Cooling wort w/o a plate heat exchanger

I am doing my first AG next weekend, which also means my 1st boil over 3 gallons. How much of a pain in the neck is it going to be cooling wort to a pitchable temp in a cold bathtub? Meaning, where can I expect the royal pain in the neck to be?

it could take a WHILE. Get that tub filled with Ice. Leave the wort in the kettle while your cooling it, dont transfer it to your carboy or bucket, wait till its cooled. Plan on constant stirring and a few ice switch outs for atleast and hour

How quickly does one of those heat exchangers work?

-It's funny for a living I work as a manufacturer's rep for tons of HEX manufacturers.

Plate heat exchangers are incredibly efficient. It would be hard to say how fast you could cool the wort without knowing the specs of the model you are using.

In most applications, they are designed to work with a pump, again you need the specs of the specific unit. Also, it is likely that you would also need to run the wort through a filter before the plate-x. The clearence inside is quite small.

Do you have a specific model in mind?

I've never used a plate, but immersion chillers are nice. I got 5 gallons of boiling wort to 70F in 13 minutes (new record) with my immersion chiller in combination with a tub (like what you would put the keg in at a kegger) full of ice.

Not a pain at all. Will take a bit of time, but will work fine. Just place the kettle in the tub w/ cold tap water for an hour or so, then when you are around a 100f or so, drain tub and refill w/ cold water and a bit of ice....this works well but will just take an hour or two till to you are pitching yeast...no biggie IMO. I do this when I am to lazy to hook up my IC.

I started using a CFC and IMHO its the best piece of equipment that I own. I can go 10 gal boiling wort to 60deg in less than 15 minutes.

RogerMcAllen said:

I've never used a plate, but immersion chillers are nice. I got 5 gallons of boiling wort to 70F in 13 minutes (new record) with my immersion chiller in combination with a tub (like what you would put the keg in at a kegger) full of ice.

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+1 for immersion chillers. My homemade (50' of 1/2" copper tubing) one gets 5.5 gallons of boiling wort to 70F in 8 minutes using right at 20 gallons of water (which I later use to clean up everything and then water the garden).

Just clicked the link; mine definitely didn't cost me any $127 either. I think including fittings and new tools (needed a flaring tool) the project clocked in at $70.

If you want the ice bath to work faster you need to agitate the chilling water, and replace it often.

Any problems with it taking along time for the wort to cool?

I paid $49.00 for my wort chiller. I can get my wort to 70-72 in 12 to 14 minutes with constant stirring. I do have very cold tap water which makes a big difference. My wort chiller is the second best purchase I have made only after my outside burner. After all the faster and cleaner the process is the more SWMBO will let me make.

On deck IPA
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clicked the link for immersion chillers. looks expensive.

this one is cheaper considering that it has more plates: http://www.brazetek.com/allproducts...ypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=28&category_id=6