SOB S. Florida heat

[SwampassJ]

Need to make a pre chiller or a pre chiller with a CFC.

My tap water was 82 today, outside temps hit 96 and the heat index was 106.

 

[Sea]

I feel for ya. My tap water never gets over 45 DegF.

Good Luck

 

[mosquitocontrol]

Yeah, I feel you. Last time i brewed it took nearly an hour to get the work to temp. Had to put a cooler in the bathtub filled with icewater and submerge the pump for my chiller in there. Still took way too much watching then I was used to. If only I had room in my freezer to think ahead. Whatever works I guess.

 

[juvinious]

Ugh, this heat sucks, I ride bike daily so combined with the rain and humidity, blegh :cross:. I brew indoors thankfully, so the water temp is a little lower, but still.

 

[passedpawn]

I run pool water through my plate chiller. Of course, the pool is now in the mid 80's, so from there I stick the carboys into the chest freezer to get to pitching temps. It only takes a couple of hours to get there, so it's not really a big deal.

Yea, it was hot and humid today. I brewed a big batch of a orange pale ale.

 

[smokinghole]

You could take a trip to a grocery store like Albertsons and get two 20lb bags of ice. Now I don't have the hot water problem you guys do but I run an immersion chiller with a pond pump and recirculate the water from a cooler filled with ice. When the first bag is mostly melted I add the second. Plus then I have water for cleaning if I need it. It's like $6 but I'd rather buy the ice at this point. I might even move to no chill beer in the near future.

 

[uechikid]

When I made my immersion chiller I made two. One goes in an ice chest full of ice (pre-chill) and the other in the wort. Water goes from spigot, through the pre-chiller then into the primary chiller then into the garden. Works great for hot days.

 

[passedpawn]

When I made my immersion chiller I made two. One goes in an ice chest full of ice (pre-chill) and the other in the wort. Water goes from spigot, through the pre-chiller then into the primary chiller then into the garden. Works great for hot days.

I used to do almost the same thing (IC fed into the plate chiller). But I don't like buying ice.

 

[Pick]

My well water comes from the Florida springs aquifer, so it is a constant 72* year round. So far no problems getting the wort into the high 70's.

 

[matt415]

i consider my immersible pump the best brew investment ive made in a while now. i cool 5.5 gallon batches in about 12 minutes.

 

[CodeRage]

If you're in Florida and on city water your tap water temp is going to be relatively warm. Typically it's pumped out of the ground, chlorinated and stored in a big arsed ground storage tank. It doesn't take long for it to get warm.

Since I started ice has always been a requirement. If you don't want to buy a small fountain pump, pre-chilling will help. However if you don't have another IC on hand, I would buy a $50 pump and use that to run the ice water straight through the chiller.

I've got one of those twice the ice trailers around the corner. 40 lbs of Ice for $2.00. Enough to chill 10 gallons. Worth it to me.

 

[SwampassJ]

It's insane how long it took for 5 gallons to cool, I wanted to start doing 10 gallons soon.

 

[SpanishCastleAle]

I usually brew once a week and my ice maker makes enough ice over the course of a week to just use that. But I too have to use a prechiller for the tap water and then pump ice water at the end.

When the wort is really hot you don't really need the water to be ice cold, the cooler the wort gets the cooler you need the chiller water to be. So I just put a frozen water bottle in the prechiller bath at first and then sort of progessively chill it more as I go.

 

[CodeRage]

When the wort is really hot you don't really need the water to be ice cold, the cooler the wort gets the cooler you need the chiller water to be. So I just put a frozen water bottle in the prechiller bath at first and then sort of progessively chill it more as I go.

That may be true for an IC but not for a CFC.

If using an IC, you're right, if you're patient you could forgo the ice water in the beginning.