i had some copper left over from my mlt manifold and i built a quick prechiller. it is 3.5' or 1/2" copper tubing. I have an immersion chiller that cools to pitching temps in about 25 mins and i figured to avoid chill haze it needed to be faster for my jump to all grain. do you think this little thing will make enough difference or shuold i go get some more copper?
my lil prechiller
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Blender
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Actually, pumping ice cold water and recirculating it through your immersion chller may be more beneficial. So consider purchasing a sump pump and use a 5 gallon bucket of ice water to do the job. This worked much better for me.
Blender
Well-Known Member
Once the immersion chiller no longer is effective you would pump ice water from a 5 gallon pail through the wort and recirculate the water. The pre-chiller does not get as cold as pumping ice water through the immersion chiller.
Blender
Well-Known Member
Well, you did mention that you might go buy some copper so I just presented another option to a possible purchase.
Blender
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In California, where most things are more I would think around $50.00 or so.
Brewer3401
Well-Known Member
Blender said:
I know what my next project will be. By pumping ice water, you omit the exchange of cold through the copper into the warm tap water. I am guessing this will work MUCH better than the pre chiller.
Any recommendation for a pump, and what flow rate do you use. ( I have 50' of pre and immersion chiller tubing 3/8")
Thanks
I am a huge advocate of pumping ice water instead of buying a prechiller because it is much more effective. In addition, a pump from harbor freight is probably half the cost of 50' of copper. BUT... if you already have 50' of copper for a prechiller, I'm sure it will work well enough for you.
For the OP, no, a couple feet of tubing would probably only drop the chilling water by 1-2 degrees... not worth the trouble putting the ice in the bucket.
Another trick I've read is putting your bottling bucket up high filled with icewater and gravity draining it through your chiller after your tap gets it down to 100F. This doesn't require a pump.....pretty slick.
For the OP, no, a couple feet of tubing would probably only drop the chilling water by 1-2 degrees... not worth the trouble putting the ice in the bucket.
Another trick I've read is putting your bottling bucket up high filled with icewater and gravity draining it through your chiller after your tap gets it down to 100F. This doesn't require a pump.....pretty slick.
Brewer3401
Well-Known Member
Bobby_M said:
The gravity feed sounds interesting. I'll try a dry run to see how high I need the ice water bucket to push out through the IC.
Another possibility: I use CO2 to push my beer out of the brite tank into my keg. Not a lot of pressure, but just enough so I keep a little pressure on it.
You would need an air tight setup, and CO2 is a lot more expensive than gravity, or even a pump's cost amortized over x years.
I like this site - occasionally see things I've not thought about.
More than one way to skin a squirrel, but that's for another forum.
Thanks for the info.
Perhaps a drill driven pump might be a cheaper alternative?
Blender
Well-Known Member
I went to the hardware store and bought the cheapest one they sold. I think you might be able to get by with a pond pump if you could attach a hose to it. I wasn't to worried about flow rate because I recirculate the water into the ice bucket. I used a sump pump though because it is self priming and you can just drop it in the bucket.Brewer3401 said:
I have a prechiller for sale now .
Brewer3401
Well-Known Member
Blender said:I went to the hardware store and bought the cheapest one they sold. I think you might be able to get by with a pond pump if you could attach a hose to it. I wasn't to worried about flow rate because I recirculate the water into the ice bucket. I used a sump pump though because it is self priming and you can just drop it in the bucket.
I have a prechiller for sale now .
Damn, keep getting more ideas. And I thought I had everything I needed - yeah right.
Like the idea of recirculating also. I just need to design a bypass system to cut off tap water and redirect from ice water. Just sounds like a "T" or two and a couple of cheap valves.
Good info - thanks
Blender
Well-Known Member
I just unhook the hose from the faucet and attach a shorter one from the pump. The output hose goes back into the ice water. If I had more ice ( I empty my freezer) it would really work better than it does. I don't like to buy ice.Brewer3401 said:
Brewer3401
Well-Known Member
Blender said:
I hate buying ice. For an ale, I need 2 large bags (I get to 65 F), for a lager, I need 3 large bags plus whatever I can steal from the ice maker (get to 55 F).
Now I don't need a T and valves, which is nice.
Anyone have any tech data on how many gallons of ice water necessary to drop temp from X - to X ?
Looked at fountain pumps (Home Depot). Would a 60 gpm be sufficient, or should I get a larger one and choke back on it.
Brewer3401
Well-Known Member
Bought a 85 gpm fountain pump (Lowes). It takes 20 seconds to fill up the immersion chiller, 50' of 3/8" copper tubing.
Pump is set on hightest flow rate.
Anyone have experience with this flow rate: Is this fast enough, or should I get a larger capacaty pump ?
Thanks
Pump is set on hightest flow rate.
Anyone have experience with this flow rate: Is this fast enough, or should I get a larger capacaty pump ?
Thanks
Brewer3401
Well-Known Member
Ran test: Ice water in bucket 34F, coming out of immersioni chiller 43 F.
It looks slow, especially compared to faucet pressure wide open.
My pump at max pumps a little over 3'. After fighting through 50'+ of 3/8" tubing and 10' of hose, it looks like it is pumping maybe 1-2 inches (have grave doubts about the gravity feed, unless you could have ice bucket 20' in the air or so).
I'm going to try with a lager next week. My tap water is 90F, so I won't start with ice until I see 100F coming out of the IC.
Again, anyone with experience think I should go up to a higher output pump. This is 85 GPM, the next step up is 160 GPM.
Thanks for the input.
It looks slow, especially compared to faucet pressure wide open.
My pump at max pumps a little over 3'. After fighting through 50'+ of 3/8" tubing and 10' of hose, it looks like it is pumping maybe 1-2 inches (have grave doubts about the gravity feed, unless you could have ice bucket 20' in the air or so).
I'm going to try with a lager next week. My tap water is 90F, so I won't start with ice until I see 100F coming out of the IC.
Again, anyone with experience think I should go up to a higher output pump. This is 85 GPM, the next step up is 160 GPM.
Thanks for the input.
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