snow is a great wort chiller

is that a submersible pump? what brand and horsepower/size is it? where did you get it? i'm thinking of doing this exact same thing, recirculating ice water through my immersion chiller.

I want to do this too and keep using the same water re-frozen. My CFC is a water waster. Even if it does water the lawn.

pelipen said:

I want to do this too and keep using the same water re-frozen. My CFC is a water waster. Even if it does water the lawn.

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You could just run your CFC output into a bucket and recirc from there with a sump pump. Same concept, except you still get to use the CFC, which chills much better than an immersion chiller.

pelipen said:

I want to do this too and keep using the same water re-frozen.

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Keep in mind that you'll be storing was amounts to 5-6 bags of ice (at least) if you decide to go this route.

Zixxer10R said:

You could just run your CFC output into a bucket and recirc from there with a sump pump. Same concept, except you still get to use the CFC, which chills much better than an immersion chiller.

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Thats likely what I'll do. I didn't mean adapt a cooler, just use a pump to recirc chilled water. My freezer is full of frozen water bottles, i'll just keep those cycling.
I'm just not sure if it would be efficient enough. There is a lot of heat energy in 6 gallons of boiling wort. My water is super cheap, I just hate to waste it.

Ahh yes snow, I had forgotten what that looked like. We have hardly had more than a few flurries this year.

My advice on this in order to cut down on the amount of ice you need on hand is to start chilling the water in your cooler at the onset of brewday. Begin your cool down with your CFC or Immersion Chiller as normal then transfer to recirculating at about 100-110. I use an immersion chiller and can get the wort to 100 pretty quickly but it slows down after that. Then I'll hook the immersion chiller up to the pump submerged in ice water and let it go until the desired temps. Either way you would be wasting a lot of ice or a lot of water. If snow is abundant you're set. For me I guess I kind of use a hybrid technique since I don't get snow.

Airplanedoc - I like your "location" description...Peoples Republic of Chicago...I feel the same way.

To everyone: I originally asked what size/horsepower rating was being used on the sump pump. I have looked at a few online and some of the ratings make me wonder if they will work for this application. In the OP's picture it appears that he is not using a garden hose adaptor and therefore it must be a smaller size pump.

I just wanted to get an idea about what people are using, IF you are recirculating cooling water for your wort after the boil. Right now I am just running good water down the drain and would like to stop wasting water.

Mine's Basic-

http://www.harborfreight.com/264-gph-submersible-fountain-pump-68395.html

Can't beat the price and it is pretty simple. Keep your pot above the cooler and pump set up. There was an adapter that fit my immersion chiller and the side that would normally get hooked up to my garden nose gets put in the water to recirulate. the pump is nothing special, cheap and works.

But like I said- You're going to need to experiment with wasting a little water first anyways. If not you will be dumping 210 degree water on ice and that will heat your ice bath up quick. Then you are scrambling to put a lot more ice hot water. Your efforts are then spent keeping that ice bath cooled instead of cooling your wort.

geer537 said:

But like I said- You're going to need to experiment with wasting a little water first anyways. If not you will be dumping 210 degree water on ice and that will heat your ice bath up quick. Then you are scrambling to put a lot more ice hot water. Your efforts are then spent keeping that ice bath cooled instead of cooling your wort.

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I gotcha. I could run regular garden hose water through and catch the heated water in my clean up wash tub until the water starts to run through cool, then connect the pump to run ice water through the chiller and recirculate the ice water.

It's a solid plan! If you come up with something better to save water, let us know. I have been racking my brain and am always looking for better, faster ways to chill.

I also still whirlpool while the wort is chilling using the recirculation to help speed it up.

Uk brewers usually only cool down to 30 deg C before pitching the yeast. Put your cooling coil in a sink of cold water and run the wort through the coil, twice is usually enough.