Has this type of Wort Chiller been tried?

[awoodring]

New to this so this may be one of those questions in which you answer "there are no stupid questions . . . only stupid people asking questions".

Anyway, want to build a Wort Chiller. What about a copper line that connects to my racking cane to pull wort out of the pot and into the fermenter. At the midway point between pot and fermenter, the cop is coiled and submerged in ice water. I have a large sink next to my burner (outdoor kitchen set up) and a small ice maker right under it. So I can easily fill the sink with ice water and keep it loaded with ice during. The copper coil is covered in ice water.

So would this be smarter than a submerged chiller? Would the wort enough or would it dump into the fermenter at too high a temp, needing more chilling? Would it be too hard to start the siphone? Would it be too hard to clean the inside of the copper line? Love some feedback if you have any!

 

[Bobby_M]

It's called a reverse immersion chiller and will require a good deal of ice (about 30 pounds for 5 gallons of wort). Getting siphon started is probably the hardest part.

 

[WiseEyes]

I use this type of setup to cool lager wort down. I have a double immersion chiller and just sanitize the inside of it and use it as a reverse immersion chiller.

 

[mtbiker278]

I'm sure someone has made or done something similar. Basically what you're talking about running an immersion chiller inside-out. The only real problems with that are cleanability, and having to add ice to your cold water bath to ensure you reach your temp. Also, you'll have to watch out for your siphon melting in the hot wort, and by melting I mean more deforming and not dissolving. The tried and true method for making a wort chiller is buy some 3/8" copper tubing and coil it around a smaller pot that fits inside your boil kettle, being careful not to kink the tubing and leaving enough tubing to reach up over the edge of the pot. You're probably looking at $25-60 depending on the length of the copper tube you get. Loads of DIYs on different configurations, have a look around on here.

 

[motobrewer]

what's the benefit over a plate?

shirron got 10 gallons of boiling wort down to 57F in the time it took to gravity-drain to the fermentor....

 

[awoodring]

Thanks for the comments . . .seems that the benefit would be speed . . .and it handles two tasks at once: chill the wort and move it to the fermenter. But getting the entire rig filled with fluid to start a siphon seems like it would make this too much trouble.

Thanks again!! Looking forward to my first home brew!

 

[motobrewer]

well, again, plate chiller would be faster, and moves it to fermentor. and can be used with good ol' fashioned gravity.

 

[Bsquared]

what's the benefit over a plate?

shirron got 10 gallons of boiling wort down to 57F in the time it took to gravity-drain to the fermentor....

He is in Florida, you are in Wisconsin. I doubt his water is coming out the tap at less than 70ºF. With my counterflow chiller her in San Diego in the summer when the tap water is 68-75º the best I can do on a single pass it 85-90º.

In warmer areas you really need to look in to a pre-chiller, or a recirculating system, or Ice lots of ice or all three. If you want to knock down your temps to pitching temps fast. I gave up on this a long time ago. I knock it down as low as I can go, put it in my temp control cabinet over night and pitch in the morning.

 

[motobrewer]

In warmer areas you really need to look in to a pre-chiller, or a recirculating system, or Ice lots of ice or all three. If you want to knock down your temps to pitching temps fast. I gave up on this a long time ago. I knock it down as low as I can go, put it in my temp control cabinet over night and pitch in the morning.

ah. that's fair.

cold weather is good for something!

 

[SwampassJ]

I had the same idea when I saw a jockey box. Only problem ks needing a pump or a really high setup to get it flowing. Might still need to prechill the wort, I don't see it getting the beer down to temp without the ice bath being circulated along the coils.

 

[WiseEyes]

Actually, it is extremely effective, I don't have a chill plate because starting off I rarely did Lagers, but now I do them quite often and like to pitch the wort at a lower temperature than my immersion chiller was capable of getting the wort to. My brewing partner is a engineer he thought of just flipping it around. I take my immersion chiller appart and stick it in a five gallon ale pale. Put the hot wort on top of the table, the five gallon bucket below it then the fermenter below that and syphon it through the immersion chiller submerged in ice water bath. While it might be slower that actually makes the process more efficient since the wort has more contact with the ice. It comes out in the mid fifties in the time it takes to syphon through. Clean up is just running hot soapy water through followed by a five gallon buck of clean. The important thing is that the out hose come out of the bottom of the bucket to get better flow, it leaks but its not that big of deal, Im outside.