Cooling wort

Duchifat

Duchifat

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Dear all,

I am relatively new at this, brewed 3 batches using malt extract and 1 batch all grain.

I am considering ways to cool wort after boiling and thought of running it through a copper coil submerged in an ice bath. During the process I intend to refresh the ice supply in the bath. Such a method is usually not mentioned as one of the (3) methods I have read about (i.e. water basin, submerged wort cooler, heat exchanger). I guess one reason might be sanitation issues, although I fail to see the difference between such a method and a heat exchanger.
Does anyone have experience with such a method? Opinions why this might be a good or bad idea?

My motivation for using such a method is water conservation. Also, tap water temperature here is pretty high.

Thanks in advance,

Michael
 
as far as sanitation goes, it wouldn't be any different than a counter flow chiller, that has a copper coil that the beer goes through, wrapped in a hose that water goes through. you would definitely need to wash it out fully, but it should work fine.
 
What I would do is to run the chilled water through the copper coils immersed in the wort. This is called an immersion chiller. Your chances of contaminating anything are much lower this way - you can dump your chiller in the wort at flameout or a couple minutes before, the boiling wort sterilizes it and then you have nothing to worry about the liquid running through the pipes. The other way around, running the wort through the pipes, you have cleaning and sanitation problems I don't even want to try to solve.
 
I have somewhat similar system.

I have a keg that I fill with water then freeze solid in my -30 freezer, I have an immersion chiller wrapped around the keg loose so it doesn't freeze, I add it after the keg freezes then put both in a big tub of water.

I put a insulated packing blanket around the whole thing then run the water through the immersion chiller before my heat exchanger.

for a short term name its my pre-chiller

I have quick releases and ball valves adjusting both the wort and the water and a digital display on the wort output.

works like a charm except for the clean up lol haven't gotten that far yet

this is my third design, the idea was a way to chill without costing anything.

my first was a sophisticated looping system but forgot about needing 3 times the ice verse hot water ratio and bailed on it, second was a cheap hose just like this but the hose was not cooling enough, this works great just need a pressure relief valve so water doesn't spray all over me when unhooking everything lol
 
Thank you Nosybear and Ozarks Mountain Brew.
 
I am able to cool 5.5 gallons from boiling to 70-80 in about 15-20 minutes with an immersion chiller keeping a good whirlpool against the flow of the water going. Seems efficient and simple and like Nosy said, it's easy to keep things clean and sanitary. Can't see any reason to make it more complicated than that.
 
if you live in the city I will warn you with immersion chillers or plate chillers your dependent on the temperature of the water from your ground source, so in most cases 50 to 60 , if cooling right away with either you'll go through 60 gallons of water just to cool down to 70ish.

I suggest letting your wort slowly cool on its own in the pot at least until 180 before using any method
 
something to remember with immersion chillers. The efficiency goes up the more the wort is stirred. If you just start the process and walk away, it can take much longer and waste more water. stirring the wort allows the heat to exchange much quicker. I use a recirculating pump with my immersion chiller, but just a stirring action or moving the chiller up and down will be effective. If water consumption and ground temps are a problem, try a simple pond pump and a pre chilling coil in a bucket of ice water and recirculate, This is very effective and can chill down to lagering temps quickly with minimal water use. The ice can be large blocks (old plastic butter containers) pre frozen and busted up with a hammer. no need to buy ice.
 
yes I use hops at 0 which I whirlpool for at least 15 minutes or until 180 after flame out before I chill, Ive also herd you can freeze 2 liter soda bottles, sanitize and just drop in as many that can fit
 
Ozarks Mountian Brew said:
I suggest letting your wort slowly cool on its own in the pot at least until 180 before using any method
Click to expand...

Why?
 
Thank you MrBip, Gern and Ozarks. I'm starting to get a good idea of what my cooler should look like. Investing in a second coil and a pond pump sounds like an efficient and affordable way to deal with water consumption and ground temp. Thanks!
 
If its ok I'd like to piggy-back on this thread with my own question which has to do with the original post. If this is not cool, please let me know.

I have been using a homemade copper immersion cooler with tap water, which when stirred will cool 20 L in about 20 min to pitching temp. For my last batch I bought a pump and some quick connects and some ball valves and built a HERMS system. The plan at knockout was to use the coil in a bucket of tap water with the tap running to keep cool water coming in, and pump the wort through the coil, and back tangentially into the kettle to make a whirlpool. The plan was to do this for 20 min as usual and then pump into the fermenter. It didn't go as planned. Firstly I didn't use a hop blocker, so the quick connect got clogged up pretty fast. Secondly, even though the pump was below the wort level and the output end was open, the wort had a hard time making it through the hose down to the pump so that I could start the pump. Does anyone have some tips for that? For me the immersion cooler has more advantages that the recirculating reverse-immersion idea, but this is standard practice for many to pump through a HX and into the fermenter. How do these folks avoid problems with starting the pump?

Thanks
 
Hi Surfmase,
I'm glad you went back to this thread. I was facing some of the same dilemma's when I posted the original question. Lots of friendly brewers helped with advice and now I can share my experience on how things turned out.
Like everyone, I wanted to cool my wort fast but: 1. tap water is not cold where I live. 2. water is an expensive resource where I live. 3. most fellow brewers did not like the idea of running the wort through copper piping (hygiene). My challenge was to cool as fast as possible, as cheap as possible, using as little water as possible.
I landed up making a copper immersion cooler and fitting it with plastic tubes, one of them being heat resistant. I bought a small immersion pump used for ponds and small home fountains. When I cool wort I have the pump at the bottom of a beverage cooler, a tube running from the output end of the pump to the wort cooler, and the heat resistant tube running from the wort cooler back to the beverage cooler. The beverage cooler I fill with ice (from frozen plastic bottles) and water. When I run the pump I make sure the water returning from the wort runs off on the ice, because I am afraid to overheat the pump. I stop the pump 4-5 times to change water and add ice. Using this system I can cool 20 L of wort from 90C down to pitching temperature in about 25 minutes. The ice costs nothing and I estimate that I only waste about 60L of water, including the ice. I'm quite happy with the system.
 
I recently purchased an new immersion chiller from "Jaded brewing". I have the "Hydra" model. It used to take me 45 minutes or better to chill down 5.5 gal of wort to 70 degrees with my old immersion chiller. Now with using the Hydra chiller I bring down 212 degree wort to 70 degrees in 4 minutes. The Hydra is not cheap, but It has been wonderful having a shorter brew day and not using as much water. My water temperature from the spigot is around 48 degrees right now. No mater, just enjoy brewing, and yes, drinking!
Brian
 
Like most I use a cooper coil immersion chiller, the cold water in the UK is nearly always a low temperature even in the summer.

The cheapest way to cool wort and conserve water comes from Australian home brewers.

You sterilise a food quality plastic cube, pour the boiling wort in and leave for 24 hours, swish about the hot wort double sterilises the cube.

You transfer to your FV and pitch the next day.

Cost effective and water friendly.
 
I used the soda bottle method when I was doing partial boils. Works like a charm!
 
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