"super" wort chiller

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jarrodaden

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I live in Houston where the tap water can easily be 90 plus degrees so I decided to make a "super" wort chiller

I basically made two copper coils. The water first passes through the first coil which is in an ice bath. That same cold water then passes through the second coil which is in the hot wort.

Has anyone tried this before?

I have my brew on the stove now and I can't wait to try it out...
 
Yeah people called them pre chillers. I tried it with my cfc and didn't like the results. I'm going to try a pond pump and pump ice cold water directly through my chiller this year. Btw I live in south ga so I feel ur pain
 
I am a little south of you in Wild Peach Village, but at least I am on well water which stays at a nice 75 degrees for me. but I do feel your pain. I just use an immersion chiller which gets me down to 75 degrees in our wonderful 95 degree weather in about 15 minutes.
 
jarrodaden said:
I live in Houston where the tap water can easily be 90 plus degrees so I decided to make a "super" wort chiller

I basically made two copper coils. The water first passes through the first coil which is in an ice bath. That same cold water then passes through the second coil which is in the hot wort.

Has anyone tried this before?

I have my brew on the stove now and I can't wait to try it out...

I'm up in the Woodlands. I did the prechiller with counter flow chiller when I first moved here last year. Now I have moved on to 2 plate chillers. Wort goes through both, first 50 plate has tap water running through it, second 40 plate has 32 degree glycol running through it. Knocked out 10 gallons in about 10-15 minutes last weekend.
 
I was disappointed with mine. Took nearly 25 minutes and I was still stuck at 80 degrees.
 
I was disappointed with mine. Took nearly 25 minutes and I was still stuck at 80 degrees.

That sounds wildly inefficient. In 90 degree heat this week, I cooled with a simple immersion chiller. 15mins tops to 70 degrees.

I move the immersion chiller around constantly, it gives supremely better results.
 
That sounds wildly inefficient. In 90 degree heat this week, I cooled with a simple immersion chiller. 15mins tops to 70 degrees.

I move the immersion chiller around constantly, it gives supremely better results.

Yeah but you're in Connecticut. What's your ground water temp? Ground water is a lot warmer the further south you go.
 
I live in Houston where the tap water can easily be 90 plus degrees so I decided to make a "super" wort chiller

I basically made two copper coils. The water first passes through the first coil which is in an ice bath. That same cold water then passes through the second coil which is in the hot wort.

Has anyone tried this before?

I have my brew on the stove now and I can't wait to try it out...

I am thinking that I should have waited until the wort was down around 100 to put the ice in the Pre chiller. That or I need a bigger ice water bucket. My ice was pretty much gone when the wort hit about 100 degrees.

Also, I just check the temperature of the water coming out of the tap. 82 degrees and that is at 10 pm. I was probably stuck at 80 trying to get it even cool or for a good 5 or 10 minutes.

200 degrees to 80 degrees in 15 to 20 minutes is pretty good I think for us down here in Texas.
 
Just a suggestion, try running your immersion chiller for about 10 minutes without the ice bath on the pre-chiller to cool your wort to a more workable range, then dump your ice water into the pre-chiller bath and it will quickly bring you home.

It's all about Delta T.
 
I am thinking that I should have waited until the wort was down around 100 to put the ice in the Pre chiller. That or I need a bigger ice water bucket. My ice was pretty much gone when the wort hit about 100 degrees.

Also, I just check the temperature of the water coming out of the tap. 82 degrees and that is at 10 pm. I was probably stuck at 80 trying to get it even cool or for a good 5 or 10 minutes.

200 degrees to 80 degrees in 15 to 20 minutes is pretty good I think for us down here in Texas.

BrotherGrim has the right idea, but also , try stirring while your cooling or moving the coil around. I used to take a large metal spoon, and put it in just before the boil was up, use it to keep the wort spinning like a whirlpool, while simultaneously cooling. Increases the effectiveness of the coil by quite a bit.
 
Just a suggestion, try running your immersion chiller for about 10 minutes without the ice bath on the pre-chiller to cool your wort to a more workable range, then dump your ice water into the pre-chiller bath and it will quickly bring you home.

It's all about Delta T.

, delta T is one of 3 things (and the easiest to manipulate) that control your heat transfer rate. So if you use the pre chiller to lower the temperature of your cooling water you will have a higher heat transfer rate.
Assuming you can't get your delta T All that high (since the south is hot) you could increase your mass flow rate, use a pump or turn the faucet wide open.
lastly you could use a fluid with lower specific heat (like oil or glycerine). Of course this poses unique challenges.
Hope that helps
Supporting equation: Q(dot)=m(dot)*c*(delta T)
 
I am in houston I dump the 1st 7-10 minute then run the circulated ice bath . cut way down on ice needed
 
I run a aluminum kettle and I can tell it takes alot just to cool that kettle down , bet ya if I transfered it to somthing( like plastic carboy that could withstand heat) 1st It could cool a whole lot quicker
 
If you put your metal kettle in an ice bath, and then ran the cooler and prechiller combo, stirred the bejeebies out of it, you shoule elicite enough heat transfer to cool that beast down to a manageable temperature in short order.
 
What has worked best for me is a pond pump first pumping non-iced water until I reach 150F then hit it with ice down to 60F. With my 50' 1/2" wort chiller and recirculating I am usually down to 60F in about 25-30 min, and 45F for lagers in about 45 min.

-G
 
I have a 50' 1/2" chiller and I use tap water for the first 5 minutes then switch to directly circulated ice water. My pump is also very slow. It takes me 15-20 minutes from boil to pitching.
 
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