The most efficient way to cool wort

[Jcoz]

Using a plate chiller to pre-chill your tap water will certainly help cool faster. The recirculating is the real problem. That's why it's taking so much ice. You have to let the heat run off with the water.

I use a 25', 3/8" chiller that I chill 5.5 - 6 gallons to pitching temp (~65*) with in about 20 - 30 minutes depending on what time of year it is. I am in the process of stepping up to 10 gallon batches, and plan to use a pre-chiller to cool.

Yah that is really a facepalm type realization. Simple logic should have kicked in telling me recirculating was couterproductive. Although I will say I used only tap water the first time running the water off and that certainly wasn't good enough to get to where I needed.

If I picked up a 30-plate chiller do you think I'd have a problem getting enough flow from my tap (outside hose) to run through the plater chiller and through the immersion chiller? I'm just not familiar with how restrictive the plater chiller is.

Ultimately I'd rather do this than build the attachment to make it a whirlpool chiller, if for no other reason but to have less to clean and keep sanitation simpler as I'm a newbie taking on alot as it is with my setup.

 

[Jcoz]

I just move the chilller around throughout the wort. No need for anything vigorous. The point is to ensure the cold copper touches all the hot wort.

EDIT: Your chiller will be hot. I wear a leather work glove.



Be sure to collect the runoff - you'll have 5 gallons of warm water for cleaning.

See, this tells me that I've got my flow set far too fast if you are suggesting only 5 gallons or even 15!

What flow rate is correct for this?

 

[TyTanium]

That's just a hypothetical number, I've never actually measured it.

I have 50' of 3/8 OD tubing, so I should get far less runoff than someone with 1/2 ID tubing.

I wouldn't worry about the flow rate. More flow = cooling faster.
Feel the water as it comes out - is it warm? Then you're cooling wort. If it's hot coming out, increase your flow. If it's cold, you could decrease your flow to keep from wasting water.

 

[Jcoz]

That's just a hypothetical number, I've never actually measured it.

I have 50' of 3/8 OD tubing, so I should get far less runoff than someone with 1/2 ID tubing.

I wouldn't worry about the flow rate. More flow = cooling faster.
Feel the water as it comes out - is it warm? Then you're cooling wort. If it's hot coming out, increase your flow. If it's cold, you could decrease your flow to keep from wasting water.

Fair enough. Yah my last last time brewing the hose popped out for a second and burned the **** out of my foot at a fairly high flow rate, yet another reason I feel ridiculous for not having understood my problem was not running the water off. Seemed like so much wasted water that first time just using tap water that I thought this couln't be the way it was supposed to work....

 

[TyTanium]

Haha...no need to feel ridiculous. I had a similar experience when I first built mine. It was just an expensive way to melt ice. Then I hooked it up to the hose & moved it around and watched my temp needle drop like a rock.

 

[Dougie63]

surprised no one has mentioned a counterflow chiller, my brew partner made one and we tested it the other day and went in boiling came out 85 deg F !

 

[flyfisherwes]

I use an old car radiator. Just stick it in the wort and flow tap water through.

 

[eastoak]

I use an old car radiator. Just stick it in the wort and flow tap water through.

clever, to say the least.

 

[ShakerD]

Negative. Might be a silly sounding question but how would you suggest stirring it? just gently moving the wort around in the kettle or more aggressively say inside the chiller coil?

I was wondering if having the tap water run through a plate chiller in a bucket of ice water before going to the chiller would be a good option. Would the tap have enough pressure to effectively push through a plate chiller and an immersion chiller?

But after reading some comments and thinking about it I see the biggest issue is that I'm recirculating the water instead of just discharging it, effectively only distributing the heat to two 5 gallon bodies of water.

If I stir and run off the water, I should improve drastically (I HOPE), the plate chiller idea is long term idea...

Stirring the wort around gently will make a huge difference. I just swirl around the spoon inside the chiller.

 

[flyfisherwes]

I was joking. I may use an car ac radiator in a bucket of ice water for a pre chiller.

 

[Dan]

The first batching used only tap water running it through the chiller. Second time I used tap water for a while, then switched to recirculating ice water from a six gallon bucket, draining water and adding ice as needed.

Sorry missed your comment yesterday and realize this point has already been make by now. Recirculating hot water back into the bucket will melt the ice faster. Discharge it and replace the ice bucket water with fresh cool water. Sounds like that's your next plan. Good luck!

 

[HexKrak]

Here's my method, it works great for me even in the summer when my tap water is in the mid 90's. First I run tap water through my IC to bring my 5 gallon batch down below 140 (I stir with a spoon when I need to really churn it to add O2, and stir with the IC when I don't). I collect this water in my mash tun for cleaning. Once it's in the 120-140 range I start connect the IC to my pond pump that's sitting in a cooler with 15-20lbs of ice and recirculate through that until I'm down in the 60 - 70*F range. The whole process usually takes less than 30 minutes even in our hot AZ summers (15 min or less in the winter).

 

[Bewbzout]

A cheap aftermarket transmission cooler works great.

 

[joeldp144]

+1 on the pond pump. I live in the south and 80 F tap water is not unheard of, so it is a struggle to get the wort below 85 F with it 100 F outside. I now put a few butter dishes of water in the freezer the day before I brew. Then, I dump that ice into a bucket with enough water to cover my pond pump. Place my pond pump in the water, and circulate that ice water through my coil and back into the bucket. It takes the wort from 110 to 65 F in about 10 to 15 minutes.

Thank goodness it is cooling off now.