16 minutes to chill 11 gallons

[brewprint]

Is this acceptable? I'm down to 72 in that time with the groundwater around 50 degrees.

I'm using a hydra immersion chiller and running a whirlpool.

I was considering buying a duda plate chiller but I just don't believe in my mind that those will ever be fully clean.

 

[myndflyte]

I'd say it's more than acceptable. I've never been able to chill my wort that quickly and that's only 5-6 gallons.

 

[brewprint]

With the hydra I can chill 5.5 gallons in 5 or 6 minutes.

Since I just got this electric system going I'm only doing the large batches. I guess I forget what chilling was like before I had the hydra!

With a Dudadiesel guys can chill 11 gallons in about 10 minutes or less I believe. I saw one in action once. Just with having hop and grain sludge I don't think that's a very good idea.

 

[Morrey]

'Tis the season for rapid chilling in the US! I have a hydra and when the ground water is in the 50's as it is now, it only takes a short time (15 min seems avg) to chill 11G batches under 70F. In the summer.....entirely different situation. Hydra's are quick and efficient plus cleaning is a simple rinse off. I looked at other chillers when I bought the Hydra, but this one is just way too easy to clean and I don't want more cleaning to add to my brew day.

 

[redllama]

It takes breweries (depending on size) roughly 45 mins to chill and transfer to the fermenter. 15 mins is definitely ahead of the curve and I would guess about as fast as possible.

 

[kristiismean]

that is actually very impressive for 11 gallons. That's faster than my current counterflow chiller (gravity with recirc ice bath, but upgrading to a plate chiller and pump)

 

[passedpawn]

It takes breweries (depending on size) roughly 45 mins to chill and transfer to the fermenter. 15 mins is definitely ahead of the curve and I would guess about as fast as possible.

I might have the world's record for chilling a 5g batch. I recall it was just a minute or two. This involved manual stirring, an immersion chiller, and lowering the kettle into a flowing outdoor spa waterfall in the winter. True story

Good point about commercial breweries. They would chill faster if they could though. I guess they don't have a big enough spa.

 

[Morrey]

With the hydra I can chill 5.5 gallons in 5 or 6 minutes.

Since I just got this electric system going I'm only doing the large batches. I guess I forget what chilling was like before I had the hydra!

With a Dudadiesel guys can chill 11 gallons in about 10 minutes or less I believe. I saw one in action once. Just with having hop and grain sludge I don't think that's a very good idea.

Honestly, I think you have the best already w/o buying something else and creating a cleaning nightmare for yourself.

 

[passedpawn]

Honestly, I think you have the best already w/o buying something else and creating a cleaning nightmare for yourself.

^^ agreed.

I've got a Therminator and I'm considering changing to a coaxial CFC like a Chillzilla. An IC is not appealing to me because I've got a big electrical element in the middle of my kettle.

Plate chillers are quick, but they have some negatives, mainly clogability and cleaning. The clogging will happen with IPAs unless you use some sort of hop sack.

No matter how much you clean it, you don't get everything. Twice I had gobs of maggots fall out of mine on brewday (I cap the beer in/outs now during storage). Now, I always spray the beer side out just before attaching, and lots of crap comes out of there. Gah.

 

[numberspace]

Love my Jaded Hydra IC. Managed 11 gallons in 10 or so minutes the other day, definitely getting colder outside but significantly better than many plate chillers I've seen other people use. You just end up using a bunch more water

 

[brewprint]

^^ agreed.

I've got a Therminator and I'm considering changing to a coaxial CFC like a Chillzilla. An IC is not appealing to me because I've got a big electrical element in the middle of my kettle.

Plate chillers are quick, but they have some negatives, mainly clogability and cleaning. The clogging will happen with IPAs unless you use some sort of hop sack.

No matter how much you clean it, you don't get everything. Twice I had gobs of maggots fall out of mine on brewday (I cap the beer in/outs now during storage). Now, I always spray the beer side out just before attaching, and lots of crap comes out of there. Gah.

I bought one of those fancy $20 BIAB false bottoms from Bobby. I do an eBIAB so that stand/false bottom works to hold the basket and the immersion chiller.

It sounds like I'm doing pretty well here. The story about the maggots being inside the plate chiller is enough to keep me away!

Numberspace; how did you chill that quickly? I'm running a whirlpool with a pump and I remove the insulation from the kettle while doing the whirlpool. The garage was about 33 degrees and the groundwater is super cold right now.

 

[Weezy]

My favorite is dumping hot to a corney and putting the corney in the pool.

 

[SteveH aka shetc]

How fast is the Hydra if the ground water temp is 80F? Say, for 5 gallons

 

[brewprint]

How fast is the Hydra if the ground water temp is 80F? Say, for 5 gallons

I've never had ours be 80F. It's been about 70 at the warmest and we had a HOT summer this year.

It's about 6 minutes to get to 70 when it's 70. If it's 80 I don't believe it can get below 80.

 

[DasBierBaron]

My plate chiller is certainly fast and it's easy to store. If you have a pump, keeping it clean isn't tough. You just recirculate pbw at the end of the brew day and it gets cleaned inline with the rest of my system. I usually bake mine in the oven before use, just to be sure it's sanitary.

The drawback is that it's still not as easy as an immersion chiller. I have to hook it up to my beer line and I have to bag all my hops in addition to using the oven as mentioned above. I'm currently considering a 50' stainless immersion chiller to make things simpler, but I'm worried I will be disappointed in the chilling time.

 

[passedpawn]

I just bought a JaDeD Cyclone CFC. Seems like the best of all worlds, except it's large. That would have been a minor issue for me in the past, but I'm finally building a brew stand and it will just mount under the kettle platform.

I like this one over the other CFC's because you can easily clean the wort passages if necessary.

 

[schiersteinbrewing]

Let me know how that CFC works. During the summer months my water ground water is 80-85 deg, I want to run two chillers to get down faster, then use recirculated chilled water as the last measure to get to pitching temps. Been looking at CFCs for the second chiller.


Right now I just use the Hydra to get close the ground water temps. Then transfer to fermenter and let he fermentation chamber chill it the rest of the way then pitch.

 

[passedpawn]

Let me know how that CFC works. During the summer months my water ground water is 80-85 deg, I want to run two chillers to get down faster, then use recirculated chilled water as the last measure to get to pitching temps. Been looking at CFCs for the second chiller.


Right now I just use the Hydra to get close the ground water temps. Then transfer to fermenter and let he fermentation chamber chill it the rest of the way then pitch.

Yep, I'll post a comparison thread when I get it. I've got a Therminator here also.

 

[Totally]

Is this acceptable?

Great time! My last outdoor brew in Sept was also 16 minutes for 11 gallons of Kolsch. That was 208F to 74F using a 50' stainless steel immersion chiller. Did not record the ground water temp sadly, but I suspect it would even faster right now since it was -5 outside today.

 

[augiedoggy]

^^ agreed.

I've got a Therminator and I'm considering changing to a coaxial CFC like a Chillzilla. An IC is not appealing to me because I've got a big electrical element in the middle of my kettle.

Plate chillers are quick, but they have some negatives, mainly clogability and cleaning. The clogging will happen with IPAs unless you use some sort of hop sack.

No matter how much you clean it, you don't get everything. Twice I had gobs of maggots fall out of mine on brewday (I cap the beer in/outs now during storage). Now, I always spray the beer side out just before attaching, and lots of crap comes out of there. Gah.

longer plate chillers with less plates are much less likely to have clogging issues and work better than the therminator which if you look at any other plate chiller manufacturer you will find the 30 plate chillers with the same dimensions for for much less$ (usually $70-100) than the longer chillers because the longer chillers are superior in function with less clogging or buildup issues.

In a nutshell as far as plate chillers go the therminator is not a very good design, and not one that should be used to compare the them to other chiller types...

 

[brewprint]

Well the water yesterday was less than 50 degrees. I had the batch chilled to 70 in just about 12 minutes. I did move my whirlpool arm pointing up a little higher though which may have made the difference.

Either way I'm very happy with the performance at this point.