Would this Chilling idea work?

I think I'd rather do this then create a CFC, as long as it will work ofcourse.

The reason being I have my old bottling bucket sitting around; I never used it since I keg. Since it's taking up space anyway, I might as well put it to good use.

I will still need to re-coil my Immersion chiller to fit the bucket. Right now the coils are really close together, but i figure for the wort to effectively cool off they shouldn't be close together using this method. I want as much cold water surrounding the copper piping as possible.

Another reason, I think this will save water.


Quick question though. How do you assemble quick disconnects? I think it would be a good idea to have one on the hose connecting the BK to the chiller.

I think this would work great! I think you'd want to stir the ice bath while draining, that would maximize the cooling potential. And you're right, you'd only need about 5 gallons of water versus maybe 20-100 gallons (depending on tap water temp and flow rate).

Can't help you with the quick disconnects though. Sorry.

PS Like your drawing, and the proper labeling of "Bling"!

I've often thought of something similar. What stopped me I am not sure a 5 gallon container is enough ice water and the hassle of sanitizing the inside of the chiller and being very careful not to get any trub in the chiller, thereby creating a blockage.

That's gonna take a lot of ice.

Dropping 5.5 gallons of water from 212 to 68 F requires 7 million Joules. 7 million joules is roughly equivalent to melting 45 lbs of ice.

Granted, you'll have some water in there, and the ice will have to warm a bit to hit 32F, but figure on at least 40 lbs assuming for inefficiencies. That's what The Pol had to use for his Icy Herms.

Note also that 45 lbs of ice probably won't fit into a 5 gallon bucket with a coil in it, so you'll need a bigger bucket, or you'll need to be constantly adding new ice and draining off meltwater, but then you'll be losing more efficiency by dumping cool water.

oceanselv said:

I've often thought of something similar. What stopped me I am not sure a 5 gallon container is enough ice water and the hassle of sanitizing the inside of the chiller and being very careful not to get any trub in the chiller, thereby creating a blockage.

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These concerns would be the same as if using the CFC, so not really a deal breaker.

HomerJR said:

you'd only need about 5 gallons of water versus maybe 20-100 gallons (depending on tap water temp and flow rate).

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For point of referance, the first 2 gallons I run through my IC is really hot and I save in the sink for clean up. When the temp drops, the next 5 gal goes into a culligan bottle for further cleanup or I save it to brew with. After that 7 gallons, my wort is 80 ish degrees. I transfer to my primary and let sit to pitching temp.

I don't use 20 gal between brewing, chilling and cleanup.

There are commercial counterflow heat exchangers that work exactly that way.

okay I'm going to try it...

If it doesn't cool down by the time it reaches the fermenter I will just use a trusty Ice Bath. I'm pretty sure it will though. I'm severly reducing the surface area of the hot wort, which should lead to faster cooling even without it being submerged in cold water.

I guess I could always do a dry-(maybe "wet")-run of this first with just hot water.

Are you going to be using a pump? I didn't notice that in the drawings. I'm not sure if a gravity feed siphon will be enough force to liquid through the IC and into the carboy. It might if everything including the carboy is lower than the previous components. I have never tried it though.

binaryc0de said:

Are you going to be using a pump? I didn't notice that in the drawings. I'm not sure if a gravity feed siphon will be enough force to liquid through the IC and into the carboy. It might I have never tried it though.

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I'd be concerned with that, too, depending on how high your boil kettle is. If you have a pump, and if the wort being pumped out is NOT at 68°, you always have the option of recirculating for a while.

Personally, I'd just buy/build a CFC. The "counter" part is key for quickly wicking away the heat from the wort. This design, you'll be constantly adding ice, stirring, etc. The "waste" hot water from the CFC, have that exit into your bucket and use that for cleaning, if efficiency is a concern.

EDIT: My other concern, without a pump it's not as easy to get the inside of the tubing as clean/sanitize. With a pump, you can easily circulate PBW/Oxiclean and your sanitizer. But, I know people who use CFC gravity-fed, so it CAN be done w/o a pump, it's just got to be trickier.

quick disconnects are easy, just screw on if threaded or clamp on if a barb easy as can be.

I would add an inline temp guage like the thrumometer so you know how much to throttle flow to get your temp.

I tried something similar with my 10 gallon Igloo cooler. The water/ice in the cooler got way too warm, too fast, and then it stopped cooling very well. It works fine if you have enough ice. You'd need about 42 pounds of ice and 1 gallon of cold water and constant agitation to do it.

FWIW- I chilled 5 gallons from boil to 70 with 20# ice and cold water topped up in about 15 minutes with the Simple Brewery.

My tap water is pretty warm in the summer, so here is my solution.

sorry, can't do a nice drawing like yours.

20lbs of Ice in a standard cooler (Rubermaid 54qt blue cooler), add cold water to fill the cooler,
Connect a short length of garden hose to a small, drill powered water pump (got mine at harbor freight for about $8), submerge end of garden hose to bottom of cooler
Connect my existing Immersion chiller (50 ft of 3/8 copper tubing) to the output side of the drill powered pump.
Used my cordless drill to pump water through IC.

I was able to cool a 5 gallon batch to 68 F in about 12 minutes.
I did need to top of the water, but still had some ice left.

Just a thought.

The ice will melt pretty quickly and you'll have dump the warm water and replenish with more ice and water. The reason it stinks is that nothing is taking the heat away from the coil except for the ice. You'll also have to agitate the coil or stir the whole time.

yeah...okay.... I'm just going to make a cfc....lol

Thanks for the heads up


at least the drawing was fun.

mhermetz said:

yeah...okay.... I'm just going to make a cfc....lol

Thanks for the heads up


at least the drawing was fun.

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Make sure it has a GFCI.

Bensiff said:

quick disconnects are easy, just screw on if threaded or clamp on if a barb easy as can be.

I would add an inline temp guage like the thrumometer so you know how much to throttle flow to get your temp.

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my club has a CFC with a inline temp guage and you adjust the speed of the water, and you can get perfect temp.

Yeah, that is kinda a cool deal, I would do something like a plate chiller or CFC, but I have an aversion to running wort through something like that as it seems much easier to me to keep the outside of an IC's tubing clean than the inside spaces of the other systems. However, I do play with the idea in the back of my head to use an IC to drop down below 140 then push it through a plate chiller to get the rest of the way.