Chilling the Wort

I was wondering if I could run my wort through an immersion chiller that was sitting in an saltwater ice bath. My thinking is I could get the water in a bucket much colder then that out of my tap. In addition by circulating the water in the opposite direction of the flowing wort I would be able to really drop the temp. I was wondering if anyone had tried this or had any incite.

I know a guy who, via a march pump, will fill a tub full of salted icewater and recirculate the chilled water through his immersion chiller back into his tub. He keeps adding ice to keep it down close to freezing. Makes for a very effective summer-time McGuyver method.

muse435 said:

I was wondering if I could run my wort through an immersion chiller that was sitting in an saltwater ice bath. My thinking is I could get the water in a bucket much colder then that out of my tap. In addition by circulating the water in the opposite direction of the flowing wort I would be able to really drop the temp. I was wondering if anyone had tried this or had any incite.

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Sounds kind of like a counterflow chiller. It has been done many times. I don't like counterflow chillers because the hops can clog them up pretty easily (though, there are ways around this). Also, I don't like manually siphoning, so I wouldn't want to do it without an electric pump.

Also, you have to have extra special care in sanitation. It is harder to clean the inside of tubing than to clean the outside.