Immersion Chiller - best way to keep wort moving while cooling?

[IDoBleedBrew]

Maybe I'm just lucky enough to be blessed with cold ground water. So far, I've been able to chill 3.5-4 gallons with the immersion chiller in just over 4 minutes (with stirring). I just make sure to stir the wort in the opposite direction of the water flow and it drops crazy fast. You and I apparently differ, because I find that part of the most enjoyable part of brewing... watching that thermometer drop so crazy fast. It's the little things. =) Four... no more than 5 minutes to get it from 212 to below 75 and I'm ready to pitch.

 

[day_trippr]

[...]I just make sure to stir the wort in the opposite direction of the water flow and it drops crazy fast.[...]

That's some funny sh!t right there!

Cheers!

 

[bu_gee]

Even if you don't want to stir, you can use natural convection to do the mixing for you by making sure the cold water goes to the top coils first thus causing that wort to sink.

This may however cause your transfer efficiency to drop and thus cause you to need to use more water because you won't have the same low temperature differential for the wort already at the bottom.

 

[IDoBleedBrew]

That's some funny sh!t right there!

Cheers!

I asked my physics professor why I was able to see twice the the speed in temperature drop when stirring in the same direction (as opposed to not stirring at all) and why I was able to see nearly four times as fast of a drop in temp when stirring in the opposite direction of the flow of water (as opposed to not stirring at all), and she was able to explain it in a way that made total sense. That was several weeks before we reached thermodynamics... if I was patient enough I would have been able to figure it out in my own in time, but I'm not that patient and she was gracious enough to take the time to explain it.

 

[JustLooking]

I asked my physics professor why I was able to see twice the the speed in temperature drop when stirring in the same direction (as opposed to not stirring at all) and why I was able to see nearly four times as fast of a drop in temp when stirring in the opposite direction of the flow of water (as opposed to not stirring at all), and she was able to explain it in a way that made total sense. That was several weeks before we reached thermodynamics... if I was patient enough I would have been able to figure it out in my own in time, but I'm not that patient and she was gracious enough to take the time to explain it.

I call BS. If you stir enough to hold a relatively uniform temperature in your kettle there will be no difference from stirring direction.

 

[bu_gee]

I asked my physics professor ... and she was gracious enough to take the time to explain it.

I think most of us are familiar with both the concepts of forced convection AND anecdotal evidence even if we don't know what they're called.