Extra IC coil cooling.

[Willy]

When chilling the wort on a hot (90° F+) day in summer - I have no trouble cooling down quickly until I get to about 110° F - and then the cooling moves soooo slow it is painful.

So, I had an extra immersion chiller and started using that in a small bucket of ice water. The water would snake thru the ice before going to chill the wort. I chill normally until about 100° and the hook up the ice water chill before going to the IC in the wort.

Works great - give it a try and save some time and water.

 

[MaxStout]

Yep, I do the same. I have a smaller IC I used to use with a 5 gal kettle when I was starting out brewing. Now I just use it as a "pre-chiller" inline. When the wort temp gets to a certain point I drop the pre-chiller into a bucket of ice. I've brewed lagers in summertime that way.

I'm fortunate to live in a place where the ground water doesn't get very warm in summer. Our water lines are about 8' below ground (to prevent freezing in winter). Right now my tap water is about mid-60s. It's tougher for people in, say, Phoenix, where the lines aren't buried very deep and the tap water is in the 80s.

Other brewers use a system of a recirculating pump and ice. It works well.

 

[hotbeer]

I did that a few years ago. It wasn't as effective as I'd hoped. Maybe you have a better chiller that transfers heat better.

The best results for me has been pumping ice water through the chiller in the wort when the tap water gets the temperature down to below 80°F and the rate slows to a crawl.

Last batch only needed one bag of ice to get it below my 68°F (20°C) pitch temperature. Of course you can also start with the ice water at higher temps, just takes more ice. And my tap water will get the wort down to the last 10 or 15° fairly fast.

 

[crazyjake19]

I have a homemade mini immersion chiller I made for yeast starters and 1-gallon batches. I've used that a few times as a pre-chiller before going into my full size IC. It helped some, but not substantially.

Next batch I may chill down to 100ºF and then pump ice water from a cooler through my IC to get down further.

 

[Skeeter686]

I have a homemade mini immersion chiller I made for yeast starters and 1-gallon batches. I've used that a few times as a pre-chiller before going into my full size IC. It helped some, but not substantially.

Next batch I may chill down to 100ºF and then pump ice water from a cooler through my IC to get down further.

I've been making a fair number of 1-gallon batches recently and I've considered building a small IC for it. I'm curious what you did for yours. Could you describe it? Or post pics?

 

[crazyjake19]

I've been making a fair number of 1-gallon batches recently and I've considered building a small IC for it. I'm curious what you did for yours. Could you describe it? Or post pics?

I made it from a 10ft roll of 1/4" copper tubing, some 1/4" vinyl tubing, and an adapter to connect the garden hose thread of the sink adapter to a 1/4" barb. It's a $5 fitting on Amazon.

I don't remember what I used to coil the tubing but based on the diameter it was most likely a tub of PBW. I wouldn't go any shorter than 10ft of tubing but you could certainly go longer if you wanted to.

 

[Deadalus]

I've been making a fair number of 1-gallon batches recently and I've considered building a small IC for it. I'm curious what you did for yours. Could you describe it? Or post pics?

i built this one recently out of 1/4" refrigerator water line that I recycled. It's for starters so I used a diameter that would fit my pots. It's a little tall. You could skip the elbow probably. I already use those garden hose disconnects so I went with that and compression fittings.

And I cleaned it up further

 

[Bobby_M]

Prechillers are almost always less effective than you'd think but it is explainable. The rate of chilling is directly related to the temp delta on either side of the substrate. 70F cooling water is far away from the 205F wort in the kettle so it pulls the heat out fast. Consider the 70F water flowing through icewater at 32F, that delta is pretty small. Add to that the fact that the icewater closest to the prechill coil is much warmer than 32F without aggressive agitation and it's disappointing. The most effective method is to drop a submersible pump into the icewater and push it through your chiller. That negates that local coil stratification problem.

 

[Dog House Brew]

I just put a submersible pump into a kid pool w ice water. Chill w tap, then switch it over. Works great and can knockout 20g pretty fast. I use a stainless CFC from Stout. I whirlpool in the kettle and leave as much break as possible behind. Works well for me anyway.

 

[Skeeter686]

I just put a submersible pump into a kid pool w ice water. Chill w tap, then switch it over. Works great and can knockout 20g pretty fast. I use a stainless CFC from Stout. I whirlpool in the kettle and leave as much break as possible behind. Works well for me anyway.

Similar to what I do. Except I use something smaller than a kiddie pool.

 

[Closet Fermenter]

I recently picked up a dual line cold plate for a jockey box build. I’ve been thinking about running my tap water through the cold plate (twice) before it enters the IC in my kettle. I believe this will work more efficiently than the prechiller coils in a bucket of ice water, but wondering if anyone else does this?

 

[Bobby_M]

I recently picked up a dual line cold plate for a jockey box build. I’ve been thinking about running my tap water through the cold plate (twice) before it enters the IC in my kettle. I believe this will work more efficiently than the prechiller coils in a bucket of ice water, but wondering if anyone else does this?

Same issues the coil has, stratification and the need to aggitate to mitigate that issue.