Wort chilling

[charlieboltman]

I’m pretty new to brewing on my 9th brew only and I’ve only done partial mash kits and extract kits.. Anyway I had the idea and started using a different way to cool my wort and I wanted to see if anyone could tell me if this was a bad idea bc I haven’t seen it used before.

I made a 20’ coil of copper tubbing that sits in ice water I pump the wort directly from the kettle into the coil right after flame out and into my brew bucket and by the time it hits the brew bucket the temp is usually around 65-75 F..

I guess it’s similar in function to a counter flow but much easier on setup and way cheaper.. surely there’s a bad idea here somewhere.. I’ll be brewing tonight so I can post a pic of it if needed

 

[mongoose33]

You're right, it's similar to a counterflow chiller, in that the "counterflow" is the ice and water surrounding the coil. Very similar to how a jockey-box with a coil would work.

The only issue I can think of with such a system is cleaning it in a way that sanitizes it for the next time. When I'm cooling my wort (and I have a counterflow chiller I use), I'll run the boiling wort through the chiller for a bit before I turn on the water, and ensure not only the chiller but the pump are sanitized from the boiling temps.

After it's in the fermenter, I'll do a cleaning regimen with PBW and hot water, but even though I believe it to be clean, I always run boiling wort through it. In your case, I'd do that before submerging in the ice/water, for obvious reasons.

 

[micraftbeer]

Sounds slick and simple! Counterflow chillers pump wort through copper tubing, so you are essentially doing the same thing, just without the water flow and water at much colder temps. I can't see any drawbacks.

You'd get better efficiency by moving your coil around or agitating the bucket in some way so you don't get stuck with localized hot water next to the coil as it sucks the heat out. But if you've already trialed it and get 65-70, you're golden. Maybe only need to move stuff around if you're trying to get down to lager temps.

 

[charlieboltman]

The cleaning and sanitizing was my biggest worry.. my last batch that I started it with I just warmed some soapy water and ran it through the coil then rinsed.. I’ll sanitize it but I do like the idea of running the boiling wort through it before submerging it!!

It is easy to me so I guess as long as it works and I keep the cleaning and sanitizing up we’ll run with it!!

Thanks!! Headed to my shop to start cleaning and brewing !! Have a great weekend!!

 

[Gnomebrewer]

One downside is a limit to the volume you can cool, unless you constantly replace the ice (which is a lot of ice).

The difference to a counterflow or plate chiller is that with your system the cooling water is progressively getting warmer, so it progressively gets less effective. With a counterflow, the cooling water temp is consistent and more efficient because, as it passes through the chiller, the warmer water can still be used to take some heat energy out of the hotter wort, to the point that as the water exits the chiller (at, say, 150F) it can still be taking energy out of the wort, which is at about 210F. The point is that less water is needed for the same volume of wort (1:1 wort:water works with a good chiller); with an ice bath you either need to keep replacing ice or have a wort:water ratio more like 1:4. Again, this is OK for cooling 3 gallons or wort, not good for 10.

 

[IslandLizard]

^ Yup, you're wasting a ton of ice, where cold tap water could have been used just as well.

You could recirculate back into the kettle using cold tap water, chilling the whole kettle, alas a bit slower. Then when the wort gets to around 20-30 degrees from the groundwater temps, switch to water/ice and run directly into the fermentor, in a single pass.

Some thoughts:

• Put a pump or so in your bucket to keep the water/ice moving around the coil
• Sanitation inside the coil can be tricky
• Don't use an acid sanitizer (e.g., Starsan), it attacks the copper
• Instead, recirculate Iodophor for a while, rinse with water
• Followed by recirculating boiling wort through it, per @mongoose33, before chilling
• Recirculating back into the kettle allows you to chill down to certain temps for hopstands or whirlpool hop additions

 

[IslandLizard]

You should also run a cleaner through the coil after wort has gone through it. I guess a good water rinse followed by recirculating a PBW solution for a few minutes should do it. Rinse out with water so none of the alkaline solution stays in contact with the copper for too long, then sanitize before putting it away.

If the coil is stored in an area that freezes during the seasons (garage), make sure no liquid remains in it, or it will certainly bust.

 

[Jag75]

I do it same except I run ice water from the cooler through the chiller which I sanitize and place in my brew pot. The outlet water is really hot at first and I save it for cleaning . After a few minutes when the outlet water cools down a bit I reroute back to the cooler . I go through approximately 1 large bag of ice . I just used my counterflow chiller for the first time on Thursday and I'm gonna have to learn how to utilize it better .