Wort chiller water temp

[Suited_Up]

Probably finally getting around to my first brew tomorrow. I'm on my 2nd pot, neither of which will get a serious boil, but I've decided it's close enough. Thermometer says it's 211, but it bubbles at the sides where the 2 burners are, so I think it'll be fine.

Anywayyy.... I finally got my wort chiller tubes hooked up today, (no leaks, woot!) and tested it, and noticed my cold tap water doesn't seem all that cold, the coils weren't very cool to the touch... will this thing still do it's job?

It's cool, but I know lots of people use it on outside hookups, so it might be a little colder, and mine semi depends on how cold it is outisde. So I'm curious how effective it might be.

 

[Monkey55]

Did you use your thermometer to get an accurate reading from your tap water??

The easy/quickest part is getting your wort down to about 120* 'ish. There are a few threads around here with actual numbers. It will take longer getting your wort from that 120*/100* down to pitching temps.

You might want to boil some water and test out your chiller so that you'll know what to expect and figure out what you need to tweak.

i live in SoCal and my tap water is 65*. I use a pond pump to recirculate the water. I fill up my sink with water and pump. It gets the wort down to about 120* 'ish in about 10 to 15 minutes, then gets stuck. I then empty the sink water and fill it about a 1/3 of water and add about a gallon's worth of big ice chunks that I freeze. It takes about another 10 to 15 minutes to get it down to pitching temps.

I ran a couple of tests to figure out what process works for me..... And I'm still tweaking it a bit.

BTW - I would really try to get your wort up to a rolling boil. Try using a little less water to see it that does it for you. Do a couple of test first to see what your stove can handle.

I hope this helps.

E

 

[Suited_Up]

Haven't tested the tap water temp... but good notes on that..

I've been testing it a lot as far as boiling. I had an aluminum 30qt fryer, that wasn't doing the trick, and I thought, it could be because of how thin the aluminum was, and it was losing heat out of the sides. So I made 2 different insulation sleeves... first one melted really quick (reflectix) because of the flame I assume. 2nd one was hvac foil tape completely surrounding towels. Still gave off fumes, but I tested it, and it didn't quite cut it anyway.

On both of those, I tried full boils, and then also 3gal boils. They both stalled at 211.

So today I got a stainless pot, thinking it'll hold the temp better. I tried 6 gal, then 3.5, both still are right around 211, (212 if you test at the sides) though the stainless is wider and gets over the 2 burners better, and seems to bubble a bit better. It definitely bubbles, but I wouldn't call it a rolling boil.

That being said, I've also read that it's not as big of an issue if it's extract, and that's what I'm doing, so I'm going to give it a shot anyway, because at this point, I'm out of options unless I get a new stove, and that's not really an option right now either.

 

[Monkey55]

hmmm... What's interesting is that my stove gives my some problems too. It does the same thing with 4 gallons as it does with 3. It almost wants to boil, but never does. So what I figured out is that when it gets to that point, I move the pot of center from the flame. That seems to push it the boiling point. Then I'll adjust the flame from there. the funny thing is that if I start the pot off-centered, it won't get to the boil.

Anywho... Maybe that will help you find that sweet spot on your stove.

E

 

[Suited_Up]

Pretty strange. I've tried it on one burner, and also on two, it's pretty similar on both, but I think it's slightly better when I use two, cause then at least it seems to bubble from the 2 sides.

 

[NyPDFustercluck]

one thing I've done to help the boil get going on my stove is to partially cover the pot with the lid that it came with. Goes without saying that you need to be nearby for pretty much your whole boil as boilover is a constant threat. I've also noticed that when I do this, my post boil volume stays a lot higher, as much of the condensation collects on the bottom of the lid and then drips back into my boil. Using this method I've reliably gotten 4 gallons to achieve rolling boil on my kitchen stove

 

[RugerRedhawk]

one thing I've done to help the boil get going on my stove is to partially cover the pot with the lid that it came with. Goes without saying that you need to be nearby for pretty much your whole boil as boilover is a constant threat. I've also noticed that when I do this, my post boil volume stays a lot higher, as much of the condensation collects on the bottom of the lid and then drips back into my boil. Using this method I've reliably gotten 4 gallons to achieve rolling boil on my kitchen stove

Oh yeah defininitely want to use a lid, sure you have to keep careful watch, but it helps a lot. I use a lid even with my big propane burner.

 

[Russtang]

I've got a mini water pump that I plan on using for my next brew. I plan on filling the sink with ice water and pumping it through the chiller. Our tap water is in the 70's this time of year, so it should help cool the wort pretty quickly.

 

[Suited_Up]

Turned out to work just fine. Not sure if it the water was colder, or the contrast between the boil and cool water made it seem that way, but it cooled it down in probably 20-25 minutes.