PreChiller too efficient?

When I first started brewing, I built a 50' 1/2 copper refrigeration tubing IC. Well, I have since upgraded to a 40 plate chiller. Because of the heat wave this summer, I thought I'd use my IC as a prechiller. The problem is that 2.5 bags of ice were all gone within 5 minutes of running the prechiller.

Our tap water is about 80 degrees right now. Would I be better off to shorten the IC to like 15-20 ft to reduce how much it's taking away from the ice bath? The water that it was spitting out was pretty damn cold. I was thinking of making 3 15ft pre-chillers for my friends and me. Would that work out better, or is it a waste of time/money?

Alternately, just reduce the flow rate through the pre-chiller. Ideally, the wort coming out of the chiller should be at pitching temperature, no lower.

If the water is coming out cold, the rate of flow is too high. Ideally, the plate chiller would equalize temps between the hot and cold liquid as it exits.

^That's funny. David beat me to it.

Well I did try to reduce the flow rate on the water, but when I did that, the wort output temp would creep up. I was already at almost a trickle on the wort out side of things, so slowing it down wasn't really an option.

I'll try again on my next batch. Maybe I was being a ******* and had the water flow direction wrong or something.

Another method would be to cool the wort down below 100F without pre-chiller and then use the ice to get it down to pitch temps.

Yeah I've thought about recirculating through the plate chiller and back in for the initial temp drop. However, I've had issues in the past with cold break clogging things up. Of course, my system has changed since then, perhaps I may try again.

Use more ice.

samc said:

Another method would be to cool the wort down below 100F without pre-chiller and then use the ice to get it down to pitch temps.

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+1 That's the ticket!