Pre-chill technique

[Kraftwerk]

I have a 25' and a 50' copper immersion chiller. I will run ground water through them in series, the first will be in a bucket of ice water and the second in my hot wort. Should I use the 50' for wort chill or ground water chill? Seems I'll get colder chilling water if I use it for pre-chill, but more efficient heat transfer if I use it for wort chill. Which will lead to fastest chill time of a five gallon batch?

 

[smokinj]

The prechiller can only get it down to the temperature of the ice water regardless of it's length, so I think you are better off with the 50' in the wort. More surface are means faster chilling. You could run a simple test. Just put each in a bucket of ice water and test the temp of the water coming out. I think you'll find they are very close.

 

[Dan]

Yep. What SmokinJ said.