My tap water is 80f, how to chill wort lower?

[WoofdogABC]

Hi,

I live in the tropics, and my tap water (even at night) is 80f or higher generally. In the context of chilling the wort post-boil, this obviously means my immersion chiller isn't going to drop it any lower, and ambient temperature in most of my house is around there. I can get one room to 70f at night with max ac for a few hours. I have a frig dedicated to keeping fermentation temp (prob keep around 65-66 for est 68 fermentation, have to see the numbers in action). I have other frigs that are cooler, one which is completely empty and clean.

What is the best way to get my wort to an appropriate pitching temperature? how long can wort spend chilling before there are any drawbacks, assuming it is kept sanitized/sealed/? should i cover it with aluminum foil is there a better plug to use while it is chilling?

Any thoughts on working around this appreciated it, I had totally overlooked it until today, and was planning to brew this weekend.

 

[EarlyBirdBrew]

I've seen some people on here used sanitized bottles of ice. A more expensive route is a pre-chiller that runs the water through ice before going through the immersion chiller.

 

[Revvy]

If you have an immersion chiller, if you lay your hands on a pump of some sort, you can use either pump ice water through the system and recirculate it back in, or use it as a pre- or post chiller and drop the temp down. If your ground water is 80, you can run your immersion chiller first with it, then swap to the ice bath.

We did a 30 gallon batch today and my buddy to save water used a sump pump into a container of ice water to run through the chiller. Actually he ran a t from the top of the sump pump and hooked 2 chillers up to it. But a standard immersion sump pump will work, as will a drill driven hand pump.

 

[reim0027]

Sometimes, I use a sump pump and a cooler full of ice water. I get the temperature down to 100 or so, with the regular wort chiller method. Then, I hook it up to a sump pump buried in a cooler of icewater. Then, let it go. The drain hose goes back into the cooler, obviously. It sucks up ice water and cools it that way. The ice will melt as the hot drain water gets into it, so it is not perfect. But, it gets those last few degrees much more rapidly.

EDIT: looks like Revvy beat me to the punch.

 

[Revvy]

Here's what I'm talking about. The container on the top right of the kettle is loaded with ice and frozen ice packs and has the sump pump in it, then there are two Immersion chillers connected to it via a garden hose "t" adapter. The container to the left of the ice water (the 15 gallon kettle) is to catch the initial nearly boiling runoff from the first couple minutes of the heat exchange. When we started to feel cool water coming out, he put the output hoses of the chiller into the ice bucket to recirculate the cool water. Occasionally we'd stir the wort with the mash paddle to swirl it around the chillers.

 

[Revvy]

You can also use a submersible pond pump as well.

 

[joetothemo]

No one said simple ice bath? Was it assumed you use one now?

 

[Primevci]

just buy 20 feet of vinyl tuning coil in in some ice then have that hook up to your wort chiller so this is how it would go Hose connection then 20 feet of vinyl coiled in ice water then to you wort chiller you could also just use another wort chiller..

 

[Revvy]

No one said simple ice bath? Was it assumed you use one now?

He asked for appropriate. An ice bath is really an inefficient means of RAPIDLY chilling your wort to get a good cold break. It also may be fine for smaller stove top batches, but even for 5 gallon all grain boils, unless you swap out the water/ice several times it's going to take awhile (could you imagine trying to do that with the above 30 gallon pot?

Besides he lives in the tropics ice is going to loose it's potency quite rapidly.

Really, his best bet, unless he can us glyocol is to do the method we talked about. Running his cooling setup with a pump and ice water, even frozen blocks would work.

 

[bwomp313]

Sorry this is off topic but what sort of equipment are you heating a 30 gallon pot with??? Sorry, as someone who has regularly done 5 gallon stovetop batches, I'm creaming over the concept of a 30 gallon pot.

 

[hikertrash]

I just remembered seeing this guy online... Never used one but looks ideal for your situation. Essentially what others have described.
http://www.rebelbrewer.com/shoppingcart/products/The-Chinchilla-%2d-Wort-Pre%2dchiller.html

 

[WoofdogABC]

I just remembered seeing this guy online... Never used one but looks ideal for your situation. Essentially what others have described.
http://www.rebelbrewer.com/shoppingcart/products/The-Chinchilla-%2d-Wort-Pre%2dchiller.html

Thanks to the thread for all the very fast replies. The above looks like the first option I am going to try. Need to experiment some with it, arguably I could jury-rig 2 of them as well into 2 coolers if the first cooler ice melts and water warms too fast. I assume I probably shouldn't even hook up until around 100f or so, but will time it and try.

 

[joetothemo]

He asked for appropriate. An ice bath is really an inefficient means of RAPIDLY chilling your wort to get a good cold break. It also may be fine for smaller stove top batches, but even for 5 gallon all grain boils, unless you swap out the water/ice several times it's going to take awhile (could you imagine trying to do that with the above 30 gallon pot?

Besides he lives in the tropics ice is going to loose it's potency quite rapidly.

Really, his best bet, unless he can us glyocol is to do the method we talked about. Running his cooling setup with a pump and ice water, even frozen blocks would work.

Did I fail reading comprehension or is it you that has a 30 Gallon pot, not the OP? How does that factor into anything?

And isn't ice going in the pre-chiller? Will that loose it's potency quite rapidly?

I mean, isn't an ice bath maybe the first thing he should try before going McGyver?

 

[Pilgarlic]

My Florida water is pretty warm. I use my immersion chiller to bring the wort rapidly to 80-90 and then ice bath it to pitching temp. Works fine for me.

 

[Revvy]

Did I fail reading comprehension or is it you that has a 30 Gallon pot, not the OP? How does that factor into anything?

And isn't ice going in the pre-chiller? Will that loose it's potency quite rapidly?

I mean, isn't an ice bath maybe the first thing he should try before going McGyver?

Do you fail to read the part I mentioned about how you want to chill fast to get a cood cold break, and even for a 5 gallon batch it is nearly impossible to chill a 5 gallon pot with one to get a good cold break? Like in under an hour?

It doesn't matter what sized pot or boil, except maybe your priming sugar or dme for a starter in 2 cups of water, an ice bath is NOT an effective means to bring a large volume of wort cool enough fast enough to achieve a good cold break.

The op was already talking about using an immersion chiller anway, so therefore he's not really looking for a solution that involves going backwards to start dipping his pot in an ice bath. I just showed him what MANY folks are doing pretty easily and quite commonly- Not anything that requires a phd in jury rigging...heck the damn sump pump has a regular garden hose fitting on it to begin with, you just screw your damn immersion chiller right to it. I mean it may be difficult for someone with the brain capacity of a gnat, but I'm sure the OP can master it.

 

[Revvy]

Sorry this is off topic but what sort of equipment are you heating a 30 gallon pot with??? Sorry, as someone who has regularly done 5 gallon stovetop batches, I'm creaming over the concept of a 30 gallon pot.

A regular Banjo burner did the trick. The funny thing was initially they couldn't get a rolling boil, and one of the brewers went to get his propane weed flame thrower to help it along and even that wouldn't get a good flame going. We finally decided to swap to a fresh propane tank on the banjo, and suddenly "woosh" the flame came out better and it boiled with no problem.

What was more challenging was getting the wort to the conical in the basement.

 

[joetothemo]

Do you fail to read the part I mentioned about how you want to chill fast to get a cood cold break, and even for a 5 gallon batch it is nearly impossible to chill a 5 gallon pot with one to get a good cold break? Like in under an hour?

It doesn't matter what sized pot or boil, except maybe your priming sugar or dme for a starter in 2 cups of water, an ice bath is NOT an effective means to bring a large volume of wort cool enough fast enough to achieve a good cold break.

The op was already talking about using an immersion chiller anway, so therefore he's not really looking for a solution that involves going backwards to start dipping his pot in an ice bath. I just showed him what MANY folks are doing pretty easily and quite commonly- Not anything that requires a phd in jury rigging...heck the damn sump pump has a regular garden hose fitting on it to begin with, you just screw your damn immersion chiller right to it. I mean it may be difficult for someone with the brain capacity of a gnat, but I'm sure the OP can master it.

Sorry man, I just thought maybe sticking the pot in a bucket of ice water along with the IC may be worth a try to get a "cood cold break". I think that is a solution people are doing pretty easily and quite commonly as well.

My mind (brain capacity > that of a gnat, btw) often goes to the easiest solution to a problem first. I don't really have the DYI gene that sends a guy out looking for building supplies before I've thought to ask "Are you using that cold stuff in your fridge at all?"

I am sure your way is great, fast and effective.