chilling wort alternatives

As most know the drought in California is pretty bad, and i was wondering if there are any alternatives to chilling wort quickly with minimal water usage? I was thinking of using Ice wands that you use to quickly cool soups in the restaurant industry but but seems like it would be a big risk of contamination. I have been using the runoff water form the wort chiller for laundry, cleaning my brew gear and swamp cooler but I always still have several gallons left over at the end of the day.

 

The Aussies developed no chill for the same reason. Use a plastic fermenter bucket and pour the hot wort into it. Put the lid on and an airlock that has just enough liquid (I prefer Starsan solution) to let it bubble in reverse without sucking the liquid in and let it chill there. You may have to put it in a fermentation chamber to get it to pitching temperature depending on the temperature where you set the bucket. I've had one take nearly 30 hours to chill and one that was cool in 4 because of where I had them sitting.

Alternatively, some people have just let the wort stay in the boiling kettle with the lid on until it is cool.

 

http://m.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-a-wort-chiller-for-homebrewing/

I made this wort chiller because I didnt want to waste water. It uses minimal water but plenty of ice. I love this thing as I can chill the wort in my basement. One recomendation though is the you strain your wort before running it through to avoid clogs.

 

No chill works

 

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/cooling-paddles-127688/

Couple people used the 64oz and 128oz to make 3 and 2.5 gallon batches.

 

I freeze water in milk cartons. I then rip off the cardboard and stack then in a cooler with water. I recalculate that ice water through my immersion chiller using a utility pump. I add more as those melt. We go through a cartoon of milk a week in my house, so I have a ton waiting in my spare freezer ready to use.

I've also done this with 2 gal batch, amd it cooled really fast.

 

My daughter does something very similar .. fills a 5G bucket and sticks pond pump to bottom of bucket. The first 2 to 3 gals (when the heat exchange is most furious) go down the drain, but then the ice blocks go in with a bit more water, and the outlet from the chiller goes back into the bucket to recirc. It works .. but in a serious, serious water crisis, I would still go No Chill. Just MHO

 

Cool, Thanks for the quick input. I think I'll try out the no chill method for tomorrows brew day. And work on getting a pump to do the frozen milk jug method next. My next question is with the no chill do i need to adjust my late hop addition because of not being chill quickly? I was thinking i might add more bitterness and less aroma do to higher temps for longer period of time.

 

Doing the same thing, for the same reasons, and (as I just posted elsewhere) I'm finding that no-chill always gives me FWH flavors and sometimes I don't want that.

The other water-saver I've been toying with is partly inflating a large balloon inside a carboy/keg/whatever when cleaning it to reduce the volume of liquid required when most of it is just filling the middle.

 

Good question. You can Google 'late addition hops no chill" for some ideas. Here is what I do .. 1) save any late addition hops (like 10, 5 or F) 2) cover kettle at end of boil and allow to cool naturally to 180 or less 3) uncover, add the late addition hops an whirlpool .. try to get a good 10 to 15 minute swirl going 4) recover with saran (or fake saran) and kettle lid 5) come back the next day to pitch and transfer to fermenter. BTW - in my experience it is important to use whirlfloc or IM with No Chill to get something akin to the cold break you get with immediate chilling.

edit - so I think technically what I am doing is SLOW chill and a hop STAND