Evaluate my chilling procedure please

[StophJS]

I was hoping to get some feedback on how I've been chilling my wort. I'm getting ready for my next boil and wondering if I should just go ahead and splurge on the immersion chiller, but I don't particularly want to shell out all the money right now. I do 3 gallon boils, and have 2 20 lb bags on ice on hand. When I terminate the boil, I have a big sink in the kitchen chock full of ice and water. I stick the pot in the sink, and start swirling the wort gently so it spins but doesn't churn. I keep the top off and am swirling the wort with my spoon the whole time it's chilling. By about 15 minutes my ice is melted, and I throw in the other bag. The wort gets down to 80 in 23 minutes (give or take a minute), and I dump it in the fermenter with most my top of water, bringing it down to pitching temp. What do you guys think?

 

[scottland]

That's perfectly fine. So long as that spoon was the spoon in the pot as it boiled( sanitized via the boiling wort).

 

[rebel80]

Are you getting the 20 lb bags of ice for free? If you're buying them, the wort chiller would actually start saving you money once you covered the cost of the equipment. As far as process goes, though, you're fine. 23 minutes is fairly decent to get to 80.

 

[amazinglarry]

I know you don't want to spend money but the time and effort a wort chiller will save you is well worth the hundred bucks. If I had to do it over again I would have done a plate chiller right from the start. When I was reading the new northern brewer catalog in the b-room I saw one for like 90 bucks or something like that.

 

[Surly]

Consider making the wort chiller. Your cost would be around $50.00 or so. It does not take long to spend that much on ice.

 

[rico567]

Are you getting the 20 lb bags of ice for free? If you're buying them, the wort chiller would actually start saving you money once you covered the cost of the equipment. As far as process goes, though, you're fine. 23 minutes is fairly decent to get to 80.

THIS. Given the cost of two 20 lb bags of ice in this area, 10 batches and the IC is paid for....about a Spring or Fall brewing season for me.

 

[RM-MN]

Want to save a bit on the ice and still chill about as quickly? Don't put the ice in until your wort has chilled to 150 or less. You will have to change out the water as it warms but I just put a siphon hose in the full sink with the wort, keeping the siphon close to the surface where the warmest water will be and add cold water from the faucet to keep the sink near full.

 

[Esmitee]

I was hoping to get some feedback on how I've been chilling my wort. I'm getting ready for my next boil and wondering if I should just go ahead and splurge on the immersion chiller, but I don't particularly want to shell out all the money right now. I do 3 gallon boils, and have 2 20 lb bags on ice on hand. When I terminate the boil, I have a big sink in the kitchen chock full of ice and water. I stick the pot in the sink, and start swirling the wort gently so it spins but doesn't churn. I keep the top off and am swirling the wort with my spoon the whole time it's chilling. By about 15 minutes my ice is melted, and I throw in the other bag. The wort gets down to 80 in 23 minutes (give or take a minute), and I dump it in the fermenter with most my top of water, bringing it down to pitching temp. What do you guys think?

Hey Stoph, ya may wanta give my method a try, It just takes a little extra work when your done brewing and cooling with the ice ya just used.

I boil the water for my next batch, while waiting to get to my target temp after I eptmied the tubs . Im topping off and cooling at the same time.

Works great. Sometimes I got to LOW. Usually it takes a 1/2 hour to get to 60ish. not too bad.



https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/wort-cooling-ice-262909/#post3175283

 

[meat803]

For me it is about time and effort. My time is money and a 5-6 hour brew day is enough work already. You may be able to chill in the same amount of time but it is a lot more involved and work intensive. Dealing with going to the store, buying ice, bringing it home, and having a big process isnt just about money, it is about effort.

My dad doesnt brew but once a month and held out on getting one for a long time. He finally bit the bullet and asked me why I didnt make him get one sooner. He loves it. Dealing with the whole ice process is a pain in the ass. ou will realize just how much so the first time you use the thing.

I just did an amazon search for wort chiller and found a 25 ft one for 38$ plus 17$ shipping. You cant go wrong for 55 bucks. I bet you cant even make it for much less than that.

 

[bstacy1974]

I just used an IC for the first time my last brew night. It was amazing. Boiling to 80 in less than 10 mins. I only brew in the winter because the ice is free. I used a bucket with 5 gals of water, a few shovels full of snow, and a sump pump to recirculate the ice water. When the snow melted, it got another shovel full of snow.

Before that, I would put my boil pot in a large container filled with water and snow. It sucked because I had to stand there and stir with an air temp of -30F.
Get an IC. You'll be happy you did.

 

[Rockape66]

Just add kosher or icecream salt to your ice bath. This reduces the amount of ice needed and cooling time. The ice melts faster giving more efficient thermal convection.

 

[StophJS]

Thanks all for the input. I'm sure one of these days I will just go ahead and throw down on the IC. Just need to make sure it will actually connect to my faucet though.

 

[cullen]

Why not use cold tap water for the initial chill to save on ice? Let the water heat up, drain it, then use ice. While it doesn't have the same temperature differential as it would with ice, it has an advantage of having better contact with the pot and better convection currents.

 

[StophJS]

The sink is full of water, but I also keep it full of ice the whole time so the water is as cold as can be. I'm also stirring the wort the whole time to maximize contact. I think that's pretty much as effective of chilling as can be done in a sink, except for maybe adding ice directly to the wort.

 

[Jon73]

Sounds like it works well for you. If you don't mind the time/energy/expense then stick with what works.

I built my own IC and it has been worth the 50 or so bucks it cost me. Honestly, I wish I'd have spent the 75 on a longer one from the LHBS, as mine is only 30 feet. Once I switched to all-grain, anything I can do to make the processes easier/faster is worth the extra money. I boil in a keggle and those things take forever to cool down.

 

[fxdude]

Mine used to chill a bit faster in an ice bath topped off with cold sanitized water compared to my immersion chiller with a full boil but the ice bath was a bit more work. Moving near boiling water was always a little dangerous for me

 

[Jon73]

Mine used to chill a bit faster in an ice bath topped off with cold sanitized water compared to my immersion chiller with a full boil but the ice bath was a bit more work. Moving near boiling water was always a little dangerous for me

Yes it is. I've got a pretty good scar on my left leg from moving my keggle to hook up my IC at the garden hose while wearing shorts. As my leg was melting all I could think about was not dropping the beer.

 

[fxdude]

Yes it is. I've got a pretty good scar on my left leg from moving my keggle to hook up my IC at the garden hose while wearing shorts. As my leg was melting all I could think about was not dropping the beer.

Haha, that sounds horrible but I've been in situations where I've burned myself or touched something too hot but all I could think about was making sure the beer was ok

 

[TheColorRed]

Ouch! I got an immersion chiller a year ago as a gift and it's easily made brewing more enjoyable!

 

[nwmarach]

I made mine out of 25' of copper tubing. I got vinyl tubing and hose clamps for the connections. One vinyl tube has a common garden hose connection on the end (connected to the hose with hose clamps) with a connection to the sink faucet. All in all it cost me $35. The only thing I had to borrow is a tube bender to make sure the inlet/outlet are pointed straight up. I can get mine down to 75 F in about 10min, but I think most of that is because the tap water is under 50 F (Lake Superior).

 

[edsrockin]

well i'm a cheap barsteward as well and haven't gotten an IC. my system is similar to yours.

instead of the sink i have a big plastic tub ($5 at walmart). my brewpot won't fit in our sink so i have to use that, besides it doubles as where i store my brew equipment. that i put 2 bags of ice (heavily salted), i then place my brewpot in it, and stir. then i add 2 more bags of ice and they pretty much cover the sides all the way up so the ss pot is getting full contact with ice. within 20 minutes i get my full boil wort down to <80* pretty consistently.

the local drivethru beer store gives a bag of ice free per 12 pack. dad drinks natural light (yuck!) in quantity, so we almost always get the ice for "free". otherwise it's about $5. would be charged more than that in the gallons of water that would be lost with an IC in my opinion.