[haeffnkr]

Folks who use an immersion chiller.... how do you seal the kettle?
- notch the kettle lid?
- no lid when chilling?
- starsan soaked rag to cover the kettle/cracks/cutouts in lid?
- bulk head type fittings on the inside of the pot?
- chiller mounted to the lid with bulkhead fittings on top of lid?

Just wondering what others do?

thanks in adavance
Haeffnkr

[dls5492]

I have no lid when I use my chiller. I have "the hydra" chiller from jaded brewing and it rocks! I usually can get my wort down to temp in less than 10 minutes. So, I don't worry about a lid.

[denny]

I lay an old pizza pan across the top of the kettle and chiller.  Doesn't seal it but it keeps stuff from getting in.

[Richard]

I either use pieces of sanitized aluminum foil across the top or I use the lid like Denny's pizza pan. Not sealed, but covering everything.

[Robert]

I have no lid when I chill, but I brew indoors so that doesn't bother me.

[jeffy]

I use no lid.  I figure it will cool faster without one.

[Slowbrew]

I also use no lid.  I boil outdoors but chill in the basement so I don't worry about it too much.

Paul

[Bob357]

No lid while chilling, but do cover when settling out after chilling. Still have the IC running, so the cover is not a good seal. Just helps keep crap out of the BK. Never had a problem.

[billski48]

Most of the time I use no lid, I like to stir to get the wort to cool faster. If I’m not stirring I’ll just lay the lid half ass on top of the chiller and kettle.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[MNWayne]

I use my regular lid and don't worry about a seal.

[Bilsch]

I use an old lid with holes cut to pass the chiller standpipes.

[goose]

Back in the day when I used an immersion chiller, I also used no lid. The reason for this was that you have to keep moving the chiller around in the wort to get efficient cooling.  If you leave the chiller in one place you get a kind of insulating layer around the chiller of cooler wort while the wort outside the chiller stays at a higher temperature.  That said, you could use what others have suggested and just remove the lid when you need to agitate the chiller in the hot wort.
I never had a problem with nasties getting into the wort without using a lid and I used to brew in my barn before I built an indoor brewery in my house.  Got tired of hauling water 300 feet to the barn and wort the same distance back to my house and trying to clean equipment with ice cold water in the winter.  Did that for about 6 years!

[mabrungard]

One of the several things I learned from the "Whirlpool Techniques" session that I introduced at HomebrewCon 2018, was that you have no chance of infection when the wort temperature is above 140F and falling. Therefore, its only the late stage of your chilling that you need to maybe worry.

By the way, you should check out this session since it did have some interesting info.

[hopfenundmalz]

One of the several things I learned from the "Whirlpool Techniques" session that I introduced at HomebrewCon 2018, was that you have no chance of infection when the wort temperature is above 140F and falling. Therefore, its only the late stage of your chilling that you need to maybe worry.

By the way, you should check out this session since it did have some interesting info.

A small German brewery we toured uses a cool ship (Kühlschiff). Among the reasons were volatiles out gassing, letting true settle, and of course cooling. He said he would run the wort though the chiller when it got down close to 60C, which is 140F.

[James K]

I use no lid, have a big copper wort chiller, and I brew outside. It takes longer in the summer to chill my wort but if I shake and use my chiller to create a whirlpool it takes less time. About 20 minutes.

Only time I put a lid on is when it started raining, and then hailing on me.