Dual immersion wort chillers

[malt_shovel]

Hi there,

I was wondering if anyone used a system of wort chillers where the tap water is passed through a chiller that is immersed in say, an ice bucket full of ice-cold water, before going on to the wort chiller immersed in the wort? The idea being to get the water flowing into the wort chiller much cooler than from the tap.

Has anyone tried this, and if so, did it reduce your times significantly or not really worth the effort / money. Me thinks this is probably a bit overkill, but while doing some research before going out and buying one, I noticed a lot of threads where people complained their chillers were still taking a long time to bring the wort down to pitching temps.

I have been having difficulty in a very hot, tropical climate getting my wort down to pitching temps in any reasonable time (ie less than an hour), so for my last brew, I sat in my backyard pool with my brew-pot and swam around for 20 minutes to drop the temp down to around 100oF before putting it in an ice-bath in the kitchen. It worked ok, but is not too practical hence the research for a wort chiller.

Cheers
Matt

 

[ChshreCat]

That's what's called a "pre-chiller". Some folks who have warmer tap water do this.

You can also recirculate your water for your IC using a cooler full of ice water and a small pond pump. Then you just add more ice as the ice melts and the water gets warmer. Maybe run tap water at first and then switch to your recirculating ice water. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/recirculating-ice-water-chiller-38235/

 

[Hammy71]

1 with ChshreCat. I use my tap waterbfirst then switch to my pump and bucket of ice.

 

[Hammy71]

Here's a pic...

 

[PortageeExpress]

Hi there,
Has anyone tried this, and if so, did it reduce your times significantly or not really worth the effort / money. Me thinks this is probably a bit overkill, but while doing some research before going out and buying one, I noticed a lot of threads where people complained their chillers were still taking a long time to bring the wort down to pitching temps.

I started using a prechiller this summer, and it's definitely worth the time and money. Even with 80*+ water temps, I can cool ten gallons to pitching temps in about 30 minutes (compared to an hour earlier in the Spring).

 

[DeafSmith]

The prechiller won't have a big effect on the time required to cool from boiling down to about 100 or 120, but will enable you to get down to 70 even if your tap water is 80, like mine is in the summer. I have a 50 foot, 3/8 inch chiller in the brew kettle (for 5 gallons) and a 20 foot 3/8 inch prechiller. I put the prechiller in a bucket of tap water, then run tap water through the prechiller and chiller until the wort gets down to about 100 degrees, at which point I dump a bunch of ice into the prechiller bucket. It helps to stir the wort slowly during cooling and also to agitate the prechiller in the bucket (after you add the ice).