Counterflow or HERMs cooling?

[DolfoMan]

From those that have done both, which of the 2 have done a better job at cooling your beer. Counterflow or HERMs coil in an ice water bath.

My concerns:
HERMs: Cleaning and sanitizing the the tube during the brewing process; at first glance it seems less efficient
Counterflow: using a lot of water; keeping it clean

My situation:
I own a counterflow, am going to upgrade my system to have a HERMs coil so that 'm not putting direct flame on my mash and was wondering if it would be more economical to just cool with the HERMs.

 

[helterscelter]

I've tried both. I think it ultimately depends on your ground water temp. I live in ga so usually have to go with ice for the last 10 to 15 degrees. Counter flow is very efficient and you can use recirculated ice water with it as well. (You just need an additional pump to recirc the water bath through the chiller)

Sanitizing the herms coil is the same as for a counterflow. Just circulate boiling wort for the last 10 to 15 minute of the boil.

Cleaning the herms afterwards is arguably simpler but not altogether different as well. Difficulty really depends on which counterflow you have.

While chilling with a herms
Coil you need to ensure you agitate the ice bath or you'll get stratification and poor efficiencies.

Personally I've found that an immersion chiller is just as efficient but easier to clean than the herms coil.

 

[Yooper]

I did the HERMS cooling, once.

It took 42 pounds of ice in the HLT to cool 5 gallons of wort to 75 degrees, and that was such a pain that I gave it up after a couple of tries.

 

[jafo28]

I've done the HERMS cooling on my last two brews. I used about 25lbs of ice, and my wine whip on a cordless drill to circulate the ice water around the coil. It worked ok, but was definitely more work than just running through the CFC. One pass of 5 gallons got down to 63ºF, but my ground water this time of year is pretty cold. During the summer, I'm sure it would take a lot more ice.

 

[LarMoeCur]

I did the HERMS cooling, once.

It took 42 pounds of ice in the HLT to cool 5 gallons of wort to 75 degrees, and that was such a pain that I gave it up after a couple of tries.

That's a lot of ice! I cool 10 gallon batches down to 70 degrees with 20 pounds. It takes about 30 minutes. I use my HERMS coil as a pre-chiller for my immersion chiller w/ whirlpool arm. At best my south Texas water is 70F out of the tap. Summer time it's near 78F! So, I run tap water through my chiller until the wort is about 80-85F. I then move a few hoses and run the tap water through my HERMS coils covered in ice and then through the immersion chiller. The tap water comes out of the HERMS depending on the day at about 60-65F.

I've always wondered how fast I could cool down 10 gallons doing the same thing through my counter-flow chiller. I've never tried running the wort through the HERMS sounds a lot easier.

 

[wmubronco]

Used my CF ZChiller this past brew for the first time. Once I throttled the valve down I had 70degree wort coming out into my fermenter. Took about 15 minutes of less to collect my 10 gallons.

 

[mwsenoj]

I'm with helter on this one. Immersion is plenty effective for me, and I have some of the hottest tap water in the country here in the desert between Arizona and San Diego. We will often have tap water over 90° and then we have to use an immersion prechiller in a bucket of 16 or 20# of ice to feed the immersion chiller for the last 25° or so.