Anybody using the Jaded Brewing HYDRA Wort Chiller?

[eastoak]

Not to jack the thread... I've been running an IC for years, I'd turn on the tap water and dunk it up and down, chilling and aerating all in one task. Some of you may cringe but that has worked well for me - and never an infection. I've since changed to an O2 stone for aeration and recirculate the contents of the BK - which isn't working well to tell you the truth.

So lately I've been thinking about a plate chiller from Duda.

My BK has a false bottom and the drain pickup is dead center (You can see it in the picture.) I also tend to use whole hops in the boil without a spider.

How will I need to change my boil process in order to use a plate chiller?

I guess I'd have to switch to pellets, change the drain pickup to the side, and add a whirlpool fitting to my BK??

i have a jaybird false bottom in my keggle BK and use a plate chiller. with leaf hops i do nothing special, just dump them in. with pellet i have a stainless steel hop spider or i don't add any hops before flameout so no hops make it out of the brew kettle, it stays on the false bottom. even when i do boil the pellet hops without using the hop spider i don't get any clogging of the plate chiller by using only siphon power through the chiller, no pump.

 

[pvpeacock]

I just bought a Jaded Hydra Immersion Chiller, because I was tired of my old 25' IC taking 25-30 minutes to cool wort from boiling to 70 degrees. Yesterday, I got the chance to use the Hydra for the first time. It took 6 gallons of boiling wort down to 68 degrees in six (6) minutes. Wow! What a difference. I credit that both to the Hydra and to Jaded's advice to whirlpool while cooling. I would highly recommend the Hydra for those, like me, who prefer an IC over a plate or counterflow chiller.

 

[jdunn]

I know this post was from December of last year, but that is about when I ordered the Hydra from Jaded Brewing. I was looking for the best immersion wort chiller available, the one I bought from my local brew shop was taking too long and I was tired of using so much water. I considered plate chillers and even making my own after watching a lot of YouTube. I settled on the Hydra, watched the videos online and went for it. 2014 was and is going to be my year to brew "greener". No, not like St. Patty's Day, more efficiently. What a difference! Boiling to 70 in just over 4 minutes on a 5 gal. batch!


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[schiersteinbrewing]

Just pulled the trigger and bought the Hydra and whirpool arm.

 

[schiersteinbrewing]

Just got done testing the hydra, cooled 7gal from boiling to 72deg in 10min using 20gal of water (70deg tap water and whirlpool running).

 

[fxbghokie]

I just purchased the Hydra from Jaded last week. I was ready to shoot holes in my therminator after my last session. I have a Brewer's Hardware 30 gallon with tangential input that I drive with a chugger pump running full out. I ran a trial run with 25 gallons of boiling water, 60 inlet water temp, and got the following results:
5 minutes to get to 150, 10 minutes to get to 120, 16 minutes to get to 100, and 25 minutes to get to 80. Pre chilling for the last 30 degrees i feel would radically reduce the chill time. I will never go back to a plate chiller.

 

[grathan]

I wonder why they left that big deadspace in the center of the coils...


I wonder what they would charge to make a hydra with their herms coil design..

 

[suprchunk]

I just purchased the Hydra from Jaded last week. I was ready to shoot holes in my therminator after my last session. I have a Brewer's Hardware 30 gallon with tangential input that I drive with a chugger pump running full out. I ran a trial run with 25 gallons of boiling water, 60 inlet water temp, and got the following results:
5 minutes to get to 150, 10 minutes to get to 120, 16 minutes to get to 100, and 25 minutes to get to 80. Pre chilling for the last 30 degrees i feel would radically reduce the chill time. I will never go back to a plate chiller.

Thank you. You are the only one that is using this chiller to mention your inlet temp. Although that is a long time to chill 25 gallons down to 80. I still use my CFC and with temps about the same as yours, maybe a degree or two warmer, I can get 25 down in under 10 minutes. Now that it is warmer out, I have to start rethinking my attack plan. Might have to do an IC in the pot with the whirlpool, plus a prechiller.

 

[ScubaSteve]

Plate chillers are great, and not that hard to clean. Backflush it....it'll take 30 seconds.

However, you have to have added filtration in the BK, and to me, that is the real issue. Beers come out way less hoppy if you use bags or even a ss screen....the hops just can't circulate and he problem is compounded if you use more to compensate. You get a softball sized hop-ball.

All things being equal (time, effort, etc.), you have to decide whether the quality of your beer benefits or suffers as a result of your equipment choices. I might just buy a Hydra.

 

[3 Dawg Night]

Initially the temp drop from boiling wort to faucet temps is enough that it will cause the wort to drop rapidly. In the summer I'll use the initial hot water to clean my mash tun, then let it fill with water, add a bunch of ice, and pump water through the chiller to get my wort down. This works really well and saves water, but ice gets expensive and requires a pump (100-150 depending on what you buy).

This gives me an interesting idea. Has anyone tried something like this:

-Drop IC into wort; turn on garden hose.
-Use outlet hot water to clean mash tun.
-Fill cleaned mash tun with ice water and coil inlet garden hose in the ice water bath.

I'm wondering if the rubber/vinyl garden hose would insulate the inlet water too much to be of any benefit. Has anybody tried anything like this?