Inexpensive Wart Chiller Pump Idea to Share

[ozzy1038]

Psych, both WORTS on fingers and WORT (unfermented beer) are spelled the same way. Check your engrish before correcting someone else.

Words to live by. (For some of us anyway)

I love it because this has so many things to make fun of.

1. You told him to do what you did NOT do.
2. You tried to correct him for being a spelling nazi, thereby becoming one yourself.
3. Misspelling english only diminished the impact even more of your already misinformed post.

I thank you for providing me this great entertainment this morning!

 

[Zixxer10R]

You are quite welcome. I must say, my idiocy did lead to some great replies though.

 

[passedpawn]

Lightbulb! My housemates don't drain their pool, they winterize it with some sort of antifreeze (?). When the temps get down in a few months I could just toss that pump into the shallow end and not use a cooler/bucket.

Unless those chemicals (chlorine, pool shock, antifreeze stuff) do naughty things to copper? This is less and less like a good idea...

It's a good idea. Been doing that for 2 years now without a problem (except my wife freaks out and won't let any kids in there when the cord is coming out).

 

[william_shakes_beer]

I am going to Unjack this thread.
I use a wart chiller and tap water. Usually chill from boil to 100 in about 15 minutes. Running water faster just consumes more water, as the discharge temp from the chiller is not as high. Not a noticiable increase in chill time. Once i get to 100 it seems the chiller becomes less effective, probably because I am approaching the temp of the tap water and there's less of a temp delta for the water to pick up. Therefore, the pump rate is probably not as critical as the water temp. On the next brew day I will fill 2 sinks with water. One I will add ice. Drop the pump into the tap temp sink and run the tap into it to replenish.Then when I hit the "plateau" of about 100f switch over to the ice water and move the replenish tap. I'll update when I can.

 

[ArcaneXor]

i am a complete and udder moron right now.

Most of us probably are udder morons. Have the right woman whip out her set, and many of us are reduced to salivating, blubbering idiots.

 

[Cimerian]

I love the chiller you made. The original design is by far the most efficient. I was planning on building one far more complicated until I saw this one.

 

[cwi]

Water usage shouldn't really be a factor. The waste water can be used for other things- cleaning, strike water for a double batch, hooked to a sprinkler for the yard, etc. Also, there isn't that much water being used to start with. The first poster was worried about water usage, then says later he dumps the waste into his pool.

If you have a pool, recircing to that until the temp diff becomes too small, then switching to a recirc ice bath is the most sensible approach. He will need a bigger pump, though, or just use the hose as input then exhaust into the pool for the first cooling phase.

Running water faster just consumes more water, as the discharge temp from the chiller is not as high.

On the next brew day I will fill 2 sinks with water. One I will add ice. Drop the pump into the tap temp sink and run the tap into it to replenish.Then when I hit the "plateau" of about 100f switch over to the ice water and move the replenish tap. I'll update when I can.

Using the faucet directly for the tap temp portion will get you better flow/chilling speed. A high initial flow isn't wasting any water as long as the output temp is high. You will have to switch the chiller input to the pump output for the ice bath, but it isn't difficult.

I assume you are going to exhaust tap temp waste water somewhere. Otherwise, if recirc'd, the tap temp sink will become very hot very quickly.

Agitating the wort makes a huge difference in chill time and tap water chilling efficacy.

 

[hough77]

Lightbulb! My housemates don't drain their pool, they winterize it with some sort of antifreeze (?). When the temps get down in a few months I could just toss that pump into the shallow end and not use a cooler/bucket.

Unless those chemicals (chlorine, pool shock, antifreeze stuff) do naughty things to copper? This is less and less like a good idea...

PEARL JAM!!! I was @ Alpine Valley for the fest!
(sorry, had to hi-jack, my favorite band)

 

[djfake]

Agitating the wort makes a huge difference in chill time and tap water chilling efficacy.

But doesn't that introduce oxygen if the temp is > 80F?

 

[Buchenstrasse_Brewer]

But doesn't that introduce oxygen if the temp is > 80F?

Sure isn't that the point though pre-pitch?

 

[TomSD]

I dump the ice bin into bags until I have a shelf full of ice at the ready. When it comes time to chill I drop the pot into a sink full of ice/water then cycle ice water through the chiller. Cools things down in no time with little more than a sink full of water wasted. Usually the same water I did the starsan treatment with so call it recycling.

 

[emjay]

Sure isn't that the point though pre-pitch?

When the wort is cool eniugh, yes.

What he's referring to is hot-side aeration, the idea being that when wort is above a certain temperature (about 80 degrees), oxygen introduced into it will undergo reactions and bind to compounds in the wort that will eventually lead to long-term flavor stability/oxidative problems.

Some (many) brewers see it as little more than a myth/brewing boogeyman, but there is definite merit to the idea, and the arguments this group of brewers put forth tend to always be based on wild conjecture, logical fallacies, and serious misunderstandings of the concept and/or the science itself. So I ultimately view it as something that should definitely be taken fairly seriously, and avoided when possible.

 

[cwi]

But doesn't that introduce oxygen if the temp is > 80F?

Another "hot side aeration" comment from the peanut gallery. "Food safe", "introduce infection", and "liquid is better than dry yeast" can't be far behind.

HSA fact or fiction aside, I didn't say to agitate the wort with a 2000psi stream of 500F oxygen. A common method is to stir the wort occasionally, or, if you are pump enabled, recirc the wort while chilling. The increase in heat transfer is very substantial.

 

[cwi]

Some (many) brewers see it as little more than a myth/brewing boogeyman, but there is definite merit to the idea, and the arguments this group of brewers put forth tend to always be based on wild conjecture, logical fallacies, and serious misunderstandings of the concept and/or the science itself. So I ultimately view it as something that should definitely be taken fairly seriously, and avoided when possible.

I think a big source of the HSA myth was one of the brew webcast shows that had a scientist on talking about HSA. He downplayed HSA saying that many other things, like storage temps, have a much greater impact and should be corrected first. Many in the listening audience took this to mean HSA was a myth, even though he stated it was real, just less important than other things for long term stability.

Another source of the HSA myth is a practice that a major European brewer of American pilsner (Budweiser) uses where they blast air through a cascading wall of hot wort, or something of that sort.

 

[Ramitt]

I fill the excess space in my chest freezer with old half gallon milk jugs filled with water. I plan to use those to chill the water I circulate through my future wort chiller, when I can't cycle my pool water. This thread has been great it encouraged me to pursue this idea.

 

[cwi]

I fill the excess space in my chest freezer with old half gallon milk jugs filled with water. I plan to use those to chill the water I circulate through my future wort chiller, when I can't cycle my pool water. This thread has been great it encouraged me to pursue this idea.

Chilled water has much less thermal potential than ice. It is probably on the order of 5-10 times as much (without consulting any real info). As long as your pool is the same or colder than tap, there is no reason not to use it until a recirc ice bath is needed for the latter portion of the chill.

Filling extra space with jugs will help a keezer stabilize temps, though.

 

[Ramitt]

And the jugs become reusable ice for my icebath and chilled water

 

[dover157]

Also, the pump will allow me to run sanitizer through the chiller after I'm done with it.

Um...... why? Is there really a reason to sanitize the inside of the chiller?

 

[jeffd10]

Love the Pump... HF here I come !!!!

 

[cwi]

And the jugs become reusable ice for my icebath and chilled water

My bad. When you said you were putting the jugs in your "chest freezer", I assumed it was a keezer and they would only be chilled water.
If left sealed up, the frozen jugs won't work well for chilling due to heat transfer issues. The ice has to melt to do its job. 2 liter soda bottles with the top cut off make decent reuseable ice molds.

Using tap (or pool) water for the initial part of the chill works best, since the added temp differential provided by ice water doesn't do much when the wort is above 100F. After that, recircing into an ice bath is beneficial. To use the ice most effeciently, the ice bath chiller exhaust should not be recirc'd until it is colder than tap. Until that point, it is best to recharge the ice bath with tap water if needed.

 

[william_shakes_beer]

Um...... why? Is there really a reason to sanitize the inside of the chiller?

Sanitize was perhaps the incorrect term. But, lets be reasonable. Its darn near impossible to clean the inside of the chiller. On brew day I always mix up 2.5 gals of starsan to sanitize my parts. It goes down the sink after the fermenter is in the chamber. No harm in sending it into the sink via the chiller, since the pump is already hooked up and all...

 

[cwi]

Sanitize was perhaps the incorrect term. But, lets be reasonable. Its darn near impossible to clean the inside of the chiller. On brew day I always mix up 2.5 gals of starsan to sanitize my parts. It goes down the sink after the fermenter is in the chamber. No harm in sending it into the sink via the chiller, since the pump is already hooked up and all...

I think he was wondering why bother to clean the inside of an immersion chiller at all.
Plain water and draining it is probably best. Starsan doesn't permanently sanitize. After it is neutralized, I believe it becomes a nutrient of sorts for some critters. If any pools inside the chiller and can't evaporate, Starsan may promote funky growth inside the chiller more than plain water would.

 

[daksin]

Sanitize was perhaps the incorrect term. But, lets be reasonable. Its darn near impossible to clean the inside of the chiller. On brew day I always mix up 2.5 gals of starsan to sanitize my parts. It goes down the sink after the fermenter is in the chamber. No harm in sending it into the sink via the chiller, since the pump is already hooked up and all...

Not sure I agree. Star-San is super acidic and would love to chew on your delightfully copper IC from the inside out. This sounds like a recipe for disaster, or at the least, some pinholes or bad corrosion.

 

[dover157]

Not sure I agree. Star-San is super acidic and would love to chew on your delightfully copper IC from the inside out. This sounds like a recipe for disaster, or at the least, some pinholes or bad corrosion.

Thats kind of what I was thinking, now an immersion chiller is a dif story from what ive read, but I have never used either so I have no credit here lol.

 

[cwi]

Not sure I agree. Star-San is super acidic and would love to chew on your delightfully copper IC from the inside out. This sounds like a recipe for disaster, or at the least, some pinholes or bad corrosion.

Can't remember whether it was Starsan or PBW, or both, that are bad for copper. I don't really care to find out either, since I don't own any copper. I don't understand why anyone buys new copper IC or CFC either, since stainless is now cheaper than copper, and the thin walled SS is as good or better than thick walled copper at heat transfer.

 

[william_shakes_beer]

OK, OK I give up. No starsan. If little green kritters come crawling out of my IC I'm gonna blame you all, though

 

[Exbeerienced]

Here's a 10 gallon chill using an immersion chiller, garden hose, and circulating ice. 22 minutes in, I switched to the ice and pump, as described in this thread. Works like a charm.


My pump:


In the pail:

 

[ArcLight]

Question on hose attachments for some of these pumps without screw hose attachments - if the outlet is just a plastic tube, say 1/2 inch, how do you attach it to teh pump, and to the chiller?

Do you just by some 1/2 tubing and force it on the pump outlet tube, and then use a 1/2 barb - garden hose output?

 

[ReddHead]

I'm resurrecting an old thread but just wanted to say I'm glad I found it. I've been looking all over for a cheap 120v submersion pump and this looks promising. That pump is now $14.99 but Harbor Freight has a 20% off coupon this month. Going to swing over to HF on my lunch break and grab one.

 

[mikemet]

I think you just built yourself a hopback without the hop portion. This setup is also used to circulate beer around in the mash tun if you worry about such things (which you shouldn't IMHO).

Alot of ideas can spawn from this little setup. I dont waste alot of water at my home- ie: I dont run any water on the lawn all summer long- because its a waste. My kids and wife dont care that its not tropical green- and I dont because its such a waste. So I dont mind wasting a little water when brewing.

I will however take this idea and add it into my project bank. I do want to recirculate wort eventually on the cheap scale.