How do you chill your wort?

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How do you chill your wort?

  • Ice Bath

  • Immersion Chiller

  • Counterflow Chiller

  • Plate Chiller

  • Other


Results are only viewable after voting.

GRHunter

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I am currently using a 25' copper immersion chiller. During the winter it worked like a charm. But now in the warmer weather I am getting a little frustrated with how long it is taking to get my wort cooled off. So I am thinking about going with a counterflow chiller and using my immersion chiller as a pre-chiller. But before I go to the expense and trouble of doing that I thought I would see what everyone else is doing first.
 
Voted IC, but now in the summer i have been using it with ice bath as the tap water is around 78 degrees.

Luckily in Utah the reservoirs are all in the mountains fed by snow run off so water never gets too warm but if you lived in someplace like Florida or Arizona im guessing a IC would be almost pointless.
 
Voted IC, but now in the summer i have been using it with ice bath as the tap water is around 78 degrees.

Luckily in Utah the reservoirs are all in the mountains fed by snow run off so water never gets too warm but if you lived in someplace like Florida or Arizona im guessing a IC would be almost pointless.

That's kind of my experience yes - my cold tap certainly runs warm here in FL...

N.
 
I was using a CFC but I just got my IC from AHS today. I don't know why really but I found the CFC to be a bit of a PITA for me... I know most people love them, just not me...
 
I use an IC in two steps lately while keeping the wort in motion across it almost the whole time. It takes me around 15 minutes to get boiling down to around 70ish with ~60 degree well water, then I switch to recirculating ice water (approx 14 lbs of ice) through the IC to knock it down to 5 degrees below ideal fermentation temp so the yeast has nowhere to go but up. That takes me another 15 minutes.

I don't have a food safe pump or I'd consider using it to circulate the wort across the IC for me or better yet run it through a CFC back into the pot. I haven't ventured into running my wort through things I can't see through yet, and the CFC might run into trouble if I want to hit 57 degrees but my well temp is above. Thus I'm more interested short term in finding something cheap to spin my wort across the IC.
 
I use an IC that I made, but it's only 25 ft of Copper. My tap water is pretty high in the Houston Summers, and i dont think it really makes a difference. The water coming out is barely warm. I was hoping it would be a lot hotter, meaning the heat exchange was working. Oh Well...

I did buy a lot of extra tubing for the inlet side, and just have it coiled in a bucket full of ice water. I dont know if thats helping either but it makes me feel good haha.
 
ps. I bought a pre wort chiller but my water was fairly cool to start with so it was just more work to keep liquid flowing past chillers in two vessels instead of one. It did lower the temp of the incoming water but recirculating the ice water through the main IC seems more efficient and easier if you have a water pump. I bought the pre wort chiller for fun so I'm not too bothered.
 
Ice bath all the way. I'm getting an IC from a brewing friend soon, but like everyone else, living in Alabama means warm water in the summer.
 
my 100ft IC only took my last batch down to 80 degrees. It was a Saison so I didn't really care but when I make a kolsch or something else, it's gonna be tought to get it down to 60 or even 70 without an ice bath.
 
The IC gets those first 100 degrees down in about 10-15 minutes just using water straight from the tap. If I wasn't doing full boils on 3 gal. batches, then I could pre-chill the extra water for adding to the wort by just putting it in the fridge the night before. If I was making a 6 gal. batch, and only did a 3 gal. boil (my max), then ( (3*100) + (3*40) ) / 6 = 70 degrees... a pretty good pitching temp!

I made my own IC from parts I got at Lowe's... some advice: when designing the IC yourself, if you aren't using plans, then arrange for the faucet hookup first and everything else is easy from there. I started my planning with the copper tube and couldn't find the right connector to hook to my faucet, so I had to start over, and that was brew time wasted. :(
 
I made a 50' 1/2inch copper IC Bobby_M style. It worked great during the winter. Now when the temp drops to 100F I move the water supply to a corny keg filled with 20#'s of ice ($1.50). Water goes in the gas port and comes out the beverage port icy cold and then through the IC. I can usually get the wort down to 60F in 20-25 mins from start to finish (5.5gals).
 
I use my IC to get it down to as far as I can get (90-100) and then transfer it to my carboy and dunk it into ice water and check it every so often and then pitch the yeast.
 
I live in Florida, and my tap water runs pretty warm (~80F). I use a homemade 25' IC chiller and that got a 5 gallon batch down to 90-ish fairly quickly. I just use a simple ice bath after that, with some bottles of frozen water tossed in the wort (sanitized, of course) and it took it down to pitching temperature quicker than I thought it would.

I'm looking into getting a submersible pump and just circulate ice water through my IC for the last 15 degrees or so, I think that'll be quicker and easier than an ice bath.
 
I use a 50' IC (1/2") which drops my 10 gallon batches down to 110 degrees or so in 15 minutes using warm 85 degree Texas ground water. I added a sump pump from Harbour Freight ($24 with discount coupon) that moves 1600+ gph. I fill my HLT with water and ice and pump that cold water through my IC to get it down to 70 degrees in another 10 minutes. Works awesome. Just need to add some quick disconnects to speed up the changing of the hoses and it will be perfect.
 
I work in the plumbing & electrical industries so I was able to build a copper IC for fairly cheap. My exit water spills back onto the outside of my pot and the whole thing is sitting in ice water.
With how warm it's been in seattle I have to brew at night otherwise the water is around 73. I am designing a system to put before my IC that will actually chill the water before running through the copper. I'll post it once I build it.
 
I originally bought a cheap IC made with 25 feet of 1/4" copper refrigeration tubing. This took too long even when my tap water was cool, so I built a larger IC using 50 feet of 3/8" copper tubing. Now I use the smaller IC as a pre-chiller with an ice bath (tap water -> small IC prechiller in ice water -> large IC in wort). I can chill 5 gallons of hot wort to 65-70 degrees in about 20 minutes. I used Bobby M's IC design, took me about 2hours to build even as a first-time solderer.
 
i use an IC but i pump ice water through it using a cheap ol pond pump, a bucket, water and ice
 
I use an ice bath, alternating between both sides of my sink every ~10 minutes. Takes ~30-40 minutes to cool down though, not ideal.
 
Ice bath - I usually buy an eight pound bag of the "good" ice. I do partial boils. It takes no more than about 15 minutes to cool the wort down. Once the ice is all melted and the water has warmed, I pour it into the fermenter and the rest of the water. The temperature is always at that point right for yeast.
 
I've been running an idea through my head over the past few weeks. Currently, I put a 1/4" x 25' copper IC in my 7g kettle (while simultaneously giving a salted ice bath), which cooled down my wort to pitchable temps in 20 minutes (in the Florida heat - as recent as August 10).

However, I just recently purchased a 15.5g Keggle and I'm itching to use it, but I'm fairly certain my old IC won't get the job done - even with an ice bath - in less than 20 minutes. I'm also considering that my hose water doesn't exactly get "cold" (temp is something close to 70ish, by my estimation).

I've investigaged a couple other IC options as I'm not really interested in the CFC route at the moment. One of them is to purchase and/or build a 50'x1/2"(or 3/8") IC and attach it to my old 25'x1/4" IC (which will be submerged in a salty ice bath) - which is subsequently hooked to my garden hose. So essentially, it'd look like this:

Garden hose -->25'x1/4" IC (in a salty ice bath) -->50'x1/2"(or 3/8") IC submerged in wort.

This would work similar to using a pump submerged in a salty icebath pumping cold water through the IC, with the benefit being that I wouldn't have to refill the ice bath from time to time.

My thought is that I would get extremely chilled hose water running through the 50' IC. Even without putting the keggle in an ice bath, I'd assume that I'd get pitchable temps within 15 minutes or so.

Thoughts? I'm wondering if that's a better option than hooking up a $15 pump from Harbor Freight. Don't forget that I need to get a 50' IC anyways due to the larger kettle. I'm just thinking outside the box.
 
I have used (1) ice bath, (2) first attempt at IC (too tall), (3) second attempt at IC (short and squat, but I didn't like stirring my wort to keep it in touch with the coils), (4) CFC (I love this thing).
When I am done mashing, I clean the tun. Near the end of the boil I use the tun to run Starsan through the CFC and then directly to the fermenter to sanitize that. It is very easy. I do not have a pump. I just use gravity. When I am done running the wort to the fermenter I run Oxyclean and then clean water through the CFC. It is ready for next brewday.
This summer my ground water has gotten warmer, and I have only been able to get the wort down to 73F. I have thought about using the old IC in an ice bath, but so far, I have just moved the fermenter to my basement, and I pitch the yeast about a half-hour or hour later. I'm just guessing that the temp has dropped a little, but I don't really know. The basement is at 68F this time of year with the A/C on, and I have bubbles in the airlock within 12 hours usually. So, it's working for me. We'll see what the fall brings and the heat comes on.
I have been considering a fermentation chamber, but I'm still not sure exactly what or where I want it.
 
I've only made two batches using a 3 gallon boil, but had no trouble getting it down to temp in the sink. Everyday I make 2 trays of ice and put the frozen cubes into a tupperware container in the freezer. By brew day, I'm overflowing in ice. Usually I dont even use it all in the chilling, so I use it in my swamp cooler.

Part of why I brew at home is to save money, so there's no way I'm buying ice. Another reason I brew is to save weight since I walk to the store. If I'm gonna lug ice, I may as well lug beer. Another reason I brew beer is because I enjoy it so much. Chilling the wort is just part of the fun. :D

Having more ice than I need on hand, pre-chilled 40 degree top up water ready to rock, and a big steel spoon to help transfer heat out of the wort is all I need for my small boils. :) Good luck!
 
I think your pre-chiller idea will work well. Heck, it won't hurt, especially if you've already got the 25' IC. What else ya gonna do with it? (Sell on the forums or craigslist, I guess?)
 
I think your pre-chiller idea will work well. Heck, it won't hurt, especially if you've already got the 25' IC. What else ya gonna do with it? (Sell on the forums or craigslist, I guess?)

I was thinking the same thing. I might go the $15 pump route in the event that the 25' IC wouldn't be available - my friend brews as well and it may be incapacitated.
 
I'm just doing partial boils at the moment so I freeze about 1 1/2 gallons of water and pour my hot wort directly over it. It cools the wort down in less than 10 minutes.
 
I am willing to sell the IC. It isn't very tall, but works well with the 20qt stock pot. It is 20ft. I onlt brew 2.5 gallon batches, so that is probably limiting for most AG brewers. It works great if you don't mind stirring your wort with a sanitized spoon, and you are brew small batches. It would be really good as a prechiller.
 
ohio well water stays pretty cold here. using a 50 ft 1/2 in ic I can get 10 gal of wort down to low 70s in about 20 min
 
I use the rib cage style DIY IC with I think 20' of 3/8" pipe. I'm debating throwing it up on Craigslist and building another one with 50' of 1/2" and tighter "ribs" because it takes over half an hour to chill the wort down to the high 70's (although maybe I haven't found the optimum water flow rate).

DISCLAIMER: It may be 40' of pipe that I used, I can't really remember that far back
 
I voted for other because I use a water bath, no ice. Works just fine for me. I checked my tap water yesterday and after being in the 90's outside for two days my tap water was sitting at 64.5F.
 
It has been so hot here that I have to use both a 50 ft I/C plus a 25 ft pre chiller. I don't put the ice onto the prechiller until I am below 100.
 
i use a 50' IC and during our crazy hot st louis summer my outside water tap is delivering almost 80 deg f water. ill be arranging some type of pre chiller before next brew day. if all else fails and i end up brewing before ive prepared one, ill definitely go back to the immersed frozen water bottles after the IC has got my wort to 85 deg f. that was the method I used when I brewed in our kitchen and it worked very well for 5 gal batches.
 
Just thinking outside the brewpot here, but anyone ever tried dry ice? Just toss it into the wort (stand back!) Its just frozen CO2, so it won't water down the wort. Though aeration might be another thing.
 
Just thinking outside the brewpot here, but anyone ever tried dry ice? Just toss it into the wort (stand back!) Its just frozen CO2, so it won't water down the wort. Though aeration might be another thing.

People have discussed it and found out that there is/has been lots of dirt found in it. If you like dirty beer go for it ;)
 
I use a 50ft IC for 10 gal batches. In the summer tap water is about 76 deg F so I cool it down to about 80 deg F. Then I transfer to fermenter and put it in the kegerator I use for temp control. I pitch the yeast once I'm at my target temp.
 
This got me thinking - is there a big difference (time-wise) in cooling capacity between 3/8" and 1/2" copper tubing?

I haven't done a search yet, but the difference in price between the two sizes (both in commercial ICs and simple coil purchases) may outweigh the amount of extra time needed to chill the wort to pitching temps. I'm looking at a ruler right now and there's not much difference between 3/8" and 1/2" inch. Perhaps the thickness of the tubing makes some difference?

Can anyone comment?
 
Saves me the trouble of 'putting in a dirty glass' :ban:

Might use it for prechiller and/or bath then

Dry ice doesn't cool water as efficiently as you'd think. Yes, it's mighty cold, but it has a low specific heat compared to water, so it doesn't transfer energy out of the water very well.

Dry ice + high alcohol content liquid = very nice prechiller, maybe? And you'd carbonate the vodka so if you drank it afterwards (yumm... dirty vodka) then the alcohol would hit your bloodstream faster!

Crazy mad scientist brewing, woot!
 
This got me thinking - is there a big difference (time-wise) in cooling capacity between 3/8" and 1/2" copper tubing?

I haven't done a search yet, but the difference in price between the two sizes (both in commercial ICs and simple coil purchases) may outweigh the amount of extra time needed to chill the wort to pitching temps. I'm looking at a ruler right now and there's not much difference between 3/8" and 1/2" inch. Perhaps the thickness of the tubing makes some difference?

Can anyone comment?

Radii of circles:

r = 0.5 in
C = 3.1415926535898 in
A = 0.78539816339745 in2

r = 0.375 in
C = 2.3561944901923 in
A = 0.44178646691106 in2

Half inch has almost double the area of 3/8ths. If flow volume/time were identical, that would mean that the wider tube would have more contact time with the wort. If the contact time were identical, that would mean that the 1/2" tube would have almost double as much water.

Surface area would also play a role, probably a much greater one than flow volume, actually.

.5" * 300" = 944.0 in2
.375" * 300" = 707.7 in2

708/944 = .75 = 75% of the surface area

So, there is a difference... but it depends on what it's worth dollarwise to you.


EDIT: whoops, used .5" and .375" as radius, when they should have been diameter. Oh well. Too lazy to fix... you can see there is a difference. :)
 
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