Immersion Chiller's water use

[Grinder12000]

I'm looking into getting an immersion chiller and am curious to how much water you use. I'll be chilling 5 gallon batchs (going from partial boils to full boils).

An odd question but in this town ALL water comes into the house pre-softened and costs a LOT! It'll be less they watering the lawn but I'm just curious.

Also - the water going through the chiller - is it a fast stream? trickle? full bore gusher??

 

[flyangler18]

The amount of water that exits the chiller will depend on how high you have the spigot from your garden hose connection opened up, and the cooling capacity of the chiller also depends on the temperature of your ground water. To reduce the amount of water used, use a submersible pond pump like this:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/recirculating-ice-water-chiller-38235/

 

[david_42]

I use 6-7 gallons to cool a 5 gallon batch over a period of 15 minutes.

 

[Grinder12000]

BRILLIANT!! that solves another problem - winter. Well, it actually does not solve WINTER but I was thinking I would have to have the door open for two hoses into the utility sink in house.

Pouring water onto the yard when it's zero was going to be a problem.

I can cool a partial batch in the sink in 15 minutes with ease but when I go to full boils it was goign to be a prob.

TY!

and thanks david - not as much as I thought!

 

[Revvy]

+1 on flyanglers suggestion of the pond pump, Bjornbrewer brought his rig to TAFTHBD at Cap N Cork, and using a 5 gallon bucket, Ice and water it took only about 5-7 gallons of water to chill down a 5 gallon batch.

I think it was one and a half buckets worth of water.

 

[flyangler18]

Yeah, the recirculating setup works amazingly well- and you don't have to worry about hauling out the garden hose in the middle of winter! I always turn off my external water during the winter and store the hose in the basement. Doesn't help when I need to chill a batch to pitching temps, ya dig?

I'd aim for around 300GPH for the pump to get good cooling efficiency.

 

[roylee]

I winter brew in the basement... connect the immersion chiller cold water line (plastic) to the sink faucet... hot-water-out drains first into the MLT. A couple of gallons and some cleaner goes in it, then hot water into a 5 gallon bucket and saved for cleaning up other stuff later. Very little wasted water. I run a fairly slow flow and get it to temp with about 6-7 gallons in 15-20 mins.

 

[shertz]

I use the recirculating ice water chiller as well. I use the hot water for cleaning and then when it cools coming out, I put it back into the ice water for reuse. I do use a hose to run on the outside of the kettle while running the ice water through. I noticed that this saved about 5 more minutes, depending on the temp of the hose water. I can't wait till it snows so I can use that instead of buying ice. I'm amazed at the cold break in my beers since I starting using this method.

 

[Bobby_M]

Devils advocate here. The groundwater is so cold in late fall through spring that it's a waste of money to buy ice for the recirculating chiller. I guarentee you'd use less than $2 worth of tap water. How much can you buy 20lbs of ice for? Just for giggles, run your cold water for a minute, then measure the temp. It's probably near 60F or less by now. The key to fast chilling with an IC is to keep the wort stirring (with a sanitized spoon of course).

 

[wilserbrewer]

Devils advocate here again...must be a Jersey thing Bobby. I can't understand how anyone is possibly chilling a five gallon batch with 6-7 gallons of tap water. Sorry, I call BS. My seat of the pants estimate requires double that??

Okay...edit...sorry...maybe I stand corrected...6-7 gallons works if a couple of them are frozen.

 

[Bobby_M]

I'm an advocate of the icewater pump chilling method when the tap water isn't cold enough to reach the desired temps but the tradeoff is cost. That's why I wouldn't use it unless it was necessary.

 

[shertz]

Devils advocate here. The groundwater is so cold in late fall through spring that it's a waste of money to buy ice for the recirculating chiller. I guarentee you'd use less than $2 worth of tap water. How much can you buy 20lbs of ice for? Just for giggles, run your cold water for a minute, then measure the temp. It's probably near 60F or less by now. The key to fast chilling with an IC is to keep the wort stirring (with a sanitized spoon of course).

No to buying ice!! Freeze jugs of water..gallon, 1/2 gallon, and pint and break them open before using. Works the same and no cost! And my water is not 60 degrees in PA in September...71. Sorry.

 

[Bobby_M]

Weird. I thought it was Nov 9th . My water is 59F right now. The point is that the cheapest way to chill right now is running tap water as long as you're not trying to chill to lager pitching temps near 50F. If you going for ale temps at 68F, tap water will do fine. You'll probably use about 20-30 gallons of water which I think runs about 1/3 penny per gallon. If you have room in your freezer for jugs of ice (I don't) freezing isn't free.

 

[wilserbrewer]

But Bobby...the freezer is running anyway!

Just kidding! You're right, nuthins free.

***hijack***Any bulk grain buy on the horizon?

 

[Bobby_M]

Don't tell me you're out of malt already man! I only brewed 3 x 5 gallon batches since the buy. I'm thinking late Spring for the next one if I do it.

 

[wilserbrewer]

No not out yet, but inventory is not where it should be. Keezer's full w/ warm kegs conditioning. Guess I just sleep better w/ a hundred pounds in dry storage. W/ the financial markets the way they are, I gotta measure wealth by other means I guess?

 

[Duckfoot]

I'm an advocate of the icewater pump chilling method when the tap water isn't cold enough to reach the desired temps but the tradeoff is cost. That's why I wouldn't use it unless it was necessary.

+1 one on this... I just used my CFC for the first time with ice water recirculating and it worked phenomenally... Granted my ice source is ultra cheap, IE: free....

 

[shertz]

Weird. I thought it was Nov 9th . My water is 59F right now. The point is that the cheapest way to chill right now is running tap water as long as you're not trying to chill to lager pitching temps near 50F. If you going for ale temps at 68F, tap water will do fine. You'll probably use about 20-30 gallons of water which I think runs about 1/3 penny per gallon. If you have room in your freezer for jugs of ice (I don't) freezing isn't free.

You said "Fall" which is September in my neck of the woods, but who cares. My point was that during the warmer temps that there is another way that will not add to the cost or waste H2O. Besides, doesn't a full freezer run more efficiently? I guess I'm not here to rip other posters, but to help OP.

 

[Bobby_M]

I said "late fall".. like now, when the OP is asking the question. He's in Wisconsin where I'm going to guess the groundwater is cold. I'm not ripping on anyone so I hope you don't think so. Even if the cost to make ice and the cost of water were equal, hooking up the hose might just be easier. I guess it also depends how convenient your hose bib location is to your brewing area.

 

[shertz]

I said "late fall".. like now, when the OP is asking the question. He's in Wisconsin where I'm going to guess the groundwater is cold. I'm not ripping on anyone so I hope you don't think so. Even if the cost to make ice and the cost of water were equal, hooking up the hose might just be easier. I guess it also depends how convenient your hose bib location is to your brewing area.

Agreed. I know your not ripping anyone, but just trying to be helpful. My water has dropped about 15 degrees since Sept so yeah, I agree that now is the time for using straight H2O. All things considered, convenience is always a factor I overlook. Cheers

 

[BeerCanuck]

immersion when its cold 50' 3/8 immersion;

and when it warms up 25' 3/8 counterflow;

they both rock :rockin:

Cheers
BeerCanuck

 

[monty73741]

you could always use barrels to recover the water for watering or recycling back through