chilling wort with a frozen wiffleball bat

Last night while chilling a southern english brown and not cooling down quick enough we were thinking about ways to aid in cooling... My friend thought up about getting a wiffleball bat and cutting one end then filling it with water and freezing it. Santize that and you've got a real cold spoon.

I did fill a freezerbag full of ice and ice packs and sanitized that and stirred it around in my wort and it dropped it 4 degrees in 5 minutes.

Is there any downsides to this?

I am too new to know about downsides. But, if there aren't any, that sounds like a pretty sweet idea. I might try that out if no one points out something really wrong with it.

I just did my first brew and chilling the wort was a PAIN. I had no idea how long it would take if I wasn't actively trying to get it colder. After 2 hours and only a 8 degree drop, I put it in a cold water bath. That helped some, but it took me WAY too long to get it down.

Downsides:

1. Storing a frozen whiffle ball bat
2. Sanitation risks

Other than that... you are good.

Some people freeze pop bottles. The Sanitation aspect is what prevents me from doing this.

I found cooling paddles at a restaurant supply shop:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/cooling-paddles-127688/

I picked one up and will be testing it on my brew tonight.

I am thinking of buying some 1 inch tubing used for blowoff tube, cap the ends and fill it with water and coil it tight as i can get before freezing. It would fit in the freezer easier that way.

Or you could make an immersion chiller, but maybe thats just me.

Orangevango said:

Or you could make an immersion chiller, but maybe thats just me.

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+1... Simple and effective...

Not too mention that I would be leery of what a wiffleball bat is made of and it being put in hot wort...

Just a thought....

Orangevango said:

Or you could make an immersion chiller, but maybe thats just me.

Click to expand...

Pfft, I have one. But cooling below 85 is hard when the groundwater is so warm... This is for extra measures.

I'm not putting this in boiling wort.

BeerPressure said:

Pfft, I have one. But cooling below 85 is hard when the groundwater is so warm... This is for extra measures.

Click to expand...

Then I would recommend a recirc pump (400gph or so), some ice and a cooler (I reuse my mash tun). I get about 14 lbs of ice and 3g of water cooled down to 8C in the cooler. I switch from the ground water to the recirc pump when the wort cools to 30-35C.

I wimped out in mine and went with the 300gph pump. It has a hard time pushing the water through 25' of copper coil plus a few more feet of tubing. I would really recommend at least 400gph.

I got the idea from here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/recirculating-ice-water-chiller-38235/

I use a recirc pump / ice water with my CFC... Works great... Pitching temp in one pass with gravity...

BeerPressure said:

Pfft, I have one. But cooling below 85 is hard when the groundwater is so warm... This is for extra measures.

I'm not putting this in boiling wort.

Click to expand...

mikfire said:

Then I would recommend a recirc pump (400gph or so), some ice and a cooler (I reuse my mash tun). I get about 14 lbs of ice and 3g of water cooled down to 8C in the cooler. I switch from the ground water to the recirc pump when the wort cools to 30-35C.

I wimped out in mine and went with the 300gph pump. It has a hard time pushing the water through 25' of copper coil plus a few more feet of tubing. I would really recommend at least 400gph.

I got the idea from here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/recirculating-ice-water-chiller-38235/

Click to expand...

I can get mine down to 50+/- using the above ideas living far south with much warmer water. So it can be done

mikfire said:

Then I would recommend a recirc pump (400gph or so), some ice and a cooler (I reuse my mash tun). I get about 14 lbs of ice and 3g of water cooled down to 8C in the cooler. I switch from the ground water to the recirc pump when the wort cools to 30-35C.

I wimped out in mine and went with the 300gph pump. It has a hard time pushing the water through 25' of copper coil plus a few more feet of tubing. I would really recommend at least 400gph.

I got the idea from here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/recirculating-ice-water-chiller-38235/

Click to expand...

That seems like a lot of equipment and work. Lots of ice, pumps, hoses, piping, etc. I have a dozen aluminum beer bottles (bud light, sanded to bare metal) that I filled with water, capped, and froze. I take everything off the burner, wait a couple of minutes as I get them from the fridge and toss them in starsan, then shake dry and just toss straight in. Down to pitching temps in minutes, and I can then use the same bottles rotated out in my water bath for my fermenter.

12 bottles *16 oz. per bottle plus the metal accounts for about 2 gallons (about how much my level raises by when they're all in, and mostly submerged). 2 gallons at <30F, plus the extra energy to turn from solid ice to liquid water, and my 5 gallons of wort is nice and cool quickly.


Wiffle bat seems like a good idea (essentially an ice wand), especially if you're just going the last little bit. My worry would be about it holding up in high heat, but if you're only doing the final 20-30 degrees, why not just use frozen water bottles? The bat seems a little unwieldy compared to tossing some water bottles in.

I think I will use the water bottles on my next brew and see how that works. The plastic bat was just a funny idea by my friend

If you have problems with cooling when ground water is hot use a pre chiller. A prechiller is another immersion chiller which sits in a bath of ice water and then feeds your main chiller.

mysteryberto said:

If you have problems with cooling when ground water is hot use a pre chiller. A prechiller is another immersion chiller which sits in a bath of ice water and then feeds your main chiller.

Click to expand...

Or be like me and use a submersible pump sitting in a tub of ice water, and just pump the ice water directly through the IC.

To chill my wort, I take a big block of solid copper, about 80lbs, dunk it in a bath of liquid nitrogen for a few minutes, then put it in the hot wort. Chills the whole thing in like 45 seconds.














OK, just kidding. That would be totally sweet, though.

I use a submersible pump (- Harbor Freight Tools - Quality Tools at the Lowest Prices) in my mash tun with ice water. I also use it in the pool during the winter (Texas). I normally only use it either during the winter or when I'm going to do a lager. With Ales I just stick the Carboy in my fermentation chamber for an hour to get the last few degrees. I don't find it as to much equipment because all my hoses are quik connects and the pump doesn't need to be cleaned. I just leave it outside for an hour to dry.


Update: I think I'll have to look into the plate of copper chilled with liquid nitrogen .