Pre-Chiller for Hot Climate Brewers

[DeRoux's Broux]

My brew club has a great tool for chilling water w/out using a pre-chiller coil and bucket of water before their immersion chillers. They got our club blacksmith to weld garden hose fittings on the posts of a corny keg. They fill the corny up w/ 2 bags of 7 lb. ice. Run water through the "in" post and cold-ass water from the "Out" post to the chiller. Works a whole lot better than the regular pre-chiller.

Just thought I would pass that bit-o-info along!

Cheers!
DeRoux's Broux

 

[TXCrash]

Generally I get annoyed with people reviving old posts. Then again, they're usually acting like the thread was started that day...

Your club still using this prechiller? Might copy this idea either way...

 

[arturo7]

damn, necropost of the week!

 

[TXCrash]

You know it.

Don't worry - I checked and the OP is still an active member. If he wasn't I would have let the thread stay where it was 6 years ago...

 

[DeRoux's Broux]

yup, they do. i just went back to ice baths for mine. works just as fast with the groundwater temps in the mid to upper 80's anyway. seem to use less water than that anyway.

and yup, i'm still here.

 

[WildGingerBrewing]

I think TXCurtis needs to post pics and "how to" of his "Super Engineered, Handy-Dandy, Boil Over Containment System". Once THAT is perfected, then you can start working on a chiller! hahahahahahahahahaha

 

[TXCrash]

Hey: My super engineered handy dandy boilover containment system is awesome. Works well as a super engineered bottling 15 gallons in a day drip containment system as well.

Fvecker

 

[WildGingerBrewing]

It IS awesome! I hope I remembered to take pics! haha

 

[arturo7]

TXC, for what it's worth...

In the past I pumped the wort through a copper coil that was placed in my HLT, then back into the BK. After a short time I added ice to the mash tun. This process can cool the wort all the way down to lagering relatively quickly without too much waste water.

The problem I had was when some whole hop particles made their way into the coil and stayed there for the next few batches causing an infection. I'll probably go back to this method when I break down and buy a false bottom for the BK.

cheers

 

[TXCrash]

Do remember that for a short time I lived in Lancaster. That's where I picked up such awesome engineering skills ;-). Seems like you DID take pics.

 

[TXCrash]

TXC, for what it's worth...

In the past I pumped the wort through a copper coil that was placed in my HLT, then back into the BK. After a short time I added ice to the mash tun. This process can cool the wort all the way down to lagering relatively quickly without too much waste water.

The problem I had was when some whole hop particles made their way into the coil and stayed there for the next few batches causing an infection. I'll probably go back to this method when I break down and buy a false bottom for the BK.

cheers

So in other words you chilled wort with ground water at first, recirculating the whole time then circulated the partially chilled wort through a copper coil covered with ice, right?

 

[arturo7]

The wort was in continuous circulation through the coil, the coil was submerged in the HLT. Once the initial heat was removed, some of the water was drained out of the HLT and ice was added. Once this ice melted, we again drained water and added more ice.

We monitored the temp at the out put side of the coil. Once we had the temp we wanted we transferred the return hose from the BK into a fermentor.

Worked like a charm until we had some contamination in the coil.

 

[JuanMoore]

The wort was in continuous circulation through the coil, the coil was submerged in the HLT. Once the initial heat was removed, some of the water was drained out of the HLT and ice was added. Once this ice melted, we again drained water and added more ice.

We monitored the temp at the out put side of the coil. Once we had the temp we wanted we transferred the return hose from the BK into a fermentor.

Worked like a charm until we had some contamination in the coil.

This is pretty much how I'm chilling. The only difference is that my HEX coil is mounted to the lid, so instead of draining the HLT and re-filling with ice, I just fill my MLT with ice water and move the HEX coil over to the MLT. When chilling is done I use the heated water in the HLT for clean up. I use a hop spider with my whole hops, so I haven't had any get stuck in the HEX coil yet (knock on wood).

I've also tried using the hex coil as an IC recirculating ice water from the HLT. The nice part about that is there's no concern about nasties inside the coil, but since I only have one pump I have to do a separate whirlpool afterwards this way, whereas the wort is whirlpooling the whole time the other way.