best way to cool my 10 gallons

CornyKegs 728
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shoebag22

shoebag22

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I've read a reread all the wort chiller threads I could find and now my head hurts. Like everyone else I want to cool my beer as quickly as possible but do not know if I should IC, cfc or plate...
Here is my situation:
70 degree tap water
I currently have a 25 foot immersion chiller that could be used as a pre chiller.

Is there any reason that I should not be able to cool my beer in15 minutes if I purchase a 50 foot immersion chiller?

Should I go the march(sp?) and cfc or plate route? I cannot gravity feed a cfc.

I want to do this right the first time, so I would rather buy the right equipment now and be happy, rather than buy something cheap and have to eventually upgrade to the proper equipment...:mug:
 
shoebag22 said:
I've read a reread all the wort chiller threads I could find and now my head hurts. Like everyone else I want to cool my beer as quickly as possible but do not know if I should IC, cfc or plate...
Here is my situation:
70 degree tap water
I currently have a 25 foot immersion chiller that could be used as a pre chiller.

Is there any reason that I should not be able to cool my beer in15 minutes if I purchase a 50 foot immersion chiller?

Should I go the march(sp?) and cfc or plate route? I cannot gravity feed a cfc.

I want to do this right the first time, so I would rather buy the right equipment now and be happy, rather than buy something cheap and have to eventually upgrade to the proper equipment...:mug:
Click to expand...

I use a plate chiller but am very careful about pellet hops and use a hop filter bag. I am as confused as you are. Everybody does it a bit differently. Lots of guys swear by the recirculating method using an imersion chiller while agitating the wort. I know it's tuff but you have to decide what works best for you and your budget.
 
Since you already have an IC, you could next try the whirpooling. This requires a march pump (there's a group buy currently being organized in another thread) and another piece of copper to recirculate the wort/create the whirpool. Done right, this should give a significant boost to your cooling times.

But, if still not satisfied, you could still later decide to try a CFC or plate chiller. I decided against either of them because of some of the stories I read about clogging/difficulty in cleaning (and I know I hate to spend lots of time cleaning). Or, you could then bump up to a 50' chiller and continue to whirlpool.

In any case, you'll likely be happy that you have the pump since you'll likely put it to use for other purposes as well.
 
I use a 50' IC that I built . I live in Texas and I have no problem bringing the wort down to about 80. Sometimes I use a prechiller, but I hear that using a pond pump in an ice chest with ice water works well to bring it down to pitching temps. I just usually pitch at 80 and throw it in the fermenting chamber. In a few hours its down to 65.

I dont know about 15 minutes though. 30minutes for sure, but I usually agitate the IC a bit and that help alot, or you could stir.
 
I do tap water and them ice water/pond pump and it works well, having a pump and whirlpool would be much more efficient. I do notice a big jump if I agitate the IC and or kettle.
 
I have a cfc and love it. I run right out of the keggle and into the cfc and into the carboy. I let it run through while i clean up. Hands free. I just run some boiling water through it after I'm done and I never have clogging problems
 
I just did my first 10 gallon batch this past weekend in my new keggle. I used my 50', 1/2" IC, hooked up to the hose, (around 60 degree water). I didn't stir or agitate the wort, (too lazy). I hit 75 degrees in 15 minutes.
 
pdbreen said:
Since you already have an IC, you could next try the whirpooling. This requires a march pump (there's a group buy currently being organized in another thread) and another piece of copper to recirculate the wort/create the whirpool. Done right, this should give a significant boost to your cooling times.

But, if still not satisfied, you could still later decide to try a CFC or plate chiller. I decided against either of them because of some of the stories I read about clogging/difficulty in cleaning (and I know I hate to spend lots of time cleaning). Or, you could then bump up to a 50' chiller and continue to whirlpool.

In any case, you'll likely be happy that you have the pump since you'll likely put it to use for other purposes as well.
Click to expand...

Don't believe all the stories you hear about plate chillers. There are ways you can keep your hop debris down to almost nil even with a heavy load of pellet hops.
 
shoebag22 said:
Would a paint strainer work?
Click to expand...

Works very well, I have used one for the last few brews, and it collects pretty much ALL the hop matter. Some people worry about utilization, I don't.

I did make the mistake last time of tossing a whirlfloc tablet INTO my hop bag paint strainer last time though. I was doing a 10 gal batch, tossed in 2 tablets at 5 minutes to flameout, and figured i"d throw one of the two into the paint strainer to coagulate anything in there.

I ended up with a paint strainer that wouldn't strain due to the action of the whirlfloc....I had around 3 gallons of my wort TRAPPED in the stupid strainer, and boy was that a pain to get out, (literally, very hot wort!).
 

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