It may look stupid, but it works really well! (pics)

This is my 4th batch. The first two attempts, I used an ice bath to cool the wort. Then I rigged a primitive chiller for the third batch. I tried to combine the two this time...

I bought a cheap party bin from Home Depot for $5.98. It was big enough to put my whole kettle (7.5 gal turkey fryer) into it with room around all sides. I attached a small pond pump to one end of the chiller and a small length of hose to the other end:




Sanitized and drip drying...(my mastiff pup Ziggi):



When the wort was ready for cooling, I put a brick on the bottom of the bucket (to prevent the heat from melting the plastic, and to allow water circulation under the pot). I dropped the kettle in, then the chiller/pump:

Looks great. Only looks stupid if it don't work.

I added 5lbs ice (and a bit of water to the bottom), then plugged int he pump:



Instead of drawing tap temp water from the hose or sink, I'm drawing ice water into the chiller. What's more, I am exposing the outside of the kettle to ice water. The pump simply recirculates the water from the bin.

The temp dropped to 125 rapidly, at which point it stalled. I noticed most of the ice had melted. I added 5lb more ice and got to 80F quickly. I timed the chill.

I chilled this wort in approx 14 mins, 50 seconds. That may not sound impressive but this was a full 5gal wort!! Considering that's how long it took to chill the wort in my third batch (2 gallon), I consider this technique a big success.

I'm open to constructive criticism....

The trick is to put your ice for the pump in a separate bucket from the pot. Otherwise the output from the chiller is just heating he ice and making it melt faster. I do the sad but put ice for the pump in one sink. Then the pot and regular temp tap water in the other. May need to continue to top off the ice water. But works more efficiently

Are you putting your chiller in the boiling wort?

mikeysab said:

Are you putting your chiller in the boiling wort?

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Good point- I know I should be putting it in during the last 10-15mins of boil time, but that was a bit more difficult with the pump hanging off the side. I got it in asap, which was the last min or so, but I sanitized it separately to be safe. That brings me to my first planned improvement to this rig- I need a quick connect/disconnect fitting so I can snap on/off the pump. It's a work in progress, but I just wanted to see if it would work.

mosquitocontrol said:

The trick is to put your ice for the pump in a separate bucket from the pot. Otherwise the output from the chiller is just heating he ice and making it melt faster. I do the sad but put ice for the pump in one sink. Then the pot and regular temp tap water in the other. May need to continue to top off the ice water. But works more efficiently

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I considered that- even had an empty tote on standby so I could redirect the hot water discharge into it. That way, the pump would continue to draw icy water, and the kettle sits in it, too. I'll try it next time. Thanks!

mosquitocontrol said:

The trick is to put your ice for the pump in a separate bucket from the pot. Otherwise the output from the chiller is just heating he ice and making it melt faster. I do the sad but put ice for the pump in one sink. Then the pot and regular temp tap water in the other. May need to continue to top off the ice water. But works more efficiently

Click to expand...

I may be over-thinking this but isn't the fact that you are pumping in a circle into the same vessel what makes this work? If you use one sink for the ice water and pot in another with outlet water, one sink will fill while the other empties right? That seems like it would kill the genoius of the water savings in this design.

hnsfeigel said:

I may be over-thinking this but isn't the fact that you are pumping in a circle into the same vessel what makes this work? If you use one sink for the ice water and pot in another with outlet water, one sink will fill while the other empties right? That seems like it would kill the genoius of the water savings in this design.

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Would use some more water, but it would chill faster

Do an experiment, see if the time saved actually saves you money, extra bags of ice can get expensive...

Save some ice and money by using tap water to chill to around 100 and then switch to the ice and pump method. Also, 80C is ok, but getting the wort down to 60C is a real trick. FWIW, I chill 10 gallon batches with a 50' chiller in the wort and a 25' chiller in a separate bucket with ice on it to act as a pre-chiller. I don't recurculate so the ice doesn't melt very fast. I also use a pond pump in the pre-chiller bucket to keep the ice cold water circulating around the 25' coil. So like your method, it may look stupid, but it works.

hnsfeigel said:

I may be over-thinking this but isn't the fact that you are pumping in a circle into the same vessel what makes this work? If you use one sink for the ice water and pot in another with outlet water, one sink will fill while the other empties right? That seems like it would kill the genoius of the water savings in this design.

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If you take near boiling water and add it to ice, its gonna melt the ice, right? Thats what you're doing. If you wanna save water, use the hot water exiting your chiller to do laundry, or take a bath.

So does Ziggi do the sanitizing for you?

I'll save my first several gallons of hot water from my IC to clean up the IC and kettle, then I let it cool and water flowers with it.

Lennie said:

So does Ziggi do the sanitizing for you?

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The dog loves his beer. He knew I was making it- he could smell the ingredients going in, and he was right up in my business the whole time. He's 8mo old and weighs 97 lbs, so it was a serious challenge keeping his big nose (and tongue) off everything.

It would be fun to test each method suggested in a scientific way (using plain boiling water of course). I'd like to know which one truly works the best.

I'm thinking the best way might be to do what chumpsteak says, and start with tap water and switch to ice water when it stalls. Then do what everyone else suggested and discharge the hot water elsewhere, and feed the ice water bath.

What I think is important is that the ice water is not only the intake for the IC, but also the wort bath. That way, you're maximizing the exposure to ice water, and I'm betting it chills faster that way.

BichesBrue said:

It would be fun to test each method suggested in a scientific way (using plain boiling water of course). I'd like to know which one truly works the best.

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Now youre really talking about wasting energy!!! Why would you boil water when you could be making beer?!?

BichesBrue said:

I'm thinking the best way might be to do what chumpsteak says, and start with tap water and switch to ice water when it stalls. Then do what everyone else suggested and discharge the hot water elsewhere, and feed the ice water bath.

What I think is important is that the ice water is not only the intake for the IC, but also the wort bath. That way, you're maximizing the exposure to ice water, and I'm betting it chills faster that way.

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Yea its all about temperature differential. I think a best plan of action would be to use tap water from boiling to 120 F or so, then move the kettle into the ice batch and start recirculating. Notice I didn’t say to move the kettle of boiling water right into the tub, you don’t want to be carrying around 5 gallons of 212F sugar water if you don’t have to.

Chumpsteak, I did exactly the same thing today for the first time. My batch was only 3gal, but it chilled down to 70 in 13 minutes. I thought it was genius lol

O I lied, I dont use a pump, just running garden hose into the pre-chiller, then connect another short hose into the IC, with the final output filling my pool

Def not stupid. I do something similar but more manual labor-style. This dual inside / outside chilling method is really needed in the summer when the hose water isn't cool enough to cut it.

By dipping the chiller up and down and Bobbing the kettle in the ice bath it takes about 1/2 hour to get to pitching range in the summer so your time is pretty excellent!

this thread makes me feel lucky i have a well. gets 3 gal of wort to 75* in ~5 mins. and instead of recirculating i water the lawn.

I do the tap water method first, then switch my pump over to an ice bath. I collect the hot water in my HLT and throw in some oxyclean so it's already starting to mix and dissolve with the hot water, then use that to clean everything.

but being able to let your kettle sit in cold water will definitely help on top of using the IC.

@BichesBrue
I use an IC Chiller with the same method. Some quick tips I've done to get things to work even smoother!
For my 5gallon full boils I fill a 40 gallon tub with about 15 gallons of tap water and put the kettle in there right after I take it off the burner.
I then run the pump + IC inside the 40 gallon tub for about 5 mins. This drops it down to about 100-120F. Then I take kettle out and place it on my work bench and run the pump + IC with a bucket of 7lbs of ICE and water. I also toss in this solid block of ice that I froze the night/day before. I get to 65F in 10-15 minutes depending on if I stir the wort when the ice is running, or just let it run on its own.

I use the water from the 40gallon tub to soak/clean everything when I'm done.



1. Get some screw clamps for the hoses, and use them where hoses connect to the copper coil. The worst thing that can happen is water from your pump leaks into your work and contaminates it.

2. I have these plastic containers that hold 1quart of water. So when I make my starters 2-3 days before my brew day, I boil an extra 2 quarts of water and freeze them. I lose about 3/4 of a Gallon for a 60min boil, so I just adjust all my measurements to account for the extra water from my Ice block and boil off. This has save me alot of time and money on buying ice.

3. I now use 2 blocks of Ice. 1 at the very begging of the chilling to try and get it below 90F to avoid any chance of oxidizing the wort. the 2nd goes in when I put my pump in the ice bucket.

4. Also make sure to disassemble all your clamps and hoses every so often and give them a good cleaning. You will see some serious gunk build up if you don't. I clean my every after every 3-4 brews.