Never used a Immersion Chiller Question please!

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

ohill1981

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 2, 2008
Messages
246
Reaction score
4
So i have never used an Immersion Chiller I am collecting all my equipment for all grain brewing. This is the only item i am lacking now. My question is.....
How does the IC hook up? I am looking at one on Ebay for roughly 65$ it is 50ft with two garden hose attachments. Well i was planning to do my brewing outside and i have a garden hose hook up, but i could only run one hose to one of the attachments. What do i need to do to hook up the other end of the IC? I know a dumb question , but i dont know till i ask!
 
If you're just running the water (not recirculating it) then you can just add any old hose to the "out" side of the chiller, and water your water/flowers/etc. I like to keep the first bit of hot water out of the chiller in my MLT and use it to clean equipment, so I don't waste too much water.
 
Oh i just went an bought the pieces for mine at Lowes and it was about 65$ for the parts. and thats 50' of 1/2 and all the fittings.
 
Ok so the second attachment is for recirculation.... Could i attach a hose and run it into a cooler for cleaning of my mash tun? Is that what most people do. Since wasting all that H2O is not the best thing to do.
 
Ok so the second attachment is for recirculation.... Could i attach a hose and run it into a cooler for cleaning of my mash tun? Is that what most people do. Since wasting all that H2O is not the best thing to do.

One of the fittings is the "in" where the hose goes in. That's where you put the hose from the faucet. The other one is the "out" and you put a hose on it to just drain it. I try to save most of the water to water the garden, clean equipment, etc. so it can go where ever you want.
 
Also remember that 200° water will kill your grass, so just water the driveway until it cools a bit.

But ya, you'll need a different hose to direct the outflow water somewhere.
 
Cool Thanks a lot guys! Figured it was simple! Just bough the Chiller on Ebay. Was going to make one but i made my MLT so that was enough building for me for the week.
 
I route the output from my chiller into a cooler and dump it in the washing machine and do a load of laundry with 'free' warm water.
 
So i have never used an Immersion Chiller I am collecting all my equipment for all grain brewing. This is the only item i am lacking now. My question is.....
How does the IC hook up? I am looking at one on Ebay for roughly 65$ it is 50ft with two garden hose attachments. Well i was planning to do my brewing outside and i have a garden hose hook up, but i could only run one hose to one of the attachments. What do i need to do to hook up the other end of the IC? I know a dumb question , but i dont know till i ask!

You're going to wonder how you ever got by without an IC! I have a 36' copper IC that gets 6 gallons down to 70F in 11 minutes.:tank:
 
+1... just used mine for the first time last weekend. I'll never mess around with sinks full of ice water again.
 
:off: I live in AZ and lets just say our water here in the summer is freakin hot, there is no way you could get the wort below 80 without recirculating some ice water with a pump...there is just no way, not in the summer at least.
 
recirculation will be just filling a bucket or cooler with icy water and connecting your chiller to a pump and letting the water recirculate through the system, if your water is about 70 then you will be at pitching temps, alot of people here say to pitch cooler than 70, but I follow the laboratory recommendations and pitch around 70. I think if your water is 70 you will be right about where you want to be, it will just be a matter of getting your temps into the mid to low 60's after pitching to stave off the off-flavors that higher fermentation temps can produce. Regardless of the labs fermentation temp recommendations, other than with Belgians, I try to keep my temps around 65.
 
Back
Top