Chilling My Ag
- Thread starter woodmac66
- Start date
Help Support Australia & New Zealand Homebrewing Forum:
manticle
Standing up for the Aussie Bottler
How much does 2L of ice chill a full volume 90+ deg. wort?
I have mainly chilled by immersing my boil pot in water full of ice bricks and frozen PET bottles. When I first started AG I had small vessels and the chill was reasonably quick (downside was I had to re-use the pots to reboil the rest of the wort). Upgraded to good size kettles but they take a bit longer to chill the same way. I had a couple of infections recently and while I know the cause, I'm pretty certain chilling this way in hot summer weather didn't help so current brews are no-chills until I build myself a copper immersion chiller. I''l probably still incorporate the water bath method to help it along quicker - I do have plenty of bricks and pet bottles for the purpose.
No water wastage - almost every litre of water that is used in my brewing is re-used. Cleaning, rinsing and chilling water all go on the vege/herb/hops garden. I haven't really had to water my garden at all this summer apart from just putting spare water from the brewery as I have it. Everything is growing a treat despite a few massively hot days
I have mainly chilled by immersing my boil pot in water full of ice bricks and frozen PET bottles. When I first started AG I had small vessels and the chill was reasonably quick (downside was I had to re-use the pots to reboil the rest of the wort). Upgraded to good size kettles but they take a bit longer to chill the same way. I had a couple of infections recently and while I know the cause, I'm pretty certain chilling this way in hot summer weather didn't help so current brews are no-chills until I build myself a copper immersion chiller. I''l probably still incorporate the water bath method to help it along quicker - I do have plenty of bricks and pet bottles for the purpose.
No water wastage - almost every litre of water that is used in my brewing is re-used. Cleaning, rinsing and chilling water all go on the vege/herb/hops garden. I haven't really had to water my garden at all this summer apart from just putting spare water from the brewery as I have it. Everything is growing a treat despite a few massively hot days
So is this an option if you say boiled the water made an allowance of 2 litres less..
Chilled to say 30 through the plate chiller I wonder how much 2 litres of ice would reduce 23 litres of Wort!
Would this create other issues of contamination if you boiled the water prior to freezing !
Manticle you are right re trying to reduce and re-use as much as possible water has to be key.
Beernut.................. us poor bastards in S.A with the temps we get these days you just had to do it!..make us as jealous as hell... "with a cool breeze blowing through the workshop @ 18- 20 degrees"... You have solved it!!! , we all have to move to Tassie!!.......Lucky *******!
My good mate runs an Aquarium business has offered to lend me a chiller to see if that works, so I am going to see how long it takes to chill 150 litres of water which he tells me they do pretty quick (Spec says 500 litres down 15 degrees per hour) and see what temp I can get the starting water to ...
This way I will get another coke syrup container ($25) and recirculate into one to get the temp down then pump through the plate chiller into the second that way I can keep 100% of the water for my next Brew and Repeat. This will cost nothing to try as I have all the gear already and I like the idea of saving the water!
The other solution is the Screwy option.
Woody
Ive been having alot of trouble chilling my wort lately so yesterday i no chilled, put in the fridge last night and its sitting at 15 degrees this morning. I get sick of using so much water,which i reuse anyway to drop my wort to 38 degrees.
Cheers
Cheers
G'day Woody
Like Adelaide we do get the hot northerlies now and again here but rare. I lived and worked in Adelaide for a short time and spent a pleasant summer there relaxing the odd weekend on Maslin beach with my girl. The Tassie sun in summer is fierce and the UV is high and not good for the delicate celtic skin however temperate sea breezes cool things down in the shade. Getting back OT I think if chilling through a plate or CF chiller in the warmer climate is only getting you down to the thirties or forties I would be inclined to go for a post chiller such as a small esky with maybe around 6-8 metres of copper or S/steel tube packed in ice. Of course a fermenting fridge is almost mandatory on the mainland north.
:icon_cheers:
Like Adelaide we do get the hot northerlies now and again here but rare. I lived and worked in Adelaide for a short time and spent a pleasant summer there relaxing the odd weekend on Maslin beach with my girl. The Tassie sun in summer is fierce and the UV is high and not good for the delicate celtic skin however temperate sea breezes cool things down in the shade. Getting back OT I think if chilling through a plate or CF chiller in the warmer climate is only getting you down to the thirties or forties I would be inclined to go for a post chiller such as a small esky with maybe around 6-8 metres of copper or S/steel tube packed in ice. Of course a fermenting fridge is almost mandatory on the mainland north.
:icon_cheers:
Similar threads
