Cool That Wort!! Cool That Wort!! What Works For You?

I just upgraded to a 10 batch gallon brewing system and I wanted to grab some opinions and suggestions and ideas on how to cool the wort. I originally used the ice paddles I bought from a restaurant store and did an ice bath along with it. However, 10 gallons is a lot to cool with ice and a paddle. So...How do you cool your wort?

You need an extra large immersion chiller. It's the lowest hassle (effective) way to chill your beers.

^one opinion. I disagree.

I made a counter flow, which was fun to make and works brilliantly. Gravity and siphoning is a PITA but I got 5 gallons cooled in 16 minutes. I bought a pump as part of my preparation for 10 gallon batches, and it should arrive today. We'll see what it does to my cooling time.

so you're saying that buying a pump, a counter flow, setting it all up, priming the pump, filtering your wort before cooling, etc., is easier than throwing in the IC and turning on the hose?

I can see the CFC being more effective(quicker) but no way is it easier.

An Immersion Chiller (IC) - basically a coil of soft copper tube which you run cold water through.

However, if you have rapi-kool or equivalent "paddles", you can still add those to the mix - it is the sort of thing they are designed to do. Just be sure to sanitize the outside of the "paddle" - and for best effect, wait until you've pulled the temp down a ways with the IC, which is most effective when the wort is hottest. The ice paddle would be most helpful for the last 20 degrees F or so (depends on size - assuming the 1-gallon size and a 10-gallon batch)

Or look into a CFC - I don't like them much because I prefer systems where I can see any crud on the wort contact surface, but many folks love them.

I've never had an IC, but I brewed my first 3 batches with my new CFC from Austin Home Brew.....They are the last 3 batches I'll use it for.

It's hard to clean! I'm not sure I'll ever be confident in it's sanitation, and It puts ALL the junk from the boil into your fermentor. I'm trading for an IC.

So using a Blichmann CFC brick is not that easy?

Please explain the process using one of these if you have one.

Regards,

-Dis

This is my biggest PITA about brewing. I only do 5 gallons batches, well until this next brew than I plan on 10G, but any way. I only have a 25ft IC right now. It took FORVER to cool. My last batch i bought a small pond pump and pumped cold water through down to 100, then went through 1 1/2 big bags of ice. It took 40 minutes still to chill from boiling to 70. I definitately need at least a bigger IC if I plan on 10 G Batches.

To the OP:

Here's an immersion chiller, it's just a big heat exchanger. Not a great pic but it's all I have in my gallery right now. You hook a hose up to it and the cool water runs thru the copper thru the coils, and up and out of the other end(outside of boil pot). This pulls the heat out of the wort. Mine takes about 15-20 mins to go from boiling to 70 degrees. When purchasing, remember, you cannot buy too big. Mine is 50 ft. One wildcard is the temp of your hose water. In Oregon ours is pretty cool, 50-ish. If you're in a spot where tap water is 80, you obviously will not be able to cool as efficiently or to as low of a temp as you would like.

The snotty looking stuff is cold break - the quicker you cool the wort, the better your cold break and the clearer your final product.

I only brew 5 gallon batches, fits a keg nice and allows for more variety in the store room. Anyhow, I hook my 25' IC up to one of my water timers for my lawn and set it for 30 minutes. I whirlpool it a few times during that time frame to avoid cold and hot spots in the kettle. Works for me.

blacklab said:

so you're saying that buying a pump, a counter flow, setting it all up, priming the pump, filtering your wort before cooling, etc., is easier than throwing in the IC and turning on the hose?

I can see the CFC being more effective(quicker) but no way is it easier.

Click to expand...

I haven't actually done it yet with the pump, but yes. The pump is self priming and I have no intention of using a filter. I use a hop bag to contain hop solids, and the pump has a screen to catch anything else. There is nothing extra involved with setting up a CFC over an IC. I plop it on the porch, connect the garden hose, connect the wort in/out lines, and its ready to go. I guess you could say that setting up the wort in/out tubing is extra setup, but you have to transfer anyway, and I'm able to aerate during the transfer. I just throw it in, turn on the hose, and hit the switch on a pump. I don't even have to stir while it cools.

My dad has an IC and we had to combat the leaky connection to keep hose water out of the wort, you have to clean it off, and we were putting it in 10 min prior to flameout to sanitize it, but that killed the boil. He switched to using sanitizer on it. Cleaning the CFC is as simple as letting oxyclean circulate/soak in it, then rinsing with clean water.

IC for me on 5 gallon batches....works pretty well. Drop in the kettle about 10mins to finishing boil then i move the kettle off the burner upon finishing....turn on the hose and occasionally swirl the IC around every few minutes.

Although it seems my IC leaks a bit were the hose meets the copper (stupid washer machine style screw clamps) I'm gonna gets some 3/8 flex and a couple compression fittings to extend out the lengths a bit

Another immersion chiller option. This one is modeled after Bobby_M's design. It's got two separate legs of 1/4" copper tubing.



Super easy to use and clean, and very effective.

-Joe

nostalgia said:

Another immersion chiller option. This one is modeled after Bobby_M's design. It's got two separate legs of 1/4" copper tubing.

Super easy to use and clean, and very effective.

-Joe

Click to expand...

That's cool Nost, make me one.

I am in the same camp as BK. I use a CFC and do not like using it as much as if I had a large IC. Unfortunately I only have a tiny IC.

Soperbrew said:

That's cool Nost, make me one.

Click to expand...

Bring me 50' of 1/4" copper and I'll gladly solder one up for you

-Joe

Diablotastic said:

occasionally swirl the IC around every few minutes.

Click to expand...

+1 on this. When I cooled my last batch I noticed the water at the output from the IC started off very hot, then cooled to tap temps within seconds. I swirled the pot gently and the output water ran hot for a few seconds then cool again.

The moral of the story is if you're not moving either the IC or the wort, you're not cooling efficiently with an IC. If you think it takes forever to cool your wort, try gently rocking the pot the whole time you're cooling.

-Joe

I use an immersion chiller, also. Like some of the others, I just don't trust what I cannot see when it comes to contacting my cooled wort. I want to SEE the clean! Cleanup isn't much more than hosing the blessed thing off when I am done.

Plus, the thing works quite fine. Depending on the time of year and whether I use a prechiller, I can get my wort down to 75-85F in 15-30 minutes. I certainly do move the chiller around in the wort. At first, I do so fairly gently. Once the wort temperature gets down to around 130 or so, I pick up the pace.

And, you do not need to put the chiller in the wort 10 minutes before you cut the fire. That is overkill on top of overkill. Just put it in when you kill the fire. The wort will be more than hot enough for more than long enough to more than adequately sanitize your chiller.


TL

I think that the Mr. Malty style whirlpool immersion chiller is the best. I don't have my rig up and running yet, so I still use a 25' 3/8" IC and recirculate my hot wort for 10g batches. Even with the undersized cooler in the middle of summer I am down to 65º in 12 minutes. It just creates a very good heat transfer scenario.

How bout a plate chiller...I don't use one but am looking into getting one...A couple people around here swear by them. The therminator seems a little expensive but I've heard it works great.

Slappy White said:

How bout a plate chiller...I don't use one but am looking into getting one...A couple people around here swear by them. The therminator seems a little expensive but I've heard it works great.

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A plate chiller is probably the most efficient heat exchanger for this application, if you can afford one I'm really fond of them (at least for PC cooling, I've yet to use anything other than ice bathes for wort).

You're less expensive plate chillers aren't a whole heck of a lot more expensive that copper immersion chillers, nowadays. It could be worth a shot, sometimes, if I can get over the willies about wondering what's going on inside that thing.


TL

built a counter flow and will never go back to an ic

Well we now know what DOESN'T Work

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/lessons-learned-84844/

I'm hating my IC right now. It leaks no matter what I do to it (two big worm clamps and a pressure regulator, and it still mocks me). Even with a pump and ice water, it takes over a half hour to get to pitching temp. And, I had too short of an outlet hose on it, so now I have a second degree burn to prove it. This batch will be called "Second Degree Wit". Ouch.

The best setup I think is a CFC recirculating wort back to the kettle with a March pump. Since our groundwater is hot here in summer I'm thinking of using a 15' prechiller submerged in an ice bath as a second stage after a CFC. This is more or less what Jamil uses; put a 90* elbow on the return to the kettle and you have a whirlpool. He claims his chiller will drop from boil to pitching temp in under 10 minutes.

I would not use a CFC without a pump. With the pump, you just recirculate the boiling wort for the last five minutes of the boil before turning on the water and it's sanitized. Run the first CFC water into a bucket (not onto your foot ), and you have hot water to pump through the CFC to clean it when you are done. The pump, CFC, and a ball valve for my kettle will be my next brewhouse upgrade.

Until the upgrade I am going to try switching to compression fittings on the IC and figure out some way to adapt to a nice long outlet hose.

I use a home built Counter Flow Chiller (CFC) and After Chiller (AC) and I'm very happy with it. The AC is just 10ft of copper coil submerged in an ice bath to bring the wort temperature below the ground water temperature (it's hot in TX).

The flow is Kettle -> Pump -> CFC -> AC -> Fermenter. I can cool 5.5 gallons in ~10 minutes to ~72F during the heat of the summer (ground water is 80 - 85F).

To sanitize everything, I simply flush a gallon of boiling water through the entire system. Then, I follow with a gallon of weak iodine solution. After brewing, I flush with a gallon of 150F percarbonate (Oxiclean) solution, followed by a gallon of regular strength iodine solution. The key to cleaning is to flush the system ASAP.

Ok so whats the problem with running wort through the CFC while at the end of the boil? (assuming you have a pump) It seems to me if you clean with oxy or PBW before, then you would sanitize it this way, right?

Also I am going to be using a false bottom in the brew kettle, wouldn't this filter the cold break while recirculating till at the proper temp?

two words...pickle crock

my wife collects old pickling crocks, butter churns, etc.
although i only cool 5 gallon batches. i use a 10 gallon crock.
i fill it partially with water from the garden hose, set the kettle with wort inside it, put the garden hose down in between the kettle and the crock, and let her run. outside of course.
works much better than an ice bath, and is cheaper and less aggrevating.

nchomebrew said:

two words...pickle crock

my wife collects old pickling crocks, butter churns, etc.
although i only cool 5 gallon batches. i use a 10 gallon crock.
i fill it partially with water from the garden hose, set the kettle with wort inside it, put the garden hose down in between the kettle and the crock, and let her run. outside of course.
works much better than an ice bath, and is cheaper and less aggrevating.

Click to expand...

Interesting. What kind of times do you get?

I felt frustrated with the CFC for the first few uses. I don't think I would have stuck with it if I didn't upgrade to using a march pump. That's not to say I'd recommend going the pump route just for the chilling, but it's a workhorse for everything.

I have an IC I built from 60ft of 1/2 copper brings me from boil to in the 70's in about 11 minutes.For the hotter months I have a pre chiller made from 50ft of 3/8 thick wall copper and an old cooler filled with ice and i gets me to temp in about the same time....The best part is, all the material for this was all free!!!!

Diablotastic said:

...turn on the hose and occasionally swirl the IC around every few minutes.

Although it seems my IC leaks a bit were the hose meets the copper (stupid washer machine style screw clamps) I'm gonna gets some 3/8 flex and a couple compression fittings to extend out the lengths a bit

Click to expand...

nostalgia said:

+1 on this. When I cooled my last batch I noticed the water at the output from the IC started off very hot, then cooled to tap temps within seconds. I swirled the pot gently and the output water ran hot for a few seconds then cool again.

The moral of the story is if you're not moving either the IC or the wort, you're not cooling efficiently with an IC. If you think it takes forever to cool your wort, try gently rocking the pot the whole time you're cooling.

-Joe

Click to expand...

I want to build one of these one day. It is easy like a regular IC, but it also moves the wort around in a nice whirlpool so the trub settles well in the centre.

Laughing_Gnome said:

I want to build one of these one day. It is easy like a regular IC, but it also moves the wort around in a nice whirlpool so the trub settles well in the centre.

Click to expand...

Heard a lot of happy homebrewers using that technique. Cools pretty quickly, helps get trub and hops to the center, helps preserve hop flavor, helps reduce DMS production, etc. Not recommended though, if you use a hop stopper or your pick-up is in the center of the kettle.

I use a pump and a plate chiller. Works great.

I bought a Blichmann Therminator (plate chiller) last month. It wasn't the most economical choice but I was tired of dealing with the cleanup and clutter of the IC I was using. The water is really cold where I live so I can cool a 10 gal batch from boiling to 70F in about 5 to 10 min (just depends on how fast i can drain my wort through it. You can cool it to less than that if you turn up the water pressure. And with a name like the Therminator how can you resist. Definitely worth checking out.

Anyone else use one?

Therminator Home

I use a Shirron and swear by it, even with gravity. I don't care about the cold break getting in the fermentor, either. And I use the hanging hop-bag as a filter.

I may set up a recirc when I get the money for a pump (because I want to recirc mashes anyway) but for now it's stupid easy to use. 5 gallons in < 10 minutes. I backflush immediately afterward and then bake at 500 for about an hour. I bake again the night before brewday.

The therminator is on my wishlist...heard great things but no personal experience.

I use a CFC I made using phil's phittings. Gravity fed, it works like a charm. I've got a ball valve on the side of the kettle that I rig up with a copper or SS scrubbie. After I whirlpool, it keeps most of the break and all of the hops out of the fermenter. Plus it drops the wort down to 65 in 15 minutes.

My IC can get me to 75 degrees in 8 minutes. At least my well water is good for something, certainly not for brewing - its about 50-55 degrees out of the faucet so it cools in a hurry. The key is to stir the wort as it's cooling. I stir continuously for those 8 minutes.

Coastarine said:

Interesting. What kind of times do you get?

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not sure. i've never timed it. i guess i was just happy i didn't have to do the ice thing. i'll time it next time. maybe even take a pic.