into my kettle during the last 10 minutes of the boil to sanitize it. Then I took the whole thing outside and hooked it up to the garden hose and let the water run through it. Like I said, only took about 15 minutes to go from 200+ to 80. Not bad. I don't know that "pre-chilling" it would make much difference. What I think would is the length of the coil total. A lot of chillers I've seen are only 25'. If you have a longer length (and therefore more coils immersed and more surface area) you will be able to cool much faster.

Here's a picture of the chiller that shows what I meant by "inner" and "outer" coils.

Yeah, this is the design I'm going to use to make my own chiller. Seems to work quite well. And 50' lengths of copper seem to be the most common to find.

That thing is wicked righteous.

mikerobrewer said:

used an immersion chiller for the first time yesterday (borrowed a friend's) and was really surprised at how efficient it was. Went from boil temp down to about 80 in 15 minutes. I put it into a cold water bath in the sink to let it cool down to a final 65-70. I'll be investing in a chiller asap. Sure beats waiting forever and spending dough on bags of ice to cool.

Click to expand...

+1