Ol' Grog
Well-Known Member
Maybe it's me or the water temperature isn't right. I use a IC to chill the wort inside the keggle after boiling. Hook up the hose and run the water just enough so that the temperature exiting the IC is pretty hot. However, it seems like it take forever to get the wort down to 80F or so. Most of the time I'll rack to the fermentor and just wait until a couple of hours or so until the wort is cooled. But, I got to thinking and wonder if this will work. Lets say that I cool down the wort inside the keggle to about 100F or so. Then take out the IC, place it in the fermentor, then slowly let the wort drain over the IC inside that is inside the fermentor. Now, it will be sterilized coming out of the keggle and I think the slow contact time will speed up the cooling process. I know about CFC's and other cooling options, but at this time, I'm sticking with this methodology. I have devised a pulley system that I hook the keggle up so that I can lift it off the burner. I also have a stainless steel spigot with siphon tube mounted inside the keggle but opted not to install the false bottom. I seem to get better results with hop bags.