Beer Belly Wort Chiller

[amateurcurieux]

Basic prechiller of mine

Hi,
i have a similar chiller but can you explain me why there is some ice around your chiller ?
No issues of sanatisation with ice ?

Stef - newbie - sorry for my bad english with french accent !!!

 

[jimi]

Hi,
i have a similar chiller but can you explain me why there is some ice around your chiller ?
No issues of sanatisation with ice ?

Stef - newbie - sorry for my bad english with french accent !!!

Hi stef and welcome to ahb.
Sama's picture is of a PREchiller not a chiller, although it does use an immersion chiller which would easily lead to your confusion. A PREchiller is a way of cooling the water you run through your chiller to more effectively drop the wort temp. Essentially the big picture would be that the water which runs through the chiller is run through the ice bath you see in Sama's picture to drop the water temp and then run through the chiller which allow the chiller to drop the wort temp to pitching temp more quickly.
Hope this helps

 

[Wolfy]

Basic prechiller of mine

Do you run the wort through the 'ice chiller' after it's cooled by the plate chiller (rather than pre-chill the cooling water)?

While the pre-chiller would be useful if your cooling water is fairly warm, I would have thought that running the wort through the ice-immersed coil after it's been cooled by the plate chiller would result in colder wort into the fermentor.

 

[brad81]

Do you run the wort through the 'ice chiller' after it's cooled by the plate chiller (rather than pre-chill the cooling water)?

While the pre-chiller would be useful if your cooling water is fairly warm, I would have thought that running the wort through the ice-immersed coil after it's been cooled by the plate chiller would result in colder wort into the fermentor.

It'd be a bastard to clean, but no worse than the plate chiller I'd assume...

 

[Malted]

Do you run the wort through the 'ice chiller' after it's cooled by the plate chiller (rather than pre-chill the cooling water)?

While the pre-chiller would be useful if your cooling water is fairly warm, I would have thought that running the wort through the ice-immersed coil after it's been cooled by the plate chiller would result in colder wort into the fermentor.

Why would you need the wort that cold?
It is probably about thermal efficiency. The tap water is likely to be cooler than the wort. So passing the tap water through the ice will make it melt less than the wort would and thus your ice will last longer.
Just a theory that is probably flawed.

 

[Wolfy]

It'd be a bastard to clean, but no worse than the plate chiller I'd assume...

Easier than a plate chiller - nothing really can get stuck inside the tube - it's essentially the same as my old counter flow chiller (copper pipe inside a garden hose).

Why would you need the wort that cold?
It is probably about thermal efficiency. The tap water is likely to be cooler than the wort. So passing the tap water through the ice will make it melt less than the wort would and thus your ice will last longer.
Just a theory that is probably flawed.

For instant pitching of lagers, in the past the chiller gets the wort to about 20C and then it's refrigerated to pitch in morning when it's at 8c.
My theory was that dropping the wort from 20 to 8 (ice-chill after plate chiller) would be easier and more efficient than taking it from 100 to 8 (pr-chill cooling water), but since I've not done the experiment, I was asking if he had.

 

[Malted]

My theory was that dropping the wort from 20 to 8 (ice-chill after plate chiller) would be easier and more efficient than taking it from 100 to 8 (pr-chill cooling water), but since I've not done the experiment, I was asking if he had.

Ah I see. I was thinking that if my tap water could pull it down to 24oC then the prechilled water could pull it down to 12oC for pitching a lager, but potentially passing the cooled wort through the ice could pull it down to 5 or so degrees which I though might be too cool to pitch a lager. In my head I thought it could make the wort too cool. I have never brewed a lager or tried cooling in this manner.
Sounds like it would be a good chilling experiment to try.

 

[amateurcurieux]

Hi stef and welcome to ahb.
Sama's picture is of a PREchiller not a chiller, although it does use an immersion chiller which would easily lead to your confusion. A PREchiller is a way of cooling the water you run through your chiller to more effectively drop the wort temp. Essentially the big picture would be that the water which runs through the chiller is run through the ice bath you see in Sama's picture to drop the water temp and then run through the chiller which allow the chiller to drop the wort temp to pitching temp more quickly.
Hope this helps

H i
thanks for your answer - is there lot of brewer here who have a pre-chiller ?
Stef

 

[jimi]

H i
thanks for your answer - is there lot of brewer here who have a pre-chiller ?
Stef

If your tap water is normally pretty cool and you are only chilling to ale temps then a prechiller is unnecessary if your chiller is serviceable. So those who brew mostly ales in the southern states probably won't have too much of a need for a prechiller. The lager brewer up north in QLD etc might find them helpful

 

[sama]

I use the prechiller (only occasionally) for the last 10min of immersion chilling.ie once my imersion chiller gets the wort to say 22, I hook up the prechiller,helps me to get to 16c,when my tank water won't get me lower without it.ive never bothered seeing how low it will get the wort,I don't do lagers.