Wort chiller question

[jrc64]

OK...this may seem like a silly question, but I need to ask. I bought an immersion chiller and want to drop in the wort during the last 5 minutes of the boil to sterilize it. Now....should the chiller be in the wort WITH the tubing already attached OR do I attach the tubing afterwards? My concern is the heat affecting the or melting the tubing. my guess is to leave the tubing on, as it would be such a pain in the butt to have to always put in on afterwards.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Chipman]

I'd say on already, providing the chiller sticks up out of the wort.

Many many batches have been brewed where we didn't stick the chiller in until the kettle was off the burner, no fugglies!

 

[dutchoven]

I leave the tubing on in case there's water left in the coil ... Nothing worse than superhot water shooting you in the face ... The tubing helps to direct it to the ground ...

 

[Qhrumphf]

I leave the tubing on in case there's water left in the coil ... Nothing worse than superhot water shooting you in the face ... The tubing helps to direct it to the ground ...

I have always done it with the tubing on for precisely this reason. I've never had a problem with the heat damaging the tubing. Keep in mind that after flame out and pumping water through, there's going to be near boiling wort sending near boiling water pumping through that tubing anyway.

 

[poislb]

Depends if your kettle is larger than your burner. If you feel alot of heat going up the sides of the kettle, id wait till the flame is out to attach the hose....ask me how I know...lol, cause mine melted... I have installed hose barbs on the end of my chiller with compression fittings for this very reason. When vinyl gets hot it expands, if your using hose clamps you will habe to tighten then every min untill you flame out...

 

[opusx11]

Can you just spray a little star-san on it ?

 

[InHopsWeTrust]

I had a bad experience with the cheaper, thinner coil that has the plastic tubing zip-tied on. I left in in the last five minutes of boil time, and when it came time to run water through the coil, the high heat had expanded the plastic tubing so much, that it popped off and garden hose water got in my beer! Bad experience. I've since then just left the coil in my brew wash for awhile, and during most the boil, I leave it in the sanitizer bucket. No problems since. I definitely need to upgrade to the welded all metal connectors, and a thicker coil. That star-san sanitizer is awesome.

 

[TimpanogosSlim]

I have had no trouble with tubing clamped onto my 5/16" chiller for minutes of boiling, but on the other hand my wort chiller has verticals that are too tall

 

[jrc64]

THanks for the great info! I'm going to just soak it in 1 step for 5 minutes before it goes in the wort. Seems like the most logical option!

 

[Tutsbrew]

See, this forum rocks with answers! ...I had the same question so here I am.

For the record, assuming anyone is keeping one, I'm gunna do my 1st full batch boil with 5 (6 to start with) gallons and will use the I.C. for the 1st time as well. So to the point, I'm gunna have two chairs in the garage near the burner, one for my fat a$$ and one to drape the chiller tubing over so as to keep it up and away from the burner.