HLT as chiller

[kast1k]

Does anyone fill their HLT with ice water post boil and push their wort thru the coil to cool it? How well does it work?

 

[billl]

Give it a try. The rate of cooling is going to depend on the relative surface area of your coils to the flow rate of the wort. I suspect you won't get to pitching temps in one pass, but you'll certainly get their eventually if you keep recycling. You'll want to keep the ice water moving too or you'll get pockets of warmth around the coils.

 

[kast1k]

I'm currently building out my HERMS system with a two pump configuration, and I figure if I can't get it on the first pass I'll just recirculate between the HLT and BK until I've hit pitching temp. I didn't think about sticking a pond pump in the. HLT to combat hot spots in the chilling water.

 

[Yooper]

I did it. Once.

It took 42 pounds of ice to chill 5 gallons of wort.

 

[kast1k]

Wow really?? Did it chill on the first pass?

 

[Yooper]

Wow really?? Did it chill on the first pass?

No. I kept adding ice as it melted and ran it via pump to recirculate the entire time. It was a huge pain- mostly because I have a single tier with pumps to avoid so much lifting (I'm a 135 pound grandmother). Hauling ice out of the chest freezer in the basement, and 42 pounds of it, was a huge pain.

My friend is an engineer and later did the math for me, showing me that indeed it would take 42 pounds of ice to chill 5 gallons of 212 degree wort to 70 degrees.

That did not make me feel any better.

But it made sense once he showed me the math. Then I bought a CFC for the next brewday, and I'm still using that (it's been about 8 years).

 

[cowboy1]

I did it. Once.

It took 42 pounds of ice to chill 5 gallons of wort.

What size coil were you using? I'm currently building a system with the intent up of using the HX as the cooler. I have a 50' 1/2" diameter SS coil. I hope I don't end up with adding a load of ice I planned for 1 water dump and the HX is agitated. TIA for the information.

 

[mxstar21]

Does anyone fill their HLT with ice water post boil and push their wort thru the coil to cool it? How well does it work?

I think the Black Heart Brewery build (can find it on this site) used the HLT for cooling, but it wasn't very efficient and switched to CFC. This is from my memory so I could be wrong, but what Yooper says makes sense.

 

[kast1k]

No. I kept adding ice as it melted and ran it via pump to recirculate the entire time. It was a huge pain- mostly because I have a single tier with pumps to avoid so much lifting (I'm a 135 pound grandmother). Hauling ice out of the chest freezer in the basement, and 42 pounds of it, was a huge pain.

My friend is an engineer and later did the math for me, showing me that indeed it would take 42 pounds of ice to chill 5 gallons of 212 degree wort to 70 degrees.

That did not make me feel any better.

But it made sense once he showed me the math. Then I bought a CFC for the next brewday, and I'm still using that (it's been about 8 years).

I don't suppose you know how he calculated that do you? I was planning to give it a shot to see by just passing boiling water through it to see how it does, but it sounds like I might just invest in a plate chiller.

 

[Yooper]

I don't suppose you know how he calculated that do you? I was planning to give it a shot to see by just passing boiling water through it to see how it does, but it sounds like I might just invest in a plate chiller.

He had all sorts of temperature formulas- I'm no engineer and it looked like a mess.

I'm sure that some of that calculation is on the forum here, by other engineering geeks if you want to try to track the math down.

 

[steveoatley]

I do it - I use my Mash Tun as Pre Chiller

I run 5 gallons of water threw the HERMS coil that is in my Brew Kettle
to fill my fermentor with HOT water, and sanitizer
That gets me to @ 180F

Then i use my 10 gallon Mash Tun is filled with 29 lbs of ice & 6 gallons of cold water, and pump the chilled water threw the HERMS coil in the BK.

Gets me to 70F in 20 minutes.
And wastes 0 water

I have 5 gallons of HOT sanitizer for cleanup
and i end up with 10 gallons of warm water to clean up the kettle ( I throw in some BPW while it recirculates.)

No water goes down a drain with out a Second use.
15 total gallons of water to Chill 5 gallon batch to 70F

And it gets easier in the Winter, when i can dump in free snow.

my 2 Cents

 

[DavidinTexas]

I have been cooling with tap water until about 80-85 deg then switching to chilled (ice) water for the last bit down to about 60-65 deg. That only needs 10-15 pounds of ice.

I use a submersible pump and a bucket. Pump in bucket, then ice, then enough water to get things started - waters comes back to bucket from cooling coil in brew kettle. Works well and get me down to pitching temp fairly quickly.

At the moment I am thinking about using the same coil in the HLT as a HERMS system. Anyone ever try that is a "portable" coil as commonly used to cool the wort?

David

 

[jrcrilly]

I temporarily used an old wort chiller coil as an HLT heat exchanger to test the idea of a HERMS setup here. I ran a few 5 gallon and one ten gallon batches through that rig. I liked the way it worked so I'm now in the process of installing a permanent SS hex coil. The chiller was 3/8" X 25' and the new hex is 1/2" by 50' so I expect it to be more responsive than the test rig.

 

[DavidinTexas]

Cool - thanks. I have a 50' ss coil. Thought I would switch it a few times during the boil and see how it worked.

Moved to new place and will end up with a nice workable indoor spot. Already moved to electric - so should make things much easier and less weather dependent.....