Immersion chiller NEEDED for all grain?

im contemplating crossing over to all grain, did a small partial mash, turned out great.

but do i need a immersion chiller? i normal cool off my cook pots by letting them sit in the pool, chills them down in about 10min tops.

will this work for all grain?

why not????

You will definately need a chiller of some kind. When you have 5-6 gallons of 212F wort, a cool bath won't do much at all to cool it off. Immersion, Counterflow, or Plate are your options, but you do need a chiller.

Oligarchy said:

i normal cool off my cook pots by letting them sit in the pool, chills them down in about 10min tops.

Click to expand...

What volume of wort are you chilling in 10 minutes? If you're getting 5 gallons down to pitching temp that quickly, then you're in good shape for all grain.

Chilling can be easier for extract brewing, as partial boils are possible, and you can chill or freeze your top-up water. But with all-grain, you're boiling 6-7 gallons down to 5.

I think there is only one way to find out.

Go for it.

BarleyWater said:

You will definately need a chiller of some kind. When you have 5-6 gallons of 212F wort, a cool bath won't do much at all to cool it off. Immersion, Counterflow, or Plate are your options, but you do need a chiller.

Click to expand...

The OP said he chills his wort down in 10 min now in his pool. Wort is Wort dosen't matter where it comes from or who makes it.
I think a chiller is in order, but if you can chill in 10 min now I say go for it. My IC takes 25-30 min to chill 12 gallons
Good luck on the AG you'll love it.
Cheers
JJ

Jaybird said:

The OP said he chills his wort down in 10 min now in his pool. Wort is Wort dosen't matter where it comes from or who makes it.
I think a chiller is in order, but if you can chill in 10 min now I say go for it. My IC takes 25-30 min to chill 12 gallons
Good luck on the AG you'll love it.
Cheers
JJ

Click to expand...

I assumed a pool of water, like a tub or something, but he did actually say the pool. I bet a cold swimming pool would cool off wort pretty quickly, and most swimming pools are probably pretty cold right now. Come summer time, you may need to invest in a chiller though.

I think it's a fair question to ask what volume he's cooling down. Cooling 1 gallon vs. cooling 5 gallons is different. But if he's cooling a 3-4 gallon partial boil down I think he should be fine for AG.

BarleyWater said:

I assumed a pool of water, like a tub or something, but he did actually say the pool. I bet a cold swimming pool would cool off wort pretty quickly, and most swimming pools are probably pretty cold right now. Come summer time, you may need to invest in a chiller though.

Click to expand...

ya know what funny is my very first batch of beer we cooled down in my swimming pool. it was a 10 gallon batch and if I remember correctly it took like 1 to 2 hours to chill.

An absolute necessity when boiling down instead of topping up. An ice bath and/or frozen bottles supposedly works wonders but I have some irrational fear of contaminating the wort.

I went the immersion route and do an ice water recirculation after I hit about 100F. I get down there fairly quick and ultimately to 65F.

There's plenty of ways to chill wort. Never hurts to experiment.

The alternative is still warm wort 12-20 hours later.

radtek said:

I went the immersion route and do an ice water recirculation after I hit about 100F. I get down there fairly quick and ultimately to 65F.

Click to expand...

Same method I use. Recirculation is the way to go with an immersion chiller. It saves a ton of water and is faster than the tap when you're using ice.

You most certainly do not need a chiller to do all grain home brewing. It's one of those things that will make your beer better if you have it (especially retaining hop and/or spice aromas, or suppressing DMS if a high percentage of your mash is pilsen malt), but you don't need it. I've made some very good beers without one.

Is it necessary? No. Will it make your life (and your beer) better? Absolutely. You're going to be working with twice the liquid, at near boiling temps no less. IDK about you, but the less time I'm carrying 5 gallons of 210F sugar water the better. If anything happens and you drop that pot, you're going to the hospital.

Put the money you will save on recipe's towards one... or build one.... its just copper tube, a couple hose clamps, a couple feet of hose, and a faucet adapter.

This is an example of my 50' 1/2" copper IC. I soldered up the inlet and outlet with garden hose fittings.

goose-neck-chiller

Jaybird said:

The OP said he chills his wort down in 10 min now in his pool. Wort is Wort dosen't matter where it comes from or who makes it.
I think a chiller is in order, but if you can chill in 10 min now I say go for it. My IC takes 25-30 min to chill 12 gallons
Good luck on the AG you'll love it.
Cheers
JJ

Click to expand...

Like this I wonder?





From here, https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/eco-friendly-homemade-wort-chiller-66260/

Oligarchy said:

im contemplating crossing over to all grain, did a small partial mash, turned out great.

but do i need a immersion chiller? i normal cool off my cook pots by letting them sit in the pool, chills them down in about 10min tops.

will this work for all grain?

Click to expand...

Does your pool have a pump that is constantly moving water?? You could connect an IC to it and pump your pool water through it! Won't be wasting water and you already own the pump!

Now you just need to connect to the pool system.... Good luck

gonna be going for 5gal batches or 2 2.5gal batches.

basically what ive been doing in the past (winter in San Diego isnt much of a winter but the swimming pool gets pretty cold) i get some thick gloves and pick up my wort, put the lid on it and a weight on top and basically walk around in my pool. I emerge about 10 minutes later with a chilled wort and lacking nipples, then i attempt to dislodge my gonads from my chest.

counts as my shower for the night too right?

some times it ends up 5-10 degrees to warm to pitch then i just hit it with a bath or brave the pool again.

Oligarchy said:

gonna be going for 5gal batches or 2 2.5gal batches.

basically what ive been doing in the past (winter in San Diego isnt much of a winter but the swimming pool gets pretty cold) i get some thick gloves and pick up my wort, put the lid on it and a weight on top and basically walk around in my pool. I emerge about 10 minutes later with a chilled wort and lacking nipples, then i attempt to dislodge my gonads from my chest.

counts as my shower for the night too right?

Click to expand...

You just got immortalized in the Memorable Quotes Thread for sheer (retracted) ballsiness in hardcore wort chilling.

I just did my first AG last week without one. I put my pot in a cooler on top of something to keep it off the bottom and then dumped all my ice from my icemaker in and filled with water to almost the wort line. Was down to pitching temps (< 80 deg) in under 30mins so I'd say it's not a requirement but I will be adding one soon anyway for the many reasons mentioned above. I also think the difference between an AL and SS pot might be significant for cooling as with heating.

Oligarchy said:

gonna be going for 5gal batches or 2 2.5gal batches.

basically what ive been doing in the past (winter in San Diego isnt much of a winter but the swimming pool gets pretty cold) i get some thick gloves and pick up my wort, put the lid on it and a weight on top and basically walk around in my pool. I emerge about 10 minutes later with a chilled wort and lacking nipples, then i attempt to dislodge my gonads from my chest.

counts as my shower for the night too right?

some times it ends up 5-10 degrees to warm to pitch then i just hit it with a bath or brave the pool again.

Click to expand...

Impressive. I don't think anybody is going to be revoking your man card anytime soon. Personally, I would probably throw on my wet suit, but if it's only ten minute romp in the pool, it might not be worth it.

I brew 3gal batches and cool the wort in my sink in under 30min. I change the water out a few times early, then add some ice on the last one or two.

That's a genius idea.

Might have to try it on my pool when it thaws out.

ill make sure to post a few pics from my upcoming batch in the pool :rockin:

What about putting the brew pot in a pile of snow? I think as long as you kept adding snow around it it would work pretty well.

If there are going to be pics, could you have your wife hold the kettle?

Revvy said:

Like this I wonder?

From here, https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/eco-friendly-homemade-wort-chiller-66260/

Click to expand...

LMFAO! :cross:

Oligarchy: Thanks, that was some funny **** right there. A wort chiller is a nice to have, but it looks like you are doing OK with your method for now.

chiller will help cool 5+ gallons. sitting in water doesn't work very well for that quantity.

benbhunter said:

What about putting the brew pot in a pile of snow? I think as long as you kept adding snow around it it would work pretty well.

Click to expand...

You'd think, but I tried it a few years ago. First of all, it's COLD here. I mean, right now, it's about 3 below. So, I took the brewpot out and stuck it in the snow. Well, snow seems to be a great insulator and I had to keep moving the pot around, and it cooled very slowly. Ice baths worked much better than piles of snow. It was almost like the snow helped to hold the heat IN instead of chilling the wort.

Like many things in AG brewing, most things aren't really necessary. I mean, even a mashtun isn't really necessary. You could use a grain bag. An autosiphon isn't actually necessary. But those are tools that make the job more efficient and enjoyable. I wouldn't enjoy the process nearly as much as I do if I didn't have some of the basic equipment. And I do have the most basic of the basics! You can always "make do" if you have to. But if you don't have to, a wort chiller makes the day much easier.

I guess i wasnt thinking quite right Yooper. Its makes since because an igloo will keep someone warm in the coldest of temps.

I chilled several batches in a LARGE cooler I had with about 80 lbs of ice. It was a full 5.5 gallons post boil in an aluminum turkey fryer and it cooled in about 15 mintues to under 80. the large surface area of you pool could do the trick w/out all the ice I needed.

I upgraded to the IC to save money on ice (at least that is how I justified it). It was a great sense of satisfaction building it by BobbyM's directions for around 65 dollars.