Silly Chiller question

[ATLBeer]

Back into brewing after a long hiatus. When I was brewing small extract batches, I used to just use an ice bath to cool my wort. Tried an immersion chiller, but never seemed to help enough to mess with since my tap water was warm.

So here is my silly thought. Planning to get an electric brewing system with a pump. So instead of putting a chiller in the wort, what if I place the chiller in an ice slurry in the sink and pump the wort through the chiller instead?

The only downside I can come up with is clogging. Am I missing anything?

 

[Maxkling]

This is just like a counter flow chiller. You need to make sure to agitate the water in the sink.

 

[dawn_kiebawls]

I think sanitation could become an issue with that, unless you were to boil the IC for 10-15 minutes before chilling and be sure to clean and sanitize after each use. A friend of mine uses a small pond pump to pump ice water through his IC and I've even heard of people submerging a 50' length of hose in ice water and hooking the IC up to that.

Another way to increase the efficiency of your IC to make sure you keep an eye on the flow rate of the water. Too fast and you leave too much heat in the in the kettle. Too slow and you arent taking the heat out fast enough. Either way I think you'll be alright. Cheers!

 

[ATLBeer]

Thanks for the quick replies, will get this set up for my next brew.

As far as sanitation, should be good by cleaning the chiller and lines along with the other equipment when finished. As long as it was cleaned & sanitized after use, I'd think running boiling wort through it would take care of any residual nasties.

Thanks again.

 

[cmac62]

I have used a pre-chiller, basically a second chiller submerged in a saltwater icebath, but pumping ice water through the chiller is also common. If you pump the wort through, when I was using a counter flow, I would run hot water through the beer side of the chiller for a few minutes to clear it out before putting it way. Good luck with whatever you choose.