other style wort chiller

[hb771]

I was wondering if I could find a copper wort chiller that instead of being a coil was a couple of hollow copper plate boxes,maybe curved, that I could pump ice water thru. It seems it
would be easier to clean. I was surprised I didnt see anything like that on the web.

 

[Photopilot]

You are kind of describing plate chillers. There is also counterflow chillers, and double pipe chillers. You could pump ice through any of these. They all have variable ease of cleaning ability, I'd say the immersion chiller is the easiest.

The problem with pumping ice through your wort is I could double the cost of my brew session. I finish off with Ice water when my tap water becomes ineffective, I figure one bag of ice raised my cost of 13 gallons of beer by 15%.

 

[kristiismean]

we gather up ice starting the week before. I find block ice lasts a lot longer then cubed ice. I use a sump pump to recirc through a 25' coil. (high volume, low pressure) and will be changing it out for an old bilge pump off my boat that I just replaced (or going to try).

extract, 3.5 gallons get's to 70 degrees from 210 in under 8 minutes.
full 5 gallon batch get's to 70 degrees in 15 minutes. start with 1 gallon of water in the 5 gallon bucket and the rest filled with ice.

 

[Photopilot]

we gather up ice starting the week before. I find block ice lasts a lot longer then cubed ice. I use a sump pump to recirc through a 25' coil. (high volume, low pressure) and will be changing it out for an old bilge pump off my boat that I just replaced (or going to try).

extract, 3.5 gallons get's to 70 degrees from 210 in under 8 minutes.
full 5 gallon batch get's to 70 degrees in 15 minutes. start with 1 gallon of water in the 5 gallon bucket and the rest filled with ice.

Try doing that with 15+ gallons. That amount of ice is going to cost you.

Unless you have a power converter to get you 12V DC the bilge pump is probably more hassle than buying a pond pump or an aquarium pump.

 

[hb771]

what is a model of high quality aquarium pump good for brew??

 

[Photopilot]

what is a model of high quality aquarium pump good for brew??

I only mention that because I have a salt water fish tank and have extra pumps sitting around. A high quality aquarium pump is expensive and you would get better bang for your buck for about $25 in a pond pump.

This is the one in my tank.
Good quality aquarium pump.

Okay pump. This is my backup pump that I also use to push ice water while brewing.

http://www.petsolutions.com/C/Subme...ZLvEqxcNug7KgNvdiDA-WcGbGJgt4bku3waAnwK8P8HAQ

Pond Pump
http://www.lowes.com/pd/smartpond-300-GPH-Submersible-Fountain-Pump/50125821

 

[schematix]

Plate chillers are highly effective, but a pain in the ass to clean and clog easily. What you gain in speed you more than lose in cleaning and maintenance time (not to mention all the additional water needed for flushing).

Main types of heat exchanging devices:

• Coil, a.k.a immersion. Usually copper but can be stainless. Easy to make, fairly cheap, easy to operate. Jaded Hydra is the best one on the market currently.
  
• Plate chiller - what you're describing. Lots of surface area in a small package, but comes at the price of being loaded with nooks and crannies, making it a huge hassle to clean and easy to clog.
  
• Counter-flow - essentially a tube version of the plate chiller. Less clog prone than a plate chiller, but not as efficient and also a pain to clean (how do you reach 12' into a tube to scrub?)
  
• Shell and Tube - Kind of a combination of the above methods. Scales up well to gigantic scales. Doesn't really offer any benefit though and is typically very costly.

 

[SeeMont]

I use a counter flow chiller. Having to haul water, I have a 35 gallon garbage can of recycled water. I freeze water in 2 liter plastic soda bottles, using 5 bottles per five gallon batch. The pump I use is a pond pump from Harbor Freight. Works well. Hope this helps.

 

[Thorsbrew]

Surprised noone has mentioned a parallel counterflow chiller. Benefits of a regular counterflow but not coiled so you can see straight down the tubes to clean if necessary.

That's the one i plan to make.

Like this.
https://youtu.be/znOZCIdTk4o?t=722

 

[Morrey]

Good review schematix. I usually use my tap water to bring immersion chiller wort to ambient which is 80F lately. I shift to a submersion pump used for fountains from Lowes Home Imp or Home Depot at around $22. Pump ice water with some cubed ice and bottles of frozen water in discarded Gatorade bottles. I pitch lager yeasts at 50F, so it takes a bit of time to get 11G batches down that low.

 

[schematix]

Surprised noone has mentioned a parallel counterflow chiller. Benefits of a regular counterflow but not coiled so you can see straight down the tubes to clean if necessary.

That's the one i plan to make.

Like this.
https://youtu.be/znOZCIdTk4o?t=722

I'd bucket that as a counterflow.

They don't really have many benefits, which is why they aren't popular. Surface area is extraordinarily low so they are slow and still need to be cleaned.

 

[schematix]

Good review schematix. I usually use my tap water to bring immersion chiller wort to ambient which is 80F lately. I shift to a submersion pump used for fountains from Lowes Home Imp or Home Depot at around $22. Pump ice water with some cubed ice and bottles of frozen water in discarded Gatorade bottles. I pitch lager yeasts at 50F, so it takes a bit of time to get 11G batches down that low.

Solid method.

Even with my plate clogger, in the summer i can't get it all the way so i get what i get, and then use my chest freezer to take it the rest of the way. Can take 8 hours to drop from 80 to 45 (where i pitch lagers), but whatever, it's dead time.

I am in the process of switching to immersion (shipped today). Thought i'd never do it but i'll live with the performance hit to not have to clean it for an hour.

 

[Morrey]

Solid method.

Even with my plate clogger, in the summer i can't get it all the way so i get what i get, and then use my chest freezer to take it the rest of the way. Can take 8 hours to drop from 80 to 45 (where i pitch lagers), but whatever, it's dead time.

I am in the process of switching to immersion (shipped today). Thought i'd never do it but i'll live with the performance hit to not have to clean it for an hour.

For cleaning, I put a spoonful of PBW in my kettle and fill with hot water with the IC still in it. I swish it around a few times and rinse. Easy peasy

 

[schematix]

For cleaning, I put a spoonful of PBW in my kettle and fill with hot water with the IC still in it. I swish it around a few times and rinse. Easy peasy

That might even be overkill for an IC

I am planning to clean mine by saving the first 3-4 gallons of hot water that come out of the chiller... if that works i'll skip the PBW, otherwise i'll probably do something similar.

 

[SadPanda]

I've had good results from my immersion copper chiller in the summer time. I built 2 immersion chillers; the first is 40' 5/8 copper coiled to fit inside 15.5 keggle, the other is 25' 1/2" cooper coiled to fit inside of 7.5 gal brew pot.

The smaller one is immersed inside of a small cooler, the brand is Igloo make is The Cube, filled with frozen 12 oz water bottles and whatever ice I have in 3 freezers from trays and ice maker, ice frozen in yogurt containers etc.

The larger chiller is connected in line with the smaller one, and then hooked up to another garden hose that has a sprinkler attached to water the grass. I call it the super chiller. Ground water temps here get up to 82 in summer. This method gets my water down to 55-65 degrees F.

 

[Thorsbrew]

I'd bucket that as a counterflow.

They don't really have many benefits, which is why they aren't popular. Surface area is extraordinarily low so they are slow and still need to be cleaned.

What benefits dont they have? I'm pretty new to brewing so im not that well informed but I'd say the benefit to see down the tubes and to clean them out if need be is a pretty big benefit. Enough to differentiate them from normal counterflows as well.

 

[day_trippr]

Surprised noone has mentioned a parallel counterflow chiller.[...]

Ungainly beasts. Probably why you hardly ever see them

Cheers!

 

[Photopilot]

Ungainly beasts. Probably why you hardly ever see them

Cheers!

Until now. These are also called double pipe chillers and there is an article in BYO I used to design and build mine. I was not talking about mine because I have just finished it and only used it once so do not have much empirical data to describe its use yet. Between my brand new chiller and my brand new rig it was the smoothest brew day with the largest output I have had in a long time.

I have used nothing but immersion chillers of all configurations up till now. I wanted something better but did not like the idea of clogging or contaminants in a plate chiller. I plan on brewing within the week and will take some notes on its effectiveness then. Yes it is ungainly but mounts fairly sleekly to my rig and since my garage is committed to brewing, and woodworking, I just built what I wanted to try.

 

[day_trippr]

lol!

Yeah, that pretty much makes my point...

Cheers!

 

[ncsuwerewolf]

But it looks bad ass painted copper. Im an immersion chiller guy. 60 ft of 1/2 id copper i call " ChillBaca" cool to 100 for making hot water. Put ales in the fermenter to wait out pitching temp. Pump ice water through lagers to get them closer but never all the way.

 

[Thorsbrew]

Idk that looks badass to me. Matter of preference i guess. Though i'd probably do mine like the video i posted (double stacked side-by-side with 5 double stacks of 3 feet each for 30 total feet of copper).

 

[Photopilot]

Idk that looks badass to me. Matter of preference i guess. Though i'd probably do mine like the video i posted (double stacked side-by-side with 5 double stacks of 3 feet each for 30 total feet of copper).

I am pretty stoked on it. Note the white oak and mahogany wood frame. I have since finished a cool rack to mount in up against the side of my brew-rig. I have 8 pipes at 5 feet. I originally built a side by side rack for it, but when I had it laid out to paint I realized I liked the single layer layout.

If anyone nearby wants to build a 8 pipe cooler side by side I have a rack to donate to the project.

 

[Morrey]

That might even be overkill for an IC

I am planning to clean mine by saving the first 3-4 gallons of hot water that come out of the chiller... if that works i'll skip the PBW, otherwise i'll probably do something similar.

True, my main goal is cleaning the protein crud from my boil kettle. Might as well get the IC at the same time. The PBW is some good stuff and it helps keep my sight glass clear w/o scrubbing in my Blichmann kettles.