Cooling

[Abbas]

Yesterday was my 3rd time brewing. Everything went well until we had to cool the wort after the boil. We used an immersion cooler in the tub with an aquarium pump and 30 lbs of ice in my tub. All the ice melted before we even got down below 100 degrees. I had to pick up 30 lbs more of ice to get to pitching temp. I’m not stingy when it comes to spending money to make a good beer, however I don’t feel like spending almost 20 bucks each time to cool my beer. That ended up being about a 1/3 of our total cost for a 5 gallon batch.

Any suggestions/products to buy so I don’t need to blow money on a ton of ice each brew day?

 

[Nokt]

I would run straight tap water through the chiller until you're around pitching temps. If you have warmish ground water, switch to the ice bath once the tap water isn't cooling anymore.

 

[Smellyglove]

Save the ice for when the cooling seems to come to a halt. You can cool it to the temp of your groundwater with just the water, then add the ice.

 

[flars]

Being in Tampa your ground water is probably fairly warm. I would use the ground water to begin the cooling. When the wort temp reaches about a 110° to 100° begin using the ice to finish the cooling.

 

[Abbas]

I would run straight tap water through the chiller until you're around pitching temps. If you have warmish ground water, switch to the ice bath once the tap water isn't cooling anymore.

Save the ice for when the cooling seems to come to a halt. You can cool it to the temp of your groundwater with just the water, then add the ice.

Being in Tampa your ground water is probably fairly warm. I would use the ground water to begin the cooling. When the wort temp reaches about a 110° to 100° begin using the ice to finish the cooling.

These are good ideas. Unfortunately being in Florida, the groundwater is always warm, I tried using the hose last time I brewed and it took forever to cool. I think the best thing will be to get it to 100 and transfer to the ice. Thanks guys!

 

[Smellyglove]

These are good ideas. Unfortunately being in Florida, the groundwater is always warm, I tried using the hose last time I brewed and it took forever to cool. I think the best thing will be to get it to 100 and transfer to the ice. Thanks guys!

Out of curiosity. If you want to pour yourself a cold glass of water from the tap, what temp will you get?

 

[Abbas]

Out of curiosity. If you want to pour yourself a cold glass of water from the tap, what temp will you get?

I just checked. It’s coming out slightly above 75 degrees and it had been raining this whole week so it has been slightly cooler than average. I imagine it will only get hotter from here.

 

[Smellyglove]

I just checked. It’s coming out slightly above 75 degrees and it had been raining this whole week so it has been slightly cooler than average. I imagine it will only get hotter from here.

Wow! Did you let the water run for a short while to not measure the temps in the above-ground-pipes?

I just checked myself and I'm at about 50F. We also had an abnormally hot May here, Norway EU.

Wish I could live in your climate, but brew beer in my climate

 

[3bals]

Have you tried making your own ice? Lets say like in soda bottles and reuse them.

 

[Abbas]

Wow! Did you let the water run for a short while to not measure the temps in the above-ground-pipes?

I just checked myself and I'm at about 50F. We also had an abnormally hot May here, Norway EU.

Wish I could live in your climate, but brew beer in my climate

I let it run for a few minutes before checking the temp. When I checked it first it was at 72.5 which is the temp my house is so I let it run for a while and it just got warmer haha. The summers here are brutal. It will stay in the 90s soon and gets incredibly humid here. Nothing a little beer can’t make better though

 

[Abbas]

Have you tried making your own ice? Lets say like in soda bottles and reuse them.

I thought of this however I don’t have freezer space to do so. Luckily I have a family member getter rid of a nice sized freezer/fridge so that I will be able to do that soon

 

[IslandLizard]

Have you tried making your own ice? Lets say like in soda bottles and reuse them.

Making your own ice isn't quite free either. So, use your own ice, after you've chilled your wort down to around 100-120F with domestic water, which should be attainable even with 80F water.
Recirculating chilling water, letting the hot water from the chiller return to the ice bath uses more ice but less water. So depending on what water costs vs. ice, that can be a determining factor too.

I usually start recirculating back into the ice bath when the temp difference of the ice bath and the return water is less than 20F.

You can reuse the water for other things, like cleanup your equipment, watering plants or the lawn, washing cars, etc. if that's allowed. Just recapture in a water drum, buckets, etc.

Move the chiller around in the wort when chilling helps in efficiency. You can buy nice, more efficient immersion wort chillers (e.g., JadedBrewing) but they come at a price. Even those benefit somewhat from moving around in the wort.

Some brewers chill the wort down as far as they can, then drain in into their fermentor and put in their temp controlled fermenting chamber for a few hours to get it down to pitching temps. This needs no or little attention. Then aerate or oxygenate and pitch the yeast.