Warmer Temperature Climates and Immersion Chillers

[canofworms2]

I have a SS immersion wort chiller and have had pretty good results with it but I feel like it is a part of my brewing process that could use some improvement. End up having to do an ice bath/immersion chiller combo to get it down to pitching within 30-45 minutes. Live in Southern Cal and the tap water just doesn't get that cold, especially this time of year. Thinking of the small pump recirculation setup that I've seen and using the tap to get to 90-100, saving water for cleaning purposes of course, and then start recirculating the immersion chiller water through ice water.

Any other ways to improve wort cooling in warm temp climates?

 

[Jaybird]

Pre chill brother. Been doing it for years. I pump from my pool through a copper 50 ft pre chiller coil that I have in a 15 gallon kettle with frozen 1 gallon jugs that I drop in it. the return back to the pool. I dont waste a drop! Works like a charm!


Cheers
Jay

 

[canofworms2]

Very very nice idea Jaybird. Appox how long does is take you to get to pitching temp on 5 gal batches?

Now all I have to do is talk my wife into a pool

 

[nyer]

I like the pool idea and have thought of doing that in the winter. Right now my pool is 90 degrees and our tap water is 85 so I chill to about 90-95 then put the carboy into my chestfreezer fermentation chamber and let it finish cooling off. It doesn't take long to get to pitching temps. @

 

[blizz81]

Ice water pump recirc (whether pre-chill or direct into immersion) is really the straightforward answer here. I would say there's a give-and-take on how much tap water you run out to get down to a certain temp (water waste) vs. how much ice you use (per-batch expense and still some water waste). Of course if you recollect the water you're using for any purpose, you can make the waste part of that negligible.

 

[smokinop]

Living in SW GA, water in the summer is usually @ 85 & that usually limits my brewing in the summer. Today was the first time I used an aquarium pump & had great results, getting wort to sub 60 without much trouble. I used my IC with tap water to get wort to @ 100, which usually only take 10 - 15 minutes. Put the pump in the bottom of 5 gallon round cooler, filled it approx. 1/3 water then the rest with ice, recirculating water back into the cooler & chilled away. I bought a cooler full of ice at the stand alone ice machine for 2.50 & only used about half of it. Bagged the rest up & put in freezer until my next brew day. I've had this pump for awhile but didn't ever use it afraid something was going to screw up...well it didn't, in fact, worked great!