Chillin

[Peterock]

I was wondering how you all chill your wort? I was looking at a chiller coil but my gut feeling is that people are using it backwards. From what I gathered and have seen on vids one puts the coil in the wort and then run cold tap water thru coil. My thought is to submerge the coil in a bucket with water and then freeze it and run the wort thru the coil. Has anyone seen or tried this? Only down side I see with this setup is cleaning. Is there another way to chill wort? I'm trying to avoid the bath tub and ice method.
Thanks Pete

 

[Tom]

I was wondering how you all chill your wort? I was looking at a chiller coil but my gut feeling is that people are using it backwards. From what I gathered and have seen on vids one puts the coil in the wort and then run cold tap water thru coil. My thought is to submerge the coil in a bucket with water and then freeze it and run the wort thru the coil. Has anyone seen or tried this? Only down side I see with this setup is cleaning. Is there another way to chill wort? I'm trying to avoid the bath tub and ice method.
Thanks Pete

I use a submersion copper coil one

 

[mxsteve625]

This is what I use. The ice bath takes to long.

 

[Tom]

Yep! Me too...

 

[Wade E]

Its what I use 2. What I beove you are talking about is a Pre chiller in which you hook up 2 of these, one in a bucket of clod water and then one in the wort. There also is a counterflow chiller where you would run beer through this as its jacketed inside so cold water runs one way while the beer runs the other way. Again, a pre chillr is still best to use with this also.

 

[ChuckE]

I have an immersion as shown above, but most brews get the No-Chill method.

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/No_Chill_Method

 

[Peterock]

I have an immersion as shown above, but most brews get the No-Chill method.

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/No_Chill_Method

I thought it was crucial to cool the wort as soon as possible.

 

[Wade E]

It is much better to do so IMO.

 

[Peterock]

Wade so can you tell me if it's worth while to build a counterflow chiller or a simpler submersion one. Is the counterflow chiller, chill that much faster? Or efficinetly?

 

[Wade E]

It is much more efficient the beer will always be in contact with increasingly colder water.

 

[Hugh_Jass]

Wade so can you tell me if it's worth while to build a counterflow chiller or a simpler submersion one. Is the counterflow chiller, chill that much faster? Or efficinetly?

Pete,
Noob wine maker, old time brewer here.

IMO, it depends on your situation whether a immersion or counter flow chiller will be better. both the immersion and counter flow are simple heat exchangers. The immersion runs cold water through copper coil submerged in the wort. In effect, you're chilling the entire batch at one time by scrubbing the heat from the wort and transferring it to the water flowing through the copper.

The counter flow runs the wort one direction and cold water the opposite direction. Cold water meets hot wort and the heat is exchanged between the two until pitching temp is achieved. You adjust the temp by controlling the flow of the wort output. I know many use the counter flow via gravity, but IMO a pump would be better with this application.

I've a single tier brew stand w/pump to recirculate the wort during the mash and still use an immersion chiller. It works for me because my tap water tops out at ~60 F so I can chill 11 gallon from boil to pitch temp between 15-25 min, season dependent. Remember, as the wort's temp approaches the ex. water's temp, the delta between the two is less. The lower the delta, the longer time to drop each temperature degree.

It's up to you to decide which chiller is best for your situation. They're both fairly simple to build and both work well for what you're trying to accomplish.

Best.

 

[Wade E]

They both would benefit from a pre chiller as I said before if you dont have nice cold water in the summer. I agree that a pump would work much better for the counter flow chiller.

 

[ChuckE]

I thought it was crucial to cool the wort as soon as possible.

That's the conventional wisdom, but like the Heat Side Aeration myth, it's just a bugaboo.

 

[Peterock]

Pete,
Noob wine maker, old time brewer here.



The counter flow runs the wort one direction and cold water the opposite direction. Cold water meets hot wort and the heat is exchanged between the two until pitching temp is achieved. You adjust the temp by controlling the flow of the wort output. I know many use the counter flow via gravity, but IMO a pump would be better with this application.

I've a single tier brew stand w/pump to recirculate the wort during the mash and still use an immersion chiller.

Best.

A Pump? To pump the wort thru the coil? Wouldn't gravity be slower thru the coil, hence more surface/contact time with the tap water there for = better cooling?
What's this single tier brew stand you speak of? Got pic?
I plan on making a LOT of beer. If I'm going to build/make/buy something to brew beer, I only want to have to do it once.

 

[Hugh_Jass]

A Pump? To pump the wort thru the coil? Wouldn't gravity be slower thru the coil, hence more surface/contact time with the tap water there for = better cooling?

You only get one shot at it w/ gravity. A pump allows for multiple passes. A pump can return the wort to the kettle and form a whirlpool. This causes the coagulated proteins to seek the center of the kettle, and allow you to leave them in the kettle rather than them ending up in the fermenter. There's more uses for a pump in brewing, but let's leave it at that for now.

What's this single tier brew stand you speak of? Got pic?

I'll post a few tomorrow. They'll be crappy phone pics but should give you an idea.

I plan on making a LOT of beer. If I'm going to build/make/buy something to brew beer, I only want to have to do it once.

If you're genuinely interested in learning about beer making, check out homebrewtalk. I've learned more there in a couple of years than I would have learned in a lifetime of reading.

 

[Wade E]

Agree with above. I also agree to check out our suster site HBT. Its a huge wealth of knowledge and is where I learned everything i know about brewing beer and where I got the idea to build my 3 tiered all electric brew stand. the people there are just as nice as here also. I would be more then happy to help you but you will get quicker and many more answers there like you get with wine here. We are much better at wine here as far as getting a quick accurate answer and they are to beer.

 

[Peterock]

The step from wine making to beer brewing even though both are fermenting sugars to alchol, are a far cry from simiular. I want to thank you all from helping me out. I have in fact join HBT.......wow.......the same impression I had when first coming across WMT. I'll still be making wine so.....................You can't get rid of me ::

 

[mxsteve625]

Wade, You need to HBT as under your profile you are a female.

 

[Wade E]

Really, Ill check it out tomorrow. I actually haven been on there in awhile.