Mandatory Water Restrictions Pose Challenge To Chilling Wort

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guitarist_713

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I live in Decatur, Illinois, and as there are in many other parts if the country with this devestating drought, there are mandatory water restrictions in place that don't allow residents to water their lawn or wash cars, etc. The penalty is a $500 fine. With that having been said, it makes it impossible to use my counter flow wort chiller, which requires me running my water for about a half hour. Any ideas on an alternative method for rapidly cooling wort?
 
Ice Bath, Cold Water (I mean fill up a giant container and put your brew kettle in it, drop frozen water bottles and stir around the brew kettle), Frozen Towels, Counterflow Chiller Inside ;)
 
Is it possible to use a pond pump or something to recirculate some water (and add a few bags of ice) for the CFC, and then use it for cleaning? Say, enough water to bring the temp down to 80, and then an ice bath for the rest of the way, and then use the water that was being recirculated for cleaning up afterwards?
 
My plan is to use a standard wort chiller with a submersible pump. Frozen bottles of ice added to a bucket.
 
I know you asked for alternative methods of quickly chilling the wort, but have you looked into no-chill? I am on a shallow well & don't like the amount of water wasted with chillers. I know you can save water for clean-up, plants etc. but, it still uses a lot of water. I have "no chilled" my last 4 batches in a corny keg. I have not noticed any difference in taste or clarity. It also takes 30 - 45 minutes less on brew day. (I had a cheap 20' X 1/4" immersion chiller)
 
Drive three hours north and brew in my backyard?

No water restrictions and I get charged a flat rate for Lake Michigan city water, even if I fill a swimming pool every day!
 
What's your system? Do you use pumps?

When I'm in the summer (hot hose water) or need to brew a lager, I recirculate ice water through my CFC going opposite the wort direction. Doing that I can get the wort down to temp *FAST*, and without too much water. If you plan ahead and make *a lot* of your own ice, you don't spend any money, but either way, $10 in ice is a lot cheaper than $500 in a fine to the city. It would be hard to do this without pumps, but if you've got a system with pumps, it'll do what you need.
 
My last kolsch batch, I chilled it down to about 90 with the IC, then put it in the buckets with airlocks. Stuck those in the cool box and pitched the next day. There was a little more lag than usual, but it took off really well within 30 hours. Going to keg half of it tonight and secondary the other half on the melon for 3 weeks. You could easily set it in an ice bath and get it down to 100* or so then pop it in the chill box with an airlock.

Yooper's idea of a recirc pump running ice water (I'd do brine) through the CFC is a good one as well. You can pick up a pond pump with some fittings at Lowe's or Home Despot for way less than $500.
 
My nephew and I ran the numbers (BTU's) and we found it will take a minimum of 20 gal ice to chill a five gallon batch, recirculated. That's expensive too unless you own an ice machine.
 
My nephew and I ran the numbers (BTU's) and we found it will take a minimum of 20 gal ice to chill a five gallon batch, recirculated. That's expensive too unless you own an ice machine.

Look here. You can fill a 100 qt. cooler for <$5. Sadly, the one near me closed. :(

Fortunately, a buddy of mine gave me a chiller for Christmas. :ban:
 
guitarist_713 said:
I live in Decatur, Illinois, and as there are in many other parts if the country with this devestating drought, there are mandatory water restrictions in place that don't allow residents to water their lawn or wash cars, etc. The penalty is a $500 fine. With that having been said, it makes it impossible to use my counter flow wort chiller, which requires me running my water for about a half hour. Any ideas on an alternative method for rapidly cooling wort?

I live just north of you (Bloomington vicinity), but I'm on a well (town dwellers have restrictions here too). I chill down to 100 with tap water, then recirc with ice. I use approx 15 gallons of eater total, and I always do laundry on brew day. All that water goes right in the washer.
 
My nephew and I ran the numbers (BTU's) and we found it will take a minimum of 20 gal ice to chill a five gallon batch, recirculated. That's expensive too unless you own an ice machine.

I've never tried to use ice to go from boil->pitch temp. I usually run hose water (while recirculating the wort back into the BK) until I'm down to 100-120 deg F, then run against the ice water as I transfer into the fermenter.

I've never had a problem using 2x 20# bags of ice from Costco, and this is for 10 gallon batches. I don't run out of ice.

Chiller efficiency is important, though. I used to have a homemade "copper inside garden hose" CFC, but upgraded to the Chillus Convolutus. The Chillus is *much* faster at getting that wort cooled down.
 
My nephew and I ran the numbers (BTU's) and we found it will take a minimum of 20 gal ice to chill a five gallon batch, recirculated. That's expensive too unless you own an ice machine.

Your math is incredibly incorrect. Search "heat of fusion." Ice at 32* should all melt and increase to 33*, while cooling an equal amount of water 80*.

However, I suggest you slow your running through your CFC so the exit water is HOT, and exit wort is tolerable warm. This yields about 8 gallons of water for me on a 5 gallon batch. That is enough to wash my gear and wash a load of laundry.
 
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