wort chiller design

i was kind of thinking of combining an ice bath and an immersion chiller to cool wort super quick.

so buy a big tote that you can fit your brew kettle in with a lot of room around it to make room for ice. then make an immersion chiller but instead of having the water come from a source why not make a closed loop system and circulate the water from the coil inside the brew kettle to the ice in the ice bath.

so essentially there would be two coils one in the ice and one in the brew kettle. the coil inside the kettle draws heat out of the wort and the coil on the outside dumps the heat in the ice and cools to repeat the process.

You'd be better off pumping the ice water thru the IC. But expect to use a whole lotta ice.

well if a whole tub of ice has enough energy to get a kettle down to pitching temp with just stirring alone wouldnt this just be a faster version of it? there isnt any heat being added just that the heat is being moved around a lot quicker. and you wouldnt need to use as much water.

Tinga said:

well if a whole tub of ice has enough energy to get a kettle down to pitching temp with just stirring alone wouldnt this just be a faster version of it? there isnt any heat being added just that the heat is being moved around a lot quicker. and you wouldnt need to use as much water.

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I've cooled with several different methods and from my expierence the most effective way is to use an imersion chiller with tap water to get it down to 100F. Then hook up a pump to the IC and pump ice from a bucket thru the IC and back to the bucket.

In the winter my ground water is cold enough that I don't use the ice bucket trick. In the hottest months I use the ice.

The pre chillers and ice baths are not nearly as quick and effective as these methods.