immersion chiller

[Agdarnell]

Ok so me and my friend have been discussing building an emersion chiller and we have been asking the question of why does the cold water go through the copper piping??? Wouldnt it be more effective to submerge the piping in icy water and run the hot wort through it to get more surface area faster and increase cooling time?? The only reason I have not already tried to do this is because I figured if everyone else does the other way around there must be some reason why the reverse wouldnt work.. any help on the matter???

 

[paparker21]

because generally, if you have a pump available to you, then you should go ahead and move towards a counterflow chiller. immersion chillers are functional under only the water pressure from your spigot. Additionally, it's easy to sanitize the outside of an immersion chiller- simply put it in about 15 minutes before the end of the boil-- the inside would be harder.

 

[Spintab]

If you have a pump, do the opposite. Pump the ice water through the immersion chiller sitting in the wort. Even better, if you have a vessel large enough to put your kettle in with room to spare, you can use it as an ice bath and simultaneously pump the ice water through the chiller.

The issue with counterflow chillers is you take all your cold break along with you. With an immersion chiller you get A: an even cooling of your entire batch and B: the cold break will clump and you can leave more of it behind.

 

[Spintab]

BTW, you an Alabrew customer? That was my LHBS for several years until I moved recently. Miss the hell out of the place.

 

[Agdarnell]

BTW, you an Alabrew customer? That was my LHBS for several years until I moved recently. Miss the hell out of the place.

I am actually I was just there today getting the Amarillo Amber IPA extract kit just got done brewing it a little while ago

 

[Spintab]

Very cool. You're in good hands. The owners are as wise as they come. There's a club that meets the first wednesday of each month there too. Also missed.

 

[Agdarnell]

Very cool. You're in good hands. The owners are as wise as they come. There's a club that meets the first wednesday of each month there too. Also missed.

I am very new to brewing only a 4 brews under my belt but talking to the people there helped alot in my learning curve I actually went to the meeting st the beginning of this month is was very informative an also alot of fun!

 

[Spintab]

I am very new to brewing only a 4 brews under my belt but talking to the people there helped alot in my learning curve I actually went to the meeting st the beginning of this month is was very informative an also alot of fun!

Yeah, they're a cool crew. Good luck

 

[KWKSLVR]

Alabrew is awesome. I get a little sad when I go in for something that they don't have.

 

[Golddiggie]

Back on topic...

The reason why you don't see it typically done with an ice bucket bath, with the hot wort going through the IC instead of cold water is you'll need to continue adding ice, or changing the ice/water mix during the process. The hot wort will quickly increase the temperature of the chilling medium if it's not replenished.

Personally, I'm having excellent results with my 40 plate (Rebel Brewer ChillHog 4000) chiller. I recirculate the wort through the chiller for the final ~5 minutes of the boil, sanitizing it (or sterilizing it). I then turn on the chill water feed and keep recirculating for about 5 minutes before I then direct the output from the chiller to the fermenter. I'm chilling ~6.5 gallons of boiling hot wort to the mid-50's to mid-60's (F) in maybe 10 minutes this way. I get the hot and cold break material (some gets left in the plate chiller, and the kettle bottom, but not that much) into the fermenter for the yeast to chew through. I use a hop spider to keep the hop matter out of the chiller, which really helps.

BTW, I started off my wort chilling experiences using first ice with extract (with specialty grains) along with cold water and setting the pot into a cold water/ice bath in the sink. That got old really fast. I then stepped to an IC, which was good for ~5 gallon batches, but easily took 15 minutes to chill close to pitching temp. I then went with the plate chiller, which before the pump addition took about the same amount of time. Adding the pump to the mix really helps a lot.

Also, IF you decide to pump your boiling hot wort through the inside of an IC or through a CFC or plate chiller, make damned sure it's able to handle more than 212F without issue. The normal head on the March pumps is rated safe to 250F.