Pic of new pump fed ice water IC..

Wanting to get into full or near full boils on the stove top I needed a better way of cooling. My first batch (3 gallon boil) took a bath in the sink and seemed like it took forever to cool 30-45 minutes. Doing this with 5 gallons of water would take probably an hour at least and probably start effecting the beer.

I bought a 20' box of 3/8" copper tubing for $33 and 8ft of 1/2" ID vinyl tubing for a total cost of about $40 with tax. I already had a Maxijet 900 aquarium powerhead Maxi-Jet Powerhead which was perfect.

The 1/2" ID tubing slipped over the 3/8" copper great without clamps, tight enough to not leak a drop but loose enough for easy removal for storage. The cool thing too about the powerhead above is that the tubing also slips over the pump output easily and holds firm without clamps but removes for storage.

I pumped ice water through the chiller and the cooling was tremendous, I did a test boil of a hair shy of 3 gallons. It cooled from 212 to 130 in about 3 minutes. I didn't have a thermometer that went below 120 but the temperature felt at or below 70 in about 8 minutes. I think I'll be able to cool 5 gallons in 12 minutes or so.

Hope this helps someone. I like it over the faucet hookup for many reasons. One is that you don't have to mess with removing parts from your faucet every time you brew. You can also pump ice water through any time of the year, tap water in TN in the middle of summer gets pretty high.

It probably wouldn't take long with 5 Gallons because those other copper coils will be in contact with the wort.

Yeah there are a couple coils sticking up. I tried to size it for the 32q megapot I'm about to get which is a couple inches higher than this pot and larger diameter so the chiller should be surrounded by plenty of water.

Thanks. I'm going to use this same approach for 10 gallon boils. I'm using a march pump to recirculate and do a whirlpool a la Jamil Z. I'm curious, does your water come out boiling hot? And if not, would you think a slower pump rate might do an even better job cooling?

Very cool setup. And your cutting board is awesome!

Very nice. I have been thinking about something along these lines my self.

HomerJR said:

Very cool setup. And your cutting board is awesome!

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Cutting board, hell. Did you see that pink Snoopy sippy cup! :rockin:

Walker-san said:

Cutting board, hell. Did you see that pink Snoopy sippy cup! :rockin:

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I have the exact same sippy!!!

sweet man. i use something similar with a 5 gallon bucket. definitely get the temp down a little with normal water and then use the ice water. it's a waste of the ice to use it to cool from 212 to 150 or lower. the ice just melts super fast. i don't know if it's my pump or the smaller diameter of my chiller, but it takes me around 30 minutes or more to get 6 gallons of wort down to 65.

I use the exact same sippy cup!

I've been using tap water to get the wort to about 100 then dump in my whole freezer's ice bin in there. I don't re-circulate the water except when the output gets pretty cool, no need as our water is so cheap. Probably takes 20-30 minutes depending on the tap water temperature. I hope to start 10 gallon batches outside and will probably have to move up to a 50' coil. Thats actually the first cutting board I made, the later ones were even better looking. Nothing says home brew like a snoopy sippy full of pale ale.

I have pretty much the same setup and it is pretty schweeet! I have a similar pump but with less with power. I also fill up my cooler with ice water which helps keep the ice from melting too soon. And I put the discharge hose over the drain if its nearby or into a bucket b/c @ the beginning, the discharge water is quite hot which also melts the ice quickly. It takes me 30 minutes max to get my wort to pitching temps.