My vote is for a good immersion chiller. I can go from boiling to 170f in 4 minutes with my simple homemade IC. It requires a pump to circulate ice water through the chiller once wort temp reaches 120f. I don't use a second chiller immersed in the ice water. That is a huge limiting factor.
I just use a cooler of ice and a couple gal of water. Hook up the chiller tubing to the barb fittings on a harbor freight pond pump. If I stir the wort constantly, I can chill down below 170F in less than 5 min with my homemade 40-ft chiller. My old brewing space didn't have access to running water so it was my work around, now its my summer option when groundwater temps are 75F.I do that because I have not yet set up for running chilled water through the chiller. It wasn't so needed when I lived in Rhode Island. The tap water was in the 40s in the winter and only up to the 70s in the hottest part of the summer.
Now in Florida the coolest tap water I ever get is in the 70s. Mid to upper 80s in the summer. I have recently gotten a pump to circulate cold water but haven't gotten it plumbed in yet.
I don't know what your chiller is, but it takes at least 10 minutes for my 40ft of chiller to take boiling town to 170, maybe longer. I gave up long ago trying to get from 80 to 68 where I want to pitch, it just takes too long and too much water. Maybe with the pump and cold water.
Just grab a cheap pond pump and recirculate the ice water through the chiller. Much cheaper.I have a 50' x 3/8" stainless steel immersion chiller. I bought it on amazon, but the vendor is NY Brew Supply. I used it yesterday and it took about 12 minutes to get from boiling to about 70 degrees. It's a little quicker in January, but I was more than ok with 12 minutes.
In the summer, in North Carolina, it struggles to get lower than 90 degrees. I suppose I can get a smaller secondary chiller, put that in a cooler of ice water, and that would do the trick - but I haven't tried doing it yet. I usually just put the ~90 degree wort in the bottling bucket that I use to ferment, put that in the chest freezer, and check back in a couple hours. That does the trick.
Just grab a cheap pond pump and recirculate the ice water through the chiller. Much cheaper.
I started with a pump about that size because I had salvaged it from a fountain. When it went out I went with a ~500gph harbor frieght pump, just a bit faster. Just be sure to stir or recirc the wort while chilling if you are really trying to cut time down.Good idea! I bought a 265 GPH pump last week in order to clean the beer line in my keezer, so I can see if that's strong enough for my immersion chiller.
I'd still use water from the hose to get it down under 100 degrees - I hook it up to my sprinkler and water my lawn with it, so it's not 100% waste. But once it stalls, I could put the pump in a bucket with ice water and run that for a few minutes. It only costs a few bucks for a short 1/2" ID garden hose, so it should be easy to attach to the pump.
I'm curious - what does the Jaded Hydra do that other immersion chillers don't do? Is it just wider tubing, or do they have something else going on that makes it bring down to groundwater temperature so quickly?
I don't own one but by looking at it. There are three coils so cold water goes into each one, where most coils cold water would go in one end, absorb as much heat as it could, then exit. So three shorter ? coils should each work as efficiently as the one. Think I may re tube my 2 section coil so it works somewhat the same.
O M G! My head may explode! Luke warm side aeration!Jaded Hydra. Works as advertised. Gotta stir though! Friend rigged up a kitchen hand mixer and doesn't stir anymore!
O M G! My head may explode! Luke warm side aeration!
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