Recirculating while cooling

[TheMerkle]

We are nearing the completion of a new setup. We are going with a recirculating ebiab system. In the interest of reducing ice needs, we are considering a new approach to cooling.

The idea is to use quick disconnects after the boil to include a diesel plate chiller, recirculating wort through the chiller and back into the kettle to sanitize, then turning on tap water to the chiller and continuing to recirculating the wort until ground temps, then switch to pond pump recirced ice water to finish the cooling. Finally, we would reroute the chilled wort from the kettle to the fermenter.

Anyone have any opinions for or against this approach? In the past, we tried something similar, but produced a HUGELY cloudy wort into the fermenter... ruining the beautiful clear wort we took from a recirculated mash, but that said, the final beer still dell clear.

 

[TexasWine]

This is what I recently started doing. Except when I switch to ice water, which is about 100F wort temp, I can run straight to the fermenter rather than continuing to recirculate. Works beautifully. And I can get as cold as I want using 20 lbs of ice (and still have some ice left over).

 

[BallisticGourd]

I've been doing this for about a year and half now. It works great for me.

 

[jschein]

Yes over 20 years doing this. Put output on the side of the kettle and it will whirlpool. Not haze if you don't want it

 

[TheMerkle]

Will running the return below water level, and producing a whirlpool, also prevent the cloudiness caused in my previous attempt? We used a return outlet above the liquid level and the crystal clear post boil wort instantly turned milky.

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

I have a 3 pot herms system and did use ice but it was costing be 6 to 10 bucks a brew just for ice so I decided to freeze water bottles and place then in my HLT to the top then fill it with water and recirculate it until the temp reaches the 40's , instead of recirculating back into the hot wort which melts the bottles too fast I decided to whirlpool my 0 minute hops and let it cool naturally until it reaches 170F then just run it through the HLT coil very slow into my carboy, it works great and I don't pay for it, when done just throw the bottles back in in my deep freeze, I can also use them in a cooler with no mess

 

[day_trippr]

Will running the return below water level, and producing a whirlpool, also prevent the cloudiness caused in my previous attempt? We used a return outlet above the liquid level and the crystal clear post boil wort instantly turned milky.

Even while the anti-HSA folks are so vocally in denial around here, I would recommend never including an "air drop" configuration in any phase of brewing.

Wouldn't be prudent.

As for the original question, your scheme makes perfect sense given the domestic water temperature situation. Go forth and chill!

Blessedly, my well runs in 50s°F range all year.
At least one phase of brewing is pretty darned simple around here

Cheers!

 

[brick_haus]

Works for me! I whirlpool during the cool and my return is on the bottom. Hundreds of gallons and no issues.

 

[DC-Brewer]

What is the best pickup and return wort setup to get the BK whirlpool to work. I brew in Mississippi and have the same ground water problems. Currently cooling to 100F with ground water and switching the water to go through my HERMS coil with ice water in the HLT.

I have a short pickup tube installed that is angled to the right and have been simply placing the return hose into the wort. Obviously not generating a whirlpool but leaving most of the spent hops behind. I'm going to add a return port to the BK today and was wondering if the returning wort should be oriented to the same direction or opposite to the pickup tube to create a whirlpool.