Puddlethumper
Well-Known Member
I like the ideas of simplicity,
I'm with you 100%. Simple is almost always better.
I like the ideas of simplicity,
I know my method is unpopular but I put ice in my fermenter and dump the wort directly on it.
Boil to 70 in about 3 minutes.
kscarrington said:I built a CFC using the information on the DIY sticky, using 20' of copper since that was the longest roll available locally at the time. I can usually have a 6-gallon batch at the desired pitching temperature in about 8 minutes. I gravity feed from the boil kettle, into the CFC, and have a Thrumometer at the end to monitor the final wort temperature. I can then throttle the amount of water to reach my intended pitching temperature - so far the lowest I have been able to achieve was 52°, but that was with the valve fully open. If necessary I could slow the wort flow, and increase the water volume if I needed to get lower. I don't have the exact time available, but I had 11-gallons split between two fermenters in under 20 minutes last night.
Lots of great options available - I'm sure you will be able to find one that works best for your budget and your brewing system. I've been using mine for well over a year, and it freed up a lot of time and effort at the end of a brew session. Good luck!
bd2xu said:What are using for water, ice water in a bucket or hose water?
kscarrington said:Just hose water - one of the benefits of living in Alaska!
bd2xu said:Ahhh was about to say... My groundwater is about 80 now!!!
After running my faucet for about 3 minutes, the lowest temperature I registered was 46.7°.
This whole thread would be very helpful if more information was provided, including volume of wort being chilled, ambient air temp and tap water temp.
My last batch was chilled with an immersion chiller, 50 (IIRC) feet of 3/8" copper. The batch was 8 gallons, the tap water temp was 65, and I used a chugger pump and a whirlpool port to whirlpool while chilling. Dropped to 70 in 9 minutes, but took 11 more to get to 68. Tons of cold break left behind in the kettle.
This whole thread would be very helpful if more information was provided, including volume of wort being chilled, ambient air temp and tap water temp.
I didn't time it but I think about 10-15 minutes to cool 5 gallons down to 80 degrees with my home-made Immersion Chiller. Worked way better than I expected! (20' 3/8" copper tubing)
With the warmer summer water temperatures - I cheat a bit and only cool it until it gets under 100. At that point it gets dumped in the fermenter and put in the fermentation chamber until the next day. Then I aerate and pitch the yeast at a perfect 66 degrees.
It used to take 30 minutes or so to get down to the mid 70s. Now it takes less than 10 and the chamber does the rest.
Today I did something different. I wound up my garden hose into a 18 gallon barrel with rope handles. I attached the hose to the normal faucet and the out of the hose to the copper chiller in the pot. I added water and 20 frozen water bottles to the barrel with some ice. The water going into the chiller was cold cold. I got the wort down to pitching temp in 15 min with awesome cold break. The water from the faucet was about 77 degrees. It was a great idea and worked great. I was chilling for about 40 min and then putting the wort in carboy and then in the fermentation fridge overnight. No more summertime blues for me.
Today it took 15 minutes to cool 5 gallons from boiling to 70 using my new submersible pump addition. Cooling wort when it's 105 out isn't fun. My 25' x 1/2" homemade immersion chiller can only get it down to 85 in this heat.
I bought a 264 gph pump from harbor freight and got some 5/8" silicone hose to go from the pump to the chiller. Cooled the wort from boiling to 100 using tap water then put the pump in a cooler with water and two bags of ice and recirculated that through the chiller. 100 to 70 in 5 minutes. Worked like a boss. Couldn't be happier with it.
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