Chilling wort

[cnoyes]

I've been chilling my wort in the bathtub, but I was trying to think of a way that might be faster. I was thinking about freezing a few 2 liter pop bottles, then placing the bottle straight into the brew kettle. After it melts, swap out for another frozen one. Obviously I would sanitize the outside of the pop bottle.

Before I try this, does anybody see any potential pitfalls of this method that I have not thought of?

 

[ohiobrewtus]

Swapping out frozen plastic bottles is a good solution, but the best solution would be an immersion chiller or a counterflow chiller. You can make your own IC or purchase them from any local or online homebrewstore. I got mine for $70 or so from AHS.

 

[rod]

in the summer, before i made a pre-chiller i would do this as well and it worked fine

 

[davefleck]

if you're using extract and mixing the wort with water, just use gal. jugs (sanitized) and put the water in the fridge the night before.

If you're using a bucket sanitizer you can even put one in the freezer the night before and cut away the bottle.

I'm planning on making a real chiller soon. I'd like to essentialy make 2 coils. one that sits in the wort, and another ahead in the line sitting in a bucket of ice water. That should do it pretty quick.

 

[cnoyes]

Swapping out frozen plastic bottles is a good solution, but the best solution would be an immersion chiller or a counterflow chiller. You can make your own IC or purchase them from any local or online homebrewstore. I got mine for $70 or so from AHS.

The 2 liter pop bottle solution will be $67-68 less expensive.

 

[Bobby_M]

How much wort are you trying to cool? If it's only 2 gallons, an icebath is fine especially if you stir the wort.

 

[cnoyes]

2-3 Gallons.

Problem is... That's a lot of ice to fill a bathtub, and I really don't have anywhere else to do it.

How long should it take to cool ideally? Takes me 20-30 minutes.

 

[Ó Flannagáin]

Takes me about 15-20 minutes to get around 100-110 and about 45 minutes to get to pitching temps with my immersion chiller and garden hose.

 

[iamjonsharp]

Get a big rubbermaid container and stick it in the bathtub.

 

[pjj2ba]

You can also try these. They are food grade soup chillers

http://www.sanjamar.com/pls/enetrixp/!stmenu_template.main?complex_id_in=1905670.1915380.2498104.2497328.page

I was using these to cool my gerry rigged chiller that consisted of a 5 gal bucket with a copper coil in it filled with water and with the wort running through the coil. I found the heat exchange to be a little slow because of the plastic. I now have a plate chiller Now if you stuck it directly into the wort it would probably bring the temp down relatively quickly. These are designed to be sanitized and then place in large pots of soup, etc

 

[grichar2]

Being into homebrewing I'm just like all the rest of you and like doing things myself as opposed to buying premade goods. I want to build my own copper wort chiller with Home Depot supplies. Any suggestions?

 

[Ó Flannagáin]

Being into homebrewing I'm just like all the rest of you and like doing things myself as opposed to buying premade goods. I want to build my own copper wort chiller with Home Depot supplies. Any suggestions?

It's actually cheaper some places to buy it premade. Since the premade folks are buying copper in bulk.

 

[macs]

My homemade 1/2" copper tubing immersion-type wort chiller can cool 3 gallons to pitching temp in about 20-25 minutes. The inside diameter of the copper tubing makes a big difference in the rate of heat transfer.

 

[twocylndr]

Freeze water in gallon Zip-lock bags, they are easier to open up than 2 liter soda bottles

 

[richenrygarcia]

I bought a large round plastic tub at Home Depot for $6.00. The kettle fits in there with 20lbs of ice and water perfectly. Cools 3 gallons in 10 - 15 minutes. It seems much more efficient than filling the bathub full of water and serves double duty as a sanitize solution tub.