How to Chill in deep south

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TheCrane

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I just moved from northern Michigan to South Carolina and brewed my first SC beer on Sunday. Trying to chill wort with water the temperature of microwaved urine is not something I am used to. Just looking for suggestions from any southern brewers on how to deal with this.

I tried running the tap water through an immersion chiller that was immersed in a cooler full of ice water and then into my homemade CFC. I ended up with a carboy full of 95 F wort. Luckily I brewed a saison, so a quick soak in a tub of ice water got me down to a reasonable pitch temp of 78 F. I want to brew some lagers soon but need a more effective way to chill.
 
Forget the pre-chiller they don't work very well.

Use the immersion chiller and tap water to get it down to 100F or lower. Then use a cheap garden pump to recirculate ice water thru your immersion chiller. Depending on how hot it is you may run thru some ice but given some time you can get it below 50F for lagers.
 
Forget the pre-chiller they don't work very well.

Use the immersion chiller and tap water to get it down to 100F or lower. Then use a cheap garden pump to recirculate ice water thru your immersion chiller. Depending on how hot it is you may run thru some ice but given some time you can get it below 50F for lagers.

This is what I do and have been having excellent results. I take it <100°F with the tap and then the rest of the way with the recirced ice water. I use 20lbs of ice to get down to ale pitching temps would probably take another 10lbs to lager temps.
 
I have a hard time breaking ambient temps even after half an hour of immersion chiller use. After I get to the point I just say screw it and toss it into the carboy and toss that into my swamp cooler with tons of ice to get it down into the 60s. Next brew I might try an immersion chiller recirculation pump.

HIJACK TIME

How much are the circulation pumps that you guys use for this and where did you find yours?
 
Thanks for the fast responses. I was hoping to get by with the equipment I have, but looks like I may have to save for a pump.
 
Thanks for the fast responses. I was hoping to get by with the equipment I have, but looks like I may have to save for a pump.

You can get a cheap garden pump for under 20.00 at home depot. It doesn't need to be a fancy high dollar march pump.
 
I use 40-50# of ice in a cooler, fill the cooler with water and then run the ice water through my immersion chiller, I top up with water until I get down below 90° then recirc the water back into the cooler, it takes me on average 20 minutes to go from flame out to 60-62° for a 5 gallon batch. my tap water is above 90° all summer and garage temps where I brew range from 105° up to 118°

The cost for my little 170GPH pond pump was like $25-30.00
 
I tried several pond pumps and found a good rate for my setup to be 170, the 120gph one was a bit too slow to make best use of my chiller, the 220gph was also slow to cool because the water was moving too fast to effectively transfer the heat from the wort
 
I have seen a picture of someone who froze a garbage can full of ice as a water cycling manifold. Sort of a frozen-in heat exchanger.
 
Brewing in the south is tough in the summer months, I use an immersion chiller, actually two, I just used the second one this past friday, one is a 50 ft. 1/2 inch I bought from Northern Brewer, and the second one I just made myself, it is 20 ft. 1/2 inch from lowes, and did it make a difference, I chilled a tad over 18 gallons using the two of them, went from boiling to 69f in 23 minutes flat, that is using two of the pond pumps, I use my 84 quart mash tun cooler full of ice that I freeze myself, no recirculating, I run the garden hose into the cooler full of ice and the pumps to push the ice water through the chillers, that is the fastest way I have found, good luck.
 
I like to pack a corny keg with ice,worm clamp a garden hose on the posts(needle valves removed) and use this as a prechiller. but I dont use it till the tap water has got me down to at least 100 . I think the pump would be alot better.
 
Do you have a good drill? Preferably corded? Get this:
http://www.harborfreight.com/all-purpose-drill-water-pump-34302.html
It's much, much cheaper than a garden pump if you already have a drill motor.

If you don't have a Harbor Freight nearby, you can get the same pump (at twice the price) at Home Depot (presumably also Lowes etc., but I did see a drill pump at Home Depot).

I use this pump to recirc icewater down here in Georgia. One other thing you can do is stir your wort (or recirc the wort using Jamil's recirculating chiller) to increase the effective surface area of the chiller.

Good luck here in the South! Coming from Michigan myself, I can tell you that the winters here in Georgia are prime brewing weather and are well worth waiting for. Cold enough to get good groundwater temps, warm enough that it's downright pleasurable standing around outside during a mash and boil.
 
In PA, our tap water is 75F right now. I use a standard CFC set up with hose water and a pump. Then the wort goes through a 20' coil of copper tubing immersed in 20 lbs of ice in water with a pond pump to move the water around the tubing. Boiling to 45F in a single pass. Without the pump in the cooler, the wort temp rises 10+ degrees.





Gauge is reading 42F
 
Thanks for the fast responses. I was hoping to get by with the equipment I have, but looks like I may have to save for a pump.

You might try pumping the ice water into your CFC with the garden pump. This will only require you to buy the garden pump.
 
I would just use the chiller to get it down to 95 and then toss it into your carboy and let it sit overnight in your fridge (or whatever you are fermenting your lagers in), then pitch in the morning. I bet your cold break would still be adequate and you wouldn't have to buy new equipment.
 
I use a diesel plate chiller and drop mine down to about 85F and throw the fermentation vessel into the keezer and pitch the next day.

m.
 
I just moved from NY to Atlanta myself and have been wondering about this as well. I really need a new chiller anyway, so I will probably build a CFC and try out dstar's method. As it is, I will be another month or so away from a brewday, so building some new equipment during the evening is just the thing to keep me in a homebrew state of mind!
 
What sort of GPH rating should I look for?

A typical household plumbing system will deliver about 3 gallons per minute or about 180 GPH at a faucet head. Any pump with a higher flow rate than 180GPH will increase the effectiveness of your chill. I found the best way for me to chill 5 gallons is to use my immersion chiller hooked up to my hose bib on the house. I can get down to around 100F. Once I reach this temp I switch over to this pump http://www.harborfreight.com/1-2-half-hp-clear-water-pump-with-float-94648.html, in a recirculating ice water bath with 20pounds of ice. I can get the wort down to pitching temps in about 20 minutes using this method. One other trick is to add ordinary table salt to the ice water bath. The salt will lower the melting point of the ice a few degrees will slow the melting process.
 
With that pump, how are you attaching the garden hose to it? Just clamping it on or is the valve removable so you can thread onto the bottom piece?
 
One other trick is to add ordinary table salt to the ice water bath. The salt will lower the melting point of the ice a few degrees will slow the melting process.

Is there any concern for pumping salt water in a copper IC? Will the salt water corrode the copper?
 
I think the salt was for the prechiller that the fresh-water passes through on its way to the IC. But your concern is still valid.

Though, if it's not in there too long, and you rinse it thoroughly.... I dunno.
 
I think the salt was for the prechiller that the fresh-water passes through on its way to the IC. But your concern is still valid.

Though, if it's not in there too long, and you rinse it thoroughly.... I dunno.


no he's pumping the ice water (with salt) thru the copper IC.

I wonder if the salt would corrode the pump as well. I guess it depends on the pump.
 
Is there any concern for pumping salt water in a copper IC? Will the salt water corrode the copper?

You can double check, but IIRC salt water is not very corrosive to copper. You would of course want to rinse after but for a short time it is OK.
 
One other advantage to the submersible pump is the ability to use it for cleaning kegs and carboys. An old bucket, a bit of PVC and a drill and you can build yourself a nice cleaning rig.
 
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