Need Advice on Chillin

[amrmedic]

I am brewing a experimental brew tomorrow. Going for an Irish red, but instead of using 8 pounds pale malt, I am using 5 pounds maris and substituting 3 pounds of smoked malt. Throwing in 2 pounds Munich and Carared with some roasted barley. Using Wyeast Irish ale.

Now to my question.

I live in Florida. I made a wort chiller from 50' of 3/8" copper tubing. I connect this to the garden hose at my house. Well, the temperature coming out of the tap is like in the 80's and it takes me a very long time to chill my wort from boiling to pitchable. Last time, I ditched the wort chiller after 45 minutes and the wort was still above 100 degrees. I upset the wife, when I stuck the whole boil kettle into the chest freezer (after removing an assortment of frozen meats and veggies to make room, but I was also hoping she would get the hint that I need that damn freezer for my brewing. Oh the lagering and other fun things I could do with it, like get rid of the minifrig I use for my keg now). But, I digress there. My thoughts tend to roam when thinking of brewing.

Does anyone have any ideas how I can chill my wort faster, besides evicting the steak and peas from the freezer again?

Thanks

 

[celticcolorado]

I lived in FL for a few years so I know what you mean about the temp of the tap water. before I had a wort chiller, I would just get a bag of ice and put my Boil kettle in the bath tub or large sink and fill with the ice and cold water so it was like an ice bath.

 

[lamarguy]

To bring down the temperature faster, you need agitation. A plate chiller or counterflow chiller provide such agitation. You could also recirculate back into the boil kettle with an immersion chiller.

Your next problem is 80F water. An ice bath or glycol chiller is the answer. If you're using an immersion chiller, chill to around 100F and switch to a pump pump immersed in an ice bath.

Of course, these solutions require a pump. Not sure if you have one?

Personally, I use two plate chillers flowing wort at 1 gal/min. My 30 plate chiller knocks down the temperature to the low 80s and my 20 plate chiller (with recirculating ice water) gets it in the upper 60s. I go through about 10lbs of ice per 10 gal batch. During the summer, my ground water is around 80F.

kettle -> pump -> 30 plate chiller -> 20 plate chiller -> fermenter

 

[wyzazz]

Pre-Chiller with an ice recirc.

 

[wilserbrewer]

As stated above, ice is the answer. One can only expect so much from warm "cooling water. I try and harvest a few batches from my kitchen icemaker and store it till brewing. 20 - 30 pounds of ice in a tub w/ water works wonders. If you want to be sophisticated, pump ice water through your chiller. Don't use your ice till the final stage of cooling, or you'll likely need more...hah.

 

[DeBrewer]

The method I am building now may work for you(I apologize for the lack of pics). I have an old cooler that is cylindrical that I am taking copper and making a coil in. Looks just like your drop in chiller but an exit at the bottom instead of the top. The cooler will be filled with ice and salt when time to chill and then gravity feed the hot wort into the chiller while pumping the return back to the kettle. This is basically the same principal as a RIMS uses to cool down it’s wort. In essence hot wort gravity feeds down from the bottom of the kettle to the top of the “chiller” and the chilled wort from the bottom of the chiller is pumped into the top of the kettle(voila a cooling circuit). This may not be desirable if you don’t want to spend the cash on the pump or want a slightly more complicated setup but a solution nonetheless. I am doing it this way because I hate to waste so much water and not get it down to target temps.

 

[amrmedic]

OK, I dont have a pump (been thinking of getting one to ease the strain on my back)

I am not familiar with plate chillers, how do they work vs an immersion chiller?

How fast does the wort need to cool in order to achieve "cold break"?

I am thinking of getting a rubbermaid container and placing the kettle into it once it gets on the cooler side and filling it with ice and continuing with the immersion chiller.

Thanks

 

[maida7]

Get a small cheap garden fountain pump from lowes or Home Depot. The pump should not cost more then 10-20.00

Start with the chiller hooked up to the 80F water as you did the last time. But this time stir the pot while you run the chiller. This should get you down close to 100F in under 20 min. After you get close to 100F hook up the cheap pump and pump ice water thru the chiller. Recirculate the ice water from the pump set in a bucket of ice water so you don't loose it all down the drain. Keep stiring the pot. Keep adding ice as it melts. This will take you to any temp you want.

The pre chillers don't do jack.

 

[dchmela]

I live in Orlando and this is the hardest part of brewing in Florida. Currently, I have a 72 qt cooler that I fill with 40lbs of ice and water and drop my kettle there. It takes about an hour to cool to pitching temp.

Once I have I filled the fermenter and pitched yeast, I then stick the fermenter in the cooler (the water in cooler at this point is usually high 50's to low 60's). The cooler is great at regulating the temperature for the whole ferment. I use 2L bottles of frozen water to keep the temp down in the 60's.

As for a pump, I am currently fashioning one out of coy pond pump. They generally don't cost much and they just need a little tweaking to work with the immersion chiller.

 

[lamarguy]

The pre chillers don't do jack.

Agreed, post-chillers or "after" chillers are much more effective than pre-chillers.

 

[theonetrueruss]

I was thinking about adding a second coil to my IC.. basically having hose from water to coil immersed in an ice bath, then hose from that to the actual immersion chiller... wouldn't that cause the water temp going through the hot wort to be cold enough to take care of the 80 deg issue?

 

[maida7]

I was thinking about adding a second coil to my IC.. basically having hose from water to coil immersed in an ice bath, then hose from that to the actual immersion chiller... wouldn't that cause the water temp going through the hot wort to be cold enough to take care of the 80 deg issue?

This is what we are talking about when we say "pre chiller". Don't waste your time. Pre chillers don't do jack. You need to pump the ice water through the main immersion chiller in the wort to make a real impact. That plus stiring will make a huge difference. You don't need a fancy expensive brewing pump. Any cheap garden pump will do the job.

 

[maida7]

Agreed, post-chillers or "after" chillers are much more effective than pre-chillers.

What is a post chiller?

 

[lamarguy]

What is a post chiller?

A secondary chiller in series after the primary chiller, as opposed to pre-chilling the incoming tap water.

kettle -> chiller A (tap water) -> chiller B (ice water) -> fermenter

I use the post-chiller during the warmer months of the year. It's not necessary during the winter months.

 

[maida7]

A secondary chiller in series after the primary chiller, as opposed to pre-chilling the incoming tap water.

kettle -> chiller A (tap water) -> chiller B (ice water) -> fermenter

I use the post-chiller during the warmer months of the year. It's not necessary during the winter months.

Oh your talking about plate chillers. I was talking about immersion chillers. That's where you lost me.

 

[fatguy-littlecoat]

The pre chillers don't do jack.

ive just figured this out... i couldnt understand why i could only get my wort down to 80 with a pre-chiller and tons of ice.. im going to try the garden pump thing that sounds like a winner!

 

[jagg]

Here is my .02. After experimenting with a few different methods of trying to chill the wort, the most effecient and by far the fastest way Ive found is to run 2 of the pond pumps and 2 IC's.This is my current setup ( and dont forsee any changes). I bought one of the 50ft. chillers from Northern Brewer to start, ( I was only chilling 11.5 gallon batches then). It was taking too long in my opinion to chill. So I bought 1 of the pond pumps and started pumping ice water through the chiller, that helped a lot, then I had a brainstorm, if 1 chiller with ice water chills faster, what would 2 chillers do? So I bought another pond pump and 25 feet of .5 inch copper coil. made another chiller with that ( coiled it bigger so the 50 ft. chiller would sit inside it). I can now chill 17 gallons to 68f in 25 min. Ialso will add that I freeze my own ice, and use the drill mounted stir paddle thingy, run just fast enough to keep the wort moving over the coils, good luck and hope this helps.:rockin:

 

[maida7]

the drill mounted stir paddle thingy

You got a picture of that? Does it make a whirlpool?

 

[th767]

I live in Orlando as well. The summertime water coming from the garden hose just won't cut it! What I do on brew day is first make a yeast starter. Then I'll brew. I'll throw my kettle in one of those huge grey buckets (the ones we used to put kegs in with ice). Ice bath and immersion chiller. Get the temp into the 80s and then transfer to carboy. I put the carboy in the coldest part of my house, then the next day pitch the starter. Haven't had a bad batch yet

 

[jagg]

You got a picture of that? Does it make a whirlpool?

I dont have a pic, I bought it from the brew store, I think its called a degasser/ mixer, you can use it to degass wine, and yes, it will make a whirlpool if you run it fast enough, I also use it to oxegenate the wort after cooling, works like a charm, mine has a stainless steel rod, with 2 paddles that extend out when turning, do a search for wine degasser/mixer.

 

[Beerbuck]

I solve this problem by letting the beer alone and transfering the day after No difference on the beer taste

 

[Hotspur]

Get a small cheap garden fountain pump from lowes or Home Depot. The pump should not cost more then 10-20.00

Start with the chiller hooked up to the 80F water as you did the last time. But this time stir the pot while you run the chiller. This should get you down close to 100F in under 20 min. After you get close to 100F hook up the cheap pump and pump ice water thru the chiller. Recirculate the ice water from the pump set in a bucket of ice water so you don't loose it all down the drain. Keep stiring the pot. Keep adding ice as it melts. This will take you to any temp you want.

The pre chillers don't do jack.

This is pretty much what I do in the winter in Vermont, so I don't dump water all over the driveway to ice over.

I have a cooler, a generic submersible pump and free snow (you'd need to buy bags of ice). Pump, snow and water go into the cooler, and it runs that through the immersion chiller, and the output goes back into the cooler. I can readily top it off with more snow, but again, you'd need bags of ice. It's pretty effective, and really minimizes my water usage, even though our well water is cold as it is.

 

[kanzimonson]

I'll second the aquarium pump idea... it's what I use. Buy the most powerful you're willing to spend for - I regret buying a pretty wimpy one. It chills alright, but I also have to set it up like a siphon and continually dump more water into the cold side.

Also, I've heard of people acquiring a bunch of those blue freezer packs, dunking in star san, and dropping into the wort when it gets around 110*.