[darthmalt]

I wish I could search the forum topics.  Perhaps I'm not looking in the right place.  So, I thought I would just post the problem and see what people had to say.

I live in Florida, and it is impossible to chill wort to pitching temperature with an immersion chiller here, because tap water here is still pretty warm (relatively speaking).  What is the most efficient and/or cheapest way to chill wort provided that you have an immersion chiller already?  I saw the u:ber chiller in the gadgets section, but the author didn't say exactly how to put it together and he also said it was pretty expensive.  So, what other suggestions do you all have?


Thanks,
DarthMalt

[weithman5]

ice or ice packs  with a submersible pump. recirculate water through the chiller and back over the ice.  add ice, ice packs as necessary.  if doing this a lot it could be cheaper to actually get a glycoll chiller or something. it just depends on how much freezer time you want to use freezing ice packs, or such.

[euge]

I live in Texas and my tap water in the summer is usually 88F! The icewater recirc is what I usually do- though sanitized frozen PET (soda/pop) bottles placed in the wort once one cannot cool anymore with their tap water will work decently.

Then there is a CFC (google "Therminator") that you can pump ice-water through and cool your wort in a single pass. This might be what you need.

Also research "whirlpool". I use a second pump (March 809) to recirculate the wort over the immersion chiller so that it cools faster and more efficiently. I can get 6 gallons from boiling to 110-120F in 5 minutes, and to 65F in another 15-20 minutes. Even at the height of the Summer.

Hope this helps cause cooling their wort is a major challenge to many homebrewers.

[darthmalt]

Thanks, guys.  I really appreciate the info .

[anje]

I haven't tried this yet (still need a chiller; yes I'm new), but a double immersion chiller would probably do the trick for you.  Just get/make a second chiller, and join it with your first one. Water runs from the sink into the first chiller, which is immersed in an ice bath, then the colder water runs through the second chiller which is immersed in your wort.

[Gribble]

Thats actually a really good idea.  wouldn't cost you but another 35 bucks to build up the second chiller system.

[sparkleberry]

I built a second, slightly smaller chiller. I put it in a bucket of water and in the freezer the night before a brew day. after brewing, I use the first chiller normally until I'm down to about 80-90. I then add the prechiller in line(between the hose and the first chiller in the kettle) and am down to great pitching temps in no time.

[jeffy]

I have an extra pump in my system now, so after running hose water through the chiller until I get about 85F, I pump ice water through it to get down lower.  I recirculate back to the kettle with a whirlpool until the whole mass is the proper temperature.

Before I had this system, I used to pump wort out of the kettle, into a counter flow chiller (garden hose attached), into 20 feet of copper tubing in an ice bath, then into fermenters.  This worked fine, even in Florida.  It works best if you move the copper tubing around in the ice bath or stir the ice-water.

[boapiu]

the southern folks chime in. i have a secondary immersion chiller that i place in my mash tun full of ice water. i get the mash tun emptied and cleaned out during the boil. for the initial cooling i only use the main chiller in the boil kettle running tap water slowly. once i reach about 90-100 degrees i switch hoses and run water through the chiller in the bucket of ice. i dont recirculate the water, just dump it into the pool which needs topping off anyway. gently stirring the wort helps and i may try to develop an automatic way to use my recirculation pump for this in the future. i used to have a counter flow chiller but i fretted about getting it clean inside.

[weithman5]

there is no need for the second chiller if you can get a submersible pump and recirc the cooling water through the ice

[tubercle]

About 80f is as low as I can get mine in a reasonable amount of time with my well water. I place it in the converted freezer at fermentation temps until the next day then pitch the yeast.

[darthmalt]

All really good ideas.  I'll have to shop around for a good submersible pump.  Thanks a lot guys!


-->Darth Malt

[a10t2]

Ice is both the most efficient and the cheapest. If you chill to ~110°F and then add a gallon of ice (sanitary frozen water bottles or whatever, it will drop into the mid-60s.

BTW, here's the search link: http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?action=search
It's the third from the left in the top navigation. Google is even better: http://www.google.com/search?q=efficient+chiller+site:homebrewersassociation.org

[Hokerer]

About 80f is as low as I can get mine in a reasonable amount of time with my well water. I place it in the converted freezer at fermentation temps until the next day then pitch the yeast.

+1, that's been my method too during the season when my tap water is too warm

[majorvices]

About 80f is as low as I can get mine in a reasonable amount of time with my well water. I place it in the converted freezer at fermentation temps until the next day then pitch the yeast.

+1, that's been my method too during the season when my tap water is too warm

+2. Never had a problem either.