What is the comparison of water usage efficiency between an immersion, a counter flow, and a plate chiller? I want a chiller that is effective, but pretty water efficient. I've read immersion chillers are great, but can take a ton of water. I've read a lot of mixed reviews on plate chillers, and read a lot of good stuff about counter flows. I will be doing 5 gallon all grain batches.
Wort chiller water efficiency
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My friend has a plate chiller and it emptyed a 10 gallon batch in about 1/2 hr. Wort coming out was 78*, A lot of temp out depends on your water supply temp.. but they are expensive.
stpug
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All are effective chillers and water wasters to different degrees. Your best bet for water efficiency is to simply repurpose or recycle the water. Repurpose for washing clothes, watering gardens/lawns/etc, or other use. Recycle by collecting and rechilling for next batch by storing in vessel in fridge or freezer.
Temperature of your ground water has a dramatic effect on water usage during chilling. If you're really cold (40s) then you can be done within 10-15 minutes to reach 60F wort, but if you're upwards of 65 then you could surpass 30 minutes just to get to around 70F wort.
You could also hybridize your chilling day by using tap water knock down the bulk of temp. From 212F to 100F it goes really fast (5 minutes maybe). Then switch to an immersion pump the pumps from a pre-chilled (very cold) water vat to finish the last 30-40 degrees. Or you could get to 100F, transfer to fermenter, into fermentation chamber to finish chilling to pitching temp; then aerate and pitch.
There are lots of ways to dice up chilling; it just comes down to what you're willing to tackle on brewday and have the space for. Hope this gives some ideas.
solbes
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I only have an Immersion Chiller (25' of 1/2" copper tubing), but have considered a plate or counterflow chiller. My IC worked great when I made smaller batches (5), but anything over than that in my new brew kettle is slow and uses a lot of water. Advantage is they are cheap and super easy to clean and sanitize. No pump needed in most climates, however if you live somewhere with warm tap water you will need a pump and ice/water bath to get down the final 15-20 degrees. Here in MN, early spring especially I can get to lagering temps if I want to in 25minutes, though this is of course for 5G batches only.
My concerns about CF or plate chillers are sanitization (how do you do it?) and the fact that I will likely need a pump. I'm assuming you can't flow the wort through either chiller with gravity alone? Sorry if these are tag on questions, but they seem appropriate to the original post.
My concerns about CF or plate chillers are sanitization (how do you do it?) and the fact that I will likely need a pump. I'm assuming you can't flow the wort through either chiller with gravity alone? Sorry if these are tag on questions, but they seem appropriate to the original post.
I intend on making an immersion chiller and buying a pond pump to recirculate the water so as to use less. I've wasting about 15 gals to cool my wort in the sink. I'm on a septic tank so it's wasted for sure.
Yes I have started saving a lot of water with my IC by initially bringing temp down to 100-110F and then recirculating ice water with a cheap pond pump to 60-65F then pitching. I like this because I never need to worry about hops clogging a plate chiller or any sanitation worries, just put it in the boil with atleast 15 minutes remaining. To each their own, depends on setup, styles you like to brew, etc.
muels
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Collect the warm runoff water in a kettle to clean your gear and such when you are done.
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You can also dramatically reduce your cooling times with an IC by swirling the chiller around in the wort. It's a simple technique that a lot of people do, but I only just discovered it recently.
With 65F tap water I can cool my wort to 70F in about 30 minutes by just sitting the cooler in the wort and waiting. I can save another 5 minutes by stirring the wort. But if I stir the chiller around like crazy, I can be at 2-3 degrees above water temp in 7-8 mins. Not only does that save time, but I get a significantly better cold break.
As others have said though, ground water temp will be your limiting factor unless you use ice water. I rack to the fermentor, place the bucket in my ferm chamber, and cool it the last few degrees there before pitching.
With 65F tap water I can cool my wort to 70F in about 30 minutes by just sitting the cooler in the wort and waiting. I can save another 5 minutes by stirring the wort. But if I stir the chiller around like crazy, I can be at 2-3 degrees above water temp in 7-8 mins. Not only does that save time, but I get a significantly better cold break.
As others have said though, ground water temp will be your limiting factor unless you use ice water. I rack to the fermentor, place the bucket in my ferm chamber, and cool it the last few degrees there before pitching.
jkovac
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I switched from immersion chiller in 5 gallon batches to plate chiller (Therminator) for 20 gallon batches, and I am using a fraction of the water I did before, even though the batches are four times larger. Chugger pump taking wort at or near boiling from the kettle into the chiller, coming out of the chiller at 72 degrees into the fermenter. I really didn't know what to expect the first time I tried it and was really surprised how well it worked.
solbes
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This is great info. How do you sanitize the plate channels that contact wort? Do you have fittings that allow you to circulate Starsan with the pump?
JoshuaW
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30 minutes is even a little long for a plate chiller, depending on your ground water temp.
You can sanitize a plate chiller a few ways, you can toss it in the oven for 20 minutes or so at 350* F to get it hot enough to kill everything. You can flush it or soak it with sanitizer. You can also recirculate hot wort through it the last 15 minutes of your boil. The boiling wort will get it hot enough to kill everything, then you turn on your cold water and begin cooling.
I don't want to waste a ton of water either. I thought about running the wort through the immersion chiller while its sitting in a bucket or kettle loaded with ice water. Instead of connecting the chiller to the sink you'd just connect it to the valve on the kettle. The "out" port would go through a hose to the fermenter. You could "control" the flow of the out-put by closing the valve on the kettle to achieve the desired temp.
You can sanitize it easily by running water/sanitizer through it while sanitizing the kettle just as you'd run the wort through it.
I'm not sure how effective this would be, but I might try it out when I do an all-grain batch in the future.
You can sanitize it easily by running water/sanitizer through it while sanitizing the kettle just as you'd run the wort through it.
I'm not sure how effective this would be, but I might try it out when I do an all-grain batch in the future.
jkovac
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You can submerge the plate chiller in StarSan (I did that once and it was fine) or put it in the oven for awhile, which really makes sure everything in there is dead. I do also pump StarSan thru it before brewing, but that is really to sanitize the 75 feet of tubing from the chiller to the fermenter. (Weird layout of my house/driveway/garage necessitates this.)
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