So I'm headed out to the in-laws for the Thanksgiving holiday weekend and my father-in-law and I are going to build a wort chiller. I've been weighing my options - and all seem to have their pros and cons. I thought I'd throw out my ideas and see what y'all thoguht. So....... without further ado:
IC
I have some concerns about the amount of water this would require for me to get the wort to pitching temperature. I live in AZ and the area I live in has particularly warm tap water. When the neighborhood was built, the builder (or city/county or whoever puts in the water lines) didn't bury the water lines in the area deep enough. In the summer, we don't even have to run our water heater - we just get hot water out of the tap. My fear is that I'd only be able to get the wort down to 85-90 degrees and it would take FAR too long. Also, my water provider has the highest cost for water in the metro area. Not to mention we're in a drought hear in the southwest, so it's probably not the most responsible thing to be using a ton of water for something that might not do what I want it to do.
CFC
Ditto my concerns on this one. Though it would probably use less water, I'm still not sure I could get the wort to pitching temperature given the average temperature of our tap water (particularly in the summer months... which seems like about 6-7 months of the year in AZ).
ICE BATH
I've been using an ice bath (on my partial boil extract beers) but it seems to take longer than I'd like (30 minutes+) but I'm not sure this will be a great option once I move to full boil AG sometime next spring.
I don't know what this would be called, but I thought this might be worth a shot.... I had the idea to use the extra bottling bucket I have, adding a ball valve at the top and then on the bottom on the opposite side. The inside would be a copper coil - much like an IC - that the wort would run through on the way to the fermenter and I'd fill the bucket all the way to the top with a bag or two of ice from the store along with enough water to fill the bucket to the top. I guess it's kind of like a "reverse" IC - instead of putting something cold into the wort, you're passing the wort through something FAR colder. You could also run some of the water out of the bottling spigot after the ice starts to melt from the wort running through it and replace with more ice if needed.
My thought is that this "should" use FAR less water, and "should" be faster than an IC or CFC given my water issues where I live.
What are your thoughts? Do you think this will work? Should it use less water? Will I be able to cool the wort to pitching temperature with one pass (I'm not planning on using a pump)? Tips? Concerns? Questions? Apprehensions?
Thanks for the help!
IC
I have some concerns about the amount of water this would require for me to get the wort to pitching temperature. I live in AZ and the area I live in has particularly warm tap water. When the neighborhood was built, the builder (or city/county or whoever puts in the water lines) didn't bury the water lines in the area deep enough. In the summer, we don't even have to run our water heater - we just get hot water out of the tap. My fear is that I'd only be able to get the wort down to 85-90 degrees and it would take FAR too long. Also, my water provider has the highest cost for water in the metro area. Not to mention we're in a drought hear in the southwest, so it's probably not the most responsible thing to be using a ton of water for something that might not do what I want it to do.
CFC
Ditto my concerns on this one. Though it would probably use less water, I'm still not sure I could get the wort to pitching temperature given the average temperature of our tap water (particularly in the summer months... which seems like about 6-7 months of the year in AZ).
ICE BATH
I've been using an ice bath (on my partial boil extract beers) but it seems to take longer than I'd like (30 minutes+) but I'm not sure this will be a great option once I move to full boil AG sometime next spring.
I don't know what this would be called, but I thought this might be worth a shot.... I had the idea to use the extra bottling bucket I have, adding a ball valve at the top and then on the bottom on the opposite side. The inside would be a copper coil - much like an IC - that the wort would run through on the way to the fermenter and I'd fill the bucket all the way to the top with a bag or two of ice from the store along with enough water to fill the bucket to the top. I guess it's kind of like a "reverse" IC - instead of putting something cold into the wort, you're passing the wort through something FAR colder. You could also run some of the water out of the bottling spigot after the ice starts to melt from the wort running through it and replace with more ice if needed.
My thought is that this "should" use FAR less water, and "should" be faster than an IC or CFC given my water issues where I live.
What are your thoughts? Do you think this will work? Should it use less water? Will I be able to cool the wort to pitching temperature with one pass (I'm not planning on using a pump)? Tips? Concerns? Questions? Apprehensions?
Thanks for the help!