[beersk]

Instead of pre-chilling water, chill with your normal water to 80-100F or whenever it stops cooling quickly. Then switch to running ice water through the chiller using a pump. It'll be much more efficient and keep a high temperature difference when you get to lower temps.

This is what I do when the tap water is too warm.

great-thanks for the info. picked up 1/4HP with garden hose fitting-30 gals per minute so should be good to go. $47.55 delivered tomorrow on amazon prime.

You might want to consider getting a shockbuster deal too. http://www.amazon.com/Tower-Manufacturing-30339005-3-Wire-Adapter/dp/B000P8COIS/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1417721324&sr=8-9&keywords=shockbuster

[69franx]

That Shockbuster looks quite handy!

[jtoots]

I'll chime in with the obvious... are you stirring while chilling?  This has an incredible impact on the chilling rate.

[Wort-H.O.G.]

I'll chime in with the obvious... are you stirring while chilling?  This has an incredible impact on the chilling rate.

yeah stirring for sure.

not a big deal, just thought i'd try to cut my wasted water and time chilling down. when my lager freezer is being used for lager fermentation at 45-50F, im restricted to just using immersion chiller.

[hopfenundmalz]

always used a copper wort chiller to cool my wort. effective, just takes a bit more time to get down to 50-60F and uses a ton of well water. i have run my input line into ice to chill the well water further- that helps but not as fast as I'd like it be.

for those who have gone beyond the wort chiller, what are some preferred options and additions to cooling wort quickly- to me that's about 10-15 minutes vs. 30+ minutes.

I still use an immersion chiller, but I use it in conjunction with a March pump to do recirculated chilling.  I can get 6 gal. from boiling to 60F in 10-15 min with my well water.  Although I bought the pump specifically for this, once I had it I found I could use it for other stuff, too.

I have a 50 Ft immersion chiller with the Jamil Z. return that will move the wort, which causes better convection of heat from the wort to the chiller. It will take 10 gallons down to <65F in <14.5 minutes in the winter. Summer not as fast, heck a coupe years back with a hot summer you could not get to 65F here. Ice and a pond pump solves those situations.

Maximize the chiller area. Maximize the Delta T across the chiller (cold feed water)

[ynotbrusum]

This may sound like overkill, because I pretty much do what the Major does for my lagers after going through a ZChiller counter flow chiller, but I may try using both that and the recirc immersion chiller in tandem.  I bet I can get down near my well water temp (low 50's) in just a few minutes.  Then I should get it to pitch temp in a short time, even for lagers.

[dzlater]

What I had been doing is using the immersion chiller till it hit it's limit, usually around 80. Then I would put the kettle in an ice bath and give it an occaisional stir. This worked well till I got a new kettle that doesn't fit in the cooler I use for the ice bath. With the cooler winter weather it doesn't matter but in the spring I am planning on switching to the pond pump with ice water method.

[BrewBama]

This may not be the advice you are looking for but I rarely cool my wort past 80 degrees before running off to a fermentor and letting it brought down to pitching temps overnight. There is no harm in doing that, if your sanitation techniques are sound you can feel safe within 12 hours of hitting fermentor.

I'm glad I'm not the only one that does this. I can get it to 80*F with the immersion chiller then I open the kettle valve to gravity feed splashing thru a fine mesh strainer into the fermenter which gets it down to the 70*F range. The basement does the rest.

[pete b]

I put a chiller wand, which is a food grade plastic thing with a handle that you fill with water and keep in the freezer. I put it in the middle of the coil of my water chiller. Brings 5 gallons of wort to 70 in about15 min, maybe less. Easier to clean than a pump. You can get them a restaurant suppliers. I let the worth get the last few degrees to pitching temp overnight.

[trapae]

I have 2 chillers attached in tandem.  Hose water goes to the first chiller that is in a bucket full of ice, then the chilled water travels to the second chiller in my kettle.  This chiller also now has a whirlpool arm with March pump.  I can now get 6 gal of wort from boiling to 62deg in 12 min in SoCal summer.  Took 20min to get to 48deg for recent  lager.  I also use the pump to move strike and sparse water and to move chilled wort into fermenter.  Saves my back.

[Statsmats]

Here was a simple technique that shaved another 10 off the chill time on my second boil a couple weekends ago. I opened the drain about 1/2 way before putting the kettle in. Then, I ran the output water from the immersion chiller into the sink around the kettle...when the sink filled up it then ran over into the second sink. This seemed to grab a little extra heat from the outside of the kettle. Total time went from about 30 min to 20 min...and it was an easy thing to do. Not sure of the water temp.