25' IC for 11 gallon batches

[Soulive]

Does anyone know how long it'll take me to chill? I'm cooling 5.5 gallons batches in about 10-15 minutes with it now. Other than using this as a prechiller and getting a pump/bigger IC, does anyone have tips to expedite cooling?

 

[Boerderij_Kabouter]

I'll assume you swirl your chiller in the kettle...

other than that an ice water recirc. system may help. That is what I am planning on doing (like the one a few months ago in BYO).

 

[Soulive]

I'll assume you swirl your chiller in the kettle...

other than that an ice water recirc. system may help. That is what I am planning on doing (like the one a few months ago in BYO).

Yeah I swirl it around. How can you recirculate without pumping?

 

[Bobby_M]

You can use a bottling bucket filled with a LOT of ice and put it up high on something to gravity feed it into the chiller. I've done this with my CFC and it works pretty well. This is only required in the summer though.

You'll be fine with the sub 50F temp of our tap water right now though and there's not much you can do to speed it up other than stir your wort feverishly the whole time.

 

[Soulive]

You can use a bottling bucket filled with a LOT of ice and put it up high on something to gravity feed it into the chiller. I've done this with my CFC and it works pretty well. This is only required in the summer though.

You'll be fine with the sub 50F temp of our tap water right now though and there's not much you can do to speed it up other than stir your wort feverishly the whole time.

With the bucket, do you just start a siphon to get the gravity feed going?

 

[Bobby_M]

I meant a bottling bucket with a spigot on it. Truth is though, we're talking about "wasting" ice to get 32F coolant instead of 45-50F out of the tap. I haven't measured it lately. The only way to better that is to add rock salt and get it down to like 20F before letting it flow.

I'd just stick with tap water and make sure you've got the wort whirlpooling hardcore. Shouldn't take more than 15-20 minutes.

 

[Soulive]

I meant a bottling bucket with a spigot on it. Truth is though, we're talking about "wasting" ice to get 32F coolant instead of 45-50F out of the tap. I haven't measured it lately. The only way to better that is to add rock salt and get it down to like 20F before letting it flow.

I'd just stick with tap water and make sure you've got the wort whirlpooling hardcore. Shouldn't take more than 15-20 minutes.

I forgot about the spigot. Hopefully by the time the tap water is getting to warm, I'll have some solution...

 

[Bobby_M]

The defacto HBT solution is basically a submersible pond/utility pump in the 300-500gpm range for icewater pumping. I plan to put a garden hose QD on it so I can quickly switch between tap/pump. These pumps are only like $25 and a necessity in the summer.