Test Run of Shirron

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Brewiz

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Did a test run last night with 7 gal of water, man does that thing rock! I took 6 gal of boiling water down to 78 in less than 5 min! I can't wait until the next time I brew, what a time saver..
:ban:
 
I used my therminator yesterday for the first time. Living in central Canada our tap water temp stays quite cold all year round. It was able to bring 20 gal of wart down to pitching temp very fast. I love this thing
 
beer4breakfast said:
What's the temperature of your cold water going in?

Yep, that's the key.

I still have to use a prechiller (immersion chiller hooked to the ground water hose then hooked to the shirron, in a bucket of ice water) to get below 80°.

Ground water temps should start falling soon though. One less step in the brew day! :rockin:

But the shirron has been a great investment--other than cutting my fingers on the back edge--every time I use it.
 
beer4breakfast said:
What's the temperature of your cold water going in?

I didn''t check it but we are still having very warm days, the last time I brewed 2weeks ago it took me 45 mins with my immersion chiller.
 
I know a lot of people use them, but the things that concern me about them are:

1) Almost boiling wort going in means that the cold-break happens inside the wort chiller and it all ends up in your carboy or fermenter.

2) It might get clogged with cold break or hop debris.

3) Like Dude mentioned, I'll still have to use a pre-chiller to get below 80 or 90 degrees, so it doesn't really offer any advantage over using a pre-chiller and a regular immersion chiller.
 
beer4breakfast said:
I know a lot of people use them, but the things that concern me about them are:

1) Almost boiling wort going in means that the cold-break happens inside the wort chiller and it all ends up in your carboy or fermenter.

2) It might get clogged with cold break or hop debris.

3) Like Dude mentioned, I'll still have to use a pre-chiller to get below 80 or 90 degrees, so it doesn't really offer any advantage over using a pre-chiller and a regular immersion chiller.

Not meaning to pick apart your post, but...

1) You'll have that with a CFC as well. The cold break will not affect the fermenting wort--in fact it can be good for it in some ways.

2) I've NEVER come anywhere close to clogging mine, but then again I use a hopstopper, and NOTHING gets past that, not even pellet hop particles.

3) their is a HUGE difference between using a pre-chiller with an immersion chiller and using a pre-chiller with the shirron. Even with a PC and an IC, you are looking at 30 minutes (approximately) to cool a batch. With the shirron and a PC, 10 minutes MAX, closer to 5 minutes honestly. Hefty savings on the old water usage. Further, some climates will never even require a pre-chiller withthe shirron. As long as your ground water is < 80&#176;, you don't need a PC. You'll still be able to cool to pitching temps in less than 10 minutes.

Shirron chillers are well worth it and when used right are awesome.
 
The wort makes a single pass through the shirron, right? So do you use the ice bucket pre-chiller from the start, even when your wort is around 200 degrees? (Um, it just occurred to me that your wort stays around 200 degrees the whole time you're draining it from the kettle since you aren't using an IC.) Seems like you'd need to. That's a little different from the IC with PC setup where to make most efficient use of your iced pre-chiller, you need to get the wort in the kettle down to around 100 before kicking in with the pre-chiller. Or, that's how I've been doing it anyway.
 
Dude said:
With the shirron and a PC, 10 minutes MAX, closer to 5 minutes honestly. Hefty savings on the old water usage. Further, some climates will never even require a pre-chiller withthe shirron. As long as your ground water is < 80°, you don't need a PC. You'll still be able to cool to pitching temps in less than 10 minutes.
If you recirculate the cooling water in an ice bath, your water usage is even less, and you will never need a pre-chiller...of course, you need a pump to facilitate the recirculation.
 
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