cluckk
Well-Known Member
For years I've used a simple copper wort chiller and had good luck and quick chills. However, that was when I lived in the land where tasty and cold water came out of my taps. Here in South Texas, where we get liquid limestone barely below ambient air temps out of our taps it wasn't nearly as effective.
One thing I've done and it was some help was using a second immersion chiller in a bucket of water and then placing ice in the bucket to chill the water before it passes through the chiller in the kettle. This was still not very good and I wished I could cool the water down further. The ice was a frozen water jug. The exchange of heat and the mass of the copper, etc. in the bucket meant that it wasn't getting the water much below tap temp.
Salt water freezes lower than regular water, (this is the principle behind adding rock salt to an ice cream freezer), so I added sea salt to boiling tap water until no more salt would dissolve. This water was placed in a water jug and dropped in my deep freezer.
I used it a couple days ago and the temperature dropped from just off a boil and down to under 140F in just a few minutes--I didn't expect it to be so quick so I didn't clock it. I literally killed the flame, hooked hoses to the boiled chiller, turned on the water, dropped in the ice jug, checked for leaks and run off location, then when I checked the wort it was at 140F and dropping like a rock. It was beautifully clear too. Of course, once the wort was down to about 85F the jug was warm and melted so the effect was lost--and the last few degrees took far longer than the first 125 deg. I will make another one to finish up the next batch and also clock results.
I used the brine jug, yesterday, to cool a fermenter in a swamp cooler tub--and it worked great. I put it back in the freezer with another regular water jug to refreeze. The other jug is rock solid and the brine is still not frozen and down to -11C (around 12F, which I checked with a calibrated upper-end digital thermometer to make sure).
I expected when the water froze for the salt to drop out of solution but it is back in solution when the water melts.
Someone will tell me it is my imagination and it may well be. However, I thought I would post the idea here and see if others want to try it.
One thing I've done and it was some help was using a second immersion chiller in a bucket of water and then placing ice in the bucket to chill the water before it passes through the chiller in the kettle. This was still not very good and I wished I could cool the water down further. The ice was a frozen water jug. The exchange of heat and the mass of the copper, etc. in the bucket meant that it wasn't getting the water much below tap temp.
Salt water freezes lower than regular water, (this is the principle behind adding rock salt to an ice cream freezer), so I added sea salt to boiling tap water until no more salt would dissolve. This water was placed in a water jug and dropped in my deep freezer.
I used it a couple days ago and the temperature dropped from just off a boil and down to under 140F in just a few minutes--I didn't expect it to be so quick so I didn't clock it. I literally killed the flame, hooked hoses to the boiled chiller, turned on the water, dropped in the ice jug, checked for leaks and run off location, then when I checked the wort it was at 140F and dropping like a rock. It was beautifully clear too. Of course, once the wort was down to about 85F the jug was warm and melted so the effect was lost--and the last few degrees took far longer than the first 125 deg. I will make another one to finish up the next batch and also clock results.
I used the brine jug, yesterday, to cool a fermenter in a swamp cooler tub--and it worked great. I put it back in the freezer with another regular water jug to refreeze. The other jug is rock solid and the brine is still not frozen and down to -11C (around 12F, which I checked with a calibrated upper-end digital thermometer to make sure).
I expected when the water froze for the salt to drop out of solution but it is back in solution when the water melts.
Someone will tell me it is my imagination and it may well be. However, I thought I would post the idea here and see if others want to try it.