Pre-chiller vs. pump set-up

Want to switch to 10 gallon batches....there must be leaks in all my cornys because I seem to be going through them very quick..

so of course i need to buy some new stuff..
(Word to all that are thinking of doing AG.. buy for 10 gallon batches


I have a 25' I.C.

I'm thinking of buying a 50' I.C. and using the 25' in the summer as a pre-chiller sitting in an ice bath. (not bad right? no waste)

or....

I keep my 25' - buy a pump, and do the ice water through pump through I.C. setup.
The 25' I.C. even though not meant for 10 gallon batches would benefit from the ice water temps in the summer. In the winter the water is cold enough that the 25' would prob still work w/o the pump...
Either way i'm achieving the same goal....ice water temp to the wort chiller.

I'm thinking of just spending a little more (65.00)and buying the 50' chiller..

Thoughts?

You dont even want to know how much ice water you will have to have.

You would be looking at about 80# of ice and a couple gallons of water, if you wanted to recirculate the same fluid through the chiller, back to the resevoir and back through again. It takes me 44# for a 5 gallon batch (which is a 10 gallon volume)

I love the ice water chilling, I use it, but you need A LOT of ice and a little water. If you are prepared to use about 80# of ice on a batch, I say do it!

Thanks Pol -

What i would do if was to recirculate would be to not use the ice bath for the initial temp drop - say from 212 to 80.

After hitting 80 i would switch to the pump/ice water and recirculate. Would use allot less ice..

javajo91 said:

Thanks Pol -

What i would do if was to recirculate would be to not use the ice bath for the initial temp drop - say from 212 to 80.

After hitting 80 i would switch to the pump/ice water and recirculate. Would use allot less ice..

Click to expand...

That would use a lot less, I use it for all of it. I recirc ice water and recirc the kettle at the same time. I can get 5 gallons to 60F in about 25 minutes in 5 gallons. I then use that full water complment for cleaning (10) gallons

I think your initial problem would be using a 25' IC for the initial tap water cool down (which is a process I definitely agree with) will be hindered due to the short coil. I'm assuming you have a 3/8" OD x 25'. That cool down to 100F will take a LONG time with 85F tap water. A 1/2" OD x 50' coil will make that faster.

Given the investment in the 1/2" x 50' coil, you might be prone to keep the smaller one as the prechiller, but you could easily sell that and drop the money on a pond pump. Pumping icewater puts 32F water into your IC. Prechillers put 40-60F water into your IC depending on how fast you run the water.

I don't use an IC, but I do use a CFC. 20lbs of ice is enough to do the job and that is with recirc the hot water. What I do is spray the return water through some misters before it goes back into the ice bath. You can shed a whole lot of extra heat this way. This is with 5 gal batches of course so more ice may be needed. I dont think you would need more than 40 though. Another idea would be to run it through a transmission fluid cooler with some misters spraying tap water on it and some airflow running across it.

That is if you want to recycle your water of course with minimal ice...

For batches larger than 5 gal though I THINK the consensus is CFC or plate chilling.

I've noticed a large reduction in waste water when using my CFC and not recirculating compared to my old IC.