How do you chill your wort?

[ChshreCat]

I voted for other because I use a water bath, no ice. Works just fine for me. I checked my tap water yesterday and after being in the 90's outside for two days my tap water was sitting at 64.5F.

 

[mrk305]

It has been so hot here that I have to use both a 50 ft I/C plus a 25 ft pre chiller. I don't put the ice onto the prechiller until I am below 100.

 

[maltbarleyhops]

i use a 50' IC and during our crazy hot st louis summer my outside water tap is delivering almost 80 deg f water. ill be arranging some type of pre chiller before next brew day. if all else fails and i end up brewing before ive prepared one, ill definitely go back to the immersed frozen water bottles after the IC has got my wort to 85 deg f. that was the method I used when I brewed in our kitchen and it worked very well for 5 gal batches.

 

[Bubba_Mustafa]

Just thinking outside the brewpot here, but anyone ever tried dry ice? Just toss it into the wort (stand back!) Its just frozen CO2, so it won't water down the wort. Though aeration might be another thing.

 

[daugenet]

Just thinking outside the brewpot here, but anyone ever tried dry ice? Just toss it into the wort (stand back!) Its just frozen CO2, so it won't water down the wort. Though aeration might be another thing.

People have discussed it and found out that there is/has been lots of dirt found in it. If you like dirty beer go for it

 

[Bubba_Mustafa]

People have discussed it and found out that there is/has been lots of dirt found in it. If you like dirty beer go for it

Saves me the trouble of 'putting in a dirty glass'

Might use it for prechiller and/or bath then

 

[2lflat4]

I use a 50ft IC for 10 gal batches. In the summer tap water is about 76 deg F so I cool it down to about 80 deg F. Then I transfer to fermenter and put it in the kegerator I use for temp control. I pitch the yeast once I'm at my target temp.

 

[Grasslands]

This got me thinking - is there a big difference (time-wise) in cooling capacity between 3/8" and 1/2" copper tubing?

I haven't done a search yet, but the difference in price between the two sizes (both in commercial ICs and simple coil purchases) may outweigh the amount of extra time needed to chill the wort to pitching temps. I'm looking at a ruler right now and there's not much difference between 3/8" and 1/2" inch. Perhaps the thickness of the tubing makes some difference?

Can anyone comment?

 

[Justibone]

Saves me the trouble of 'putting in a dirty glass'

Might use it for prechiller and/or bath then

Dry ice doesn't cool water as efficiently as you'd think. Yes, it's mighty cold, but it has a low specific heat compared to water, so it doesn't transfer energy out of the water very well.

Dry ice + high alcohol content liquid = very nice prechiller, maybe? And you'd carbonate the vodka so if you drank it afterwards (yumm... dirty vodka) then the alcohol would hit your bloodstream faster!

Crazy mad scientist brewing, woot!

 

[Justibone]

This got me thinking - is there a big difference (time-wise) in cooling capacity between 3/8" and 1/2" copper tubing?

I haven't done a search yet, but the difference in price between the two sizes (both in commercial ICs and simple coil purchases) may outweigh the amount of extra time needed to chill the wort to pitching temps. I'm looking at a ruler right now and there's not much difference between 3/8" and 1/2" inch. Perhaps the thickness of the tubing makes some difference?

Can anyone comment?

Radii of circles:

r = 0.5 in
C = 3.1415926535898 in
A = 0.78539816339745 in2

r = 0.375 in
C = 2.3561944901923 in
A = 0.44178646691106 in2

Half inch has almost double the area of 3/8ths. If flow volume/time were identical, that would mean that the wider tube would have more contact time with the wort. If the contact time were identical, that would mean that the 1/2" tube would have almost double as much water.

Surface area would also play a role, probably a much greater one than flow volume, actually.

.5" * 300" = 944.0 in2
.375" * 300" = 707.7 in2

708/944 = .75 = 75% of the surface area

So, there is a difference... but it depends on what it's worth dollarwise to you.


EDIT: whoops, used .5" and .375" as radius, when they should have been diameter. Oh well. Too lazy to fix... you can see there is a difference.

 

[TomSD]

IC while it is sitting in an ice bath. I like the idea of getting a pump and pumping the ice bath through it towards the end though. Sometimes the water is too warm to get it right where I want it.

 

[azscoob]

IC while it is sitting in an ice bath. I like the idea of getting a pump and pumping the ice bath through it towards the end though. Sometimes the water is too warm to get it right where I want it.

I use a cooler full of ice water and a pond pump to run the ice water through the IC, this works great for me at least. Last Wed eve I brewed a 5.5 gallon batch, using the pond pump, ice water, and IC I went from flame-out to 62° in 22 minutes, it was 109° in the garage when I began chilling, I dont waste time using tap water because it is currently 95° at its coldest.

 

[Frank99]

I use an IC, which gets it down to 80 degrees, then I put it in the fermenting bucket and place in my fermentation chamber (chest freezer) until it reaches the temp I want (I tape the probe to the side of the bucket covered in foam).

 

[Brew-boy]

I use a IC with a pump and recirc and I go from boil to 70f in about 15mins.