Wort chiller malfunction! Dammit!

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chungking

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Just finished my first partial mash. Everything went semi smoothly until I chilled the wort. About halfway through chilling with my IC, I noticed it had a steady leak going right into the BK. ended up with about an extra gallon of none sanitized tap water. Ugh!
Still ended up with a OG of 1.045, was aiming for 1.052. A little shocked.
What are the odds this batch if fugged up?
 
Not much if its city water, Most municipalities use chlorine in there water to kill bacteria. If its well water that might be another problem. Some well water in this country is really, really bad.

Anyway, all you can do is hope for the best. I am sure it will turn out ok, except for the missed efficiency, I am sure it will still be drinkable.

Does the wort chiller have Teflon tape? If not consider using a little bit on the threads and that should clear it up.

If its the kind where you just hook up a flexible hose to it with nothing else, maybe consider a quick disconnect.
 
I bet it'll be fine. Obviously your gravity is a little lower than expected but I've never had an issue with unsanitized tap water. I used to use it to top up when I did extract batches and still sometimes do that if I'm a little short. It's never caused me a problem personally, and I know others have had the same experience. Can't guarantee that of course, but my bet is that it will be fine.
 
I think you're fine but next time...
Make sure your chiller connections are outside of your pot...problem solved.
 
It was out of the pot, but leaked out of the vinyl tube connection and down the stem. I think when I popped the chiller in the boiling wort to sanitize, it loosened up the vinyl, and that caused the leak. Need new tubing I thinks....
 
This is the chiller I have.

41TFnSokT%2BL._SX300_.jpg
 
It was out of the pot, but leaked out of the vinyl tube connection and down the stem. I think when I popped the chiller in the boiling wort to sanitize, it loosened up the vinyl, and that caused the leak. Need new tubing I thinks....

Do you have clamps around the tubing?
 
I think any IC design that has vinyl hose clamped directly on is an accident waiting to happen. The vinyl gets really soft when hot and it extrudes itself from under the clamps and loosens.
 
I think with an OG of 1.045 and a healthy yeast pitch your beer is going to be fine. A good connection on your cooling water line to your IC is pretty important though. If I were you I'd ask Bobby from BrewHardware for advice. Pretty sure he can help you out and it won't cost you an arm and leg.
 
NivekD said:
I think you're fine but next time...
Make sure your chiller connections are outside of your pot...problem solved.

+1. Always do this. Learned after blankly contemplating drips for way too long.

Hopefully you're all good regardless.
 
Bobby's right...

I don't even know why people use that vinyl tubing for anything but maybe racking...

If you can't be bothered to solder a proper connection, at least use silicone tubing or something that's heat tolerant, not even have to be food grade if it's only IC/PC water...

What's making me freak out the most is when I see vids of people using it to collect post mashout wort, or worse, from kettle...
 
The vinyl tubes are getting scrapped. Ill either get silicon or solder something on. Not dealing with this again.

The tap water is city water. But we don't drink it. It's really hard and chlorinated...
 
I use vinyl all the time and I have not problems, but I also have use them with quick disconnects. I wish I had a picture so I could show everyone.

I also have the ends of the wort chiller pointed down using the spring bender. I actually made my wort chiller and I think there might be a link somewhere on this site. Mine does not look pretty, but its extremely functional. Actually I think I got the idea from one of Bobby's vids on you tube.
 
Well, airlock is bubbling away, 14 hrs after pitching. So we'll see...
 
Back in my first brews extract days, I was doing tiny boils and was adding half the extract toward the end. The top-off water I was putting in the fermenter to dilute the more concentrated boiled extract was just that : simple unboiled tap water...

Never had any trouble, most tap waters in North America are of really really good quality...
 
I had the same problem once, didn't effect anything at all.. Just put some piPe clamps on there, ran my hose at top pressure and kept tightening until it didn't leak anymore, no worries for the next batch!
 
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