Chilling your wort

[Beamer]

Hi all,
Im about to invest in an all grain set up using a keggle as my brew pot. Was just wondering if there is any advice/opinions on a chiller plate compared to an immersion chiller?

Cheers,
Beamer

 

[contrarian]

It's also worth doing some reading about no chill. Basically you just transfer hot wort to a clean and sanitised plastic cube. It has the advantage of meaning you can brew without having a fermenter ready to go.

 

[brzt6060]

+1 for cubes. Has completely changed the way I brew for the better.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Both plates and immersion coils work well.

A plate will prob be quicker than a coil, BUT can get blocked by bits of hop pellets, trub etc and needs to be thoroughly cleaned and rinsed everytime you use it. Its a source of infection if you dont.

You dont actually want a straight nice neat pretty looking chilling coil. You want a birds nest ( or just a very random ball of tube ) to get the best out of an immersion coil. They work MUCH faster

No-chill also works well, except that you need to adjust your hop addition times and for late additions they will need to be done separately and added to the cube once it has chilled. No-chill adds about 15min to you hop schedule, so a 5min addition becomes a 15-20min addition.

Now you have 3 perfectly good methods to choose from

 

[bradsbrew]

You forgot counterflow chillers.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Ah yes....the long forgotten, but VERY effective counter-flow-chiller. Harder to build but pretty much the best of them

So now you have 4 methods of chillin in da bronx

 

[user 35653]

I've used both a immersion coil and a plate chiller. I started with an immersion coil but was sick of seeing the >300L of water being wasted just to cool down 30L of wort and of course the >30 mins of waiting. The next issue I found was as soon as it hit summer I struggled to get wort <30C, I had to switch from tap water when it eventually got to 30c to my pseudo CLT that had 3 bags of ice in it, this entire process almost took an hour.

I finally switched to a plate chiller and haven't looked back. Can get 50L of wort down to 24c in <10 mins using tap water and I haven't had an issue brewing in summer. I agree with the above post that an infection can be an issue but this is the same with anything related to brewing on the cold side. To sanatise I soak the plate chiller in no-rinse sanatiser for at least an hour before running wort through it, just before running the wort through I empty the majority of the sanatiser out and then run the beginnings of the chilled wort into a bucket and discard it. Once finished chilling I run tap water on full pressure alternating between each end of the chiller until the runoff is clear. Finally, I drain the tap water out and let it dry upside down until the next brew.

No-chill works fine for a lot of people here, however I haven't had a need to try it as I ferment directly after brewing - not saying I wouldn't try it in the future though if I was brewing multiple batches for a big party or something.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Any chilling in summer is going to be problematic as the water temp is higher in general so you need to resort to ice baths etc.

There are some very good threads ( that I am to lazy to find ) about using ice, pond pumps etc to get the temp down

If you have a rainwater tank then you can just recirculate your water from the chiller back to the tank and not waste any water.

Another trick is if using an immersion/CFW chiller then use the hot water from the chiller to clean and rinse your gear down ( mash tun, kettle etc )

 

[madpierre06]

Just browsing this has me definitely recalibrating my brew process...thinking seriously now of summer = no chill. Am just going to have to drop to 20L batches though. Although I guess I could squeeze a 40L batch out of three 50L vessels. The pissing around to drop that last 10C after running the immersion chiller seals the deal, methinks.

 

[Norto]

I have a parallel counterflow chiller made from the inspiration of Paul Wicksteed (RIP) . All I do is circulate the boiling wort through the chiller and back to the boil kettle for the last 15 min of the boil and when the boil has finished turn on the cold water and run it back through my rain water tank cools in about 10- 15 min depending on the temp of the tank water. Has the advantage that I can pull it apart and clean if needed but I generally run clean hot water through after and it's right to go next time.

Norto.

 

[Batz]

I have had all the chillers and continue to no chill, works so well for me.

Am just going to have to drop to 20L batches though

.
I use 2x25lt cubes, I brew 55lt batches around 50lt into cubes.

A plate will prob be quicker than a coil, BUT can get blocked by bits of hop pellets, trub etc and needs to be thoroughly cleaned and rinsed everytime you use it. Its a source of infection if you dont.

That's the reason I moved away from plate chillers, you will never get them perfectly clean.

 

[Bribie G]

Most nominally 20L cubes actually hold up to 22L after their sides have been bowed out a bit by hot wort.
I often collect an extra litre in a lab jar and use that to boil up late hops then tip into FV.

Another neat trick is to put late hops into cube. That works perfectly with UK ales which traditionally have a 10 minute addition. For example TTL gets late Styrians.
By the time the wort cools to around 80 and isomerisation no longer happening then you've done the job.
Check out the thread on the current Bunnings 20L offer.

 

[Seaquebrew]

Does anyone cube then immerse in a swimming pool?

Sorry if a bit OT

Cheers

 

[dicko]

I agree with Batz.

I have tried them all and I find no chill reasonably convenient particularly in the summer and when you want to brew some stock and have no room in the fermentatorator for another brew.

I currently have an immersion chiller that works well in the winter but needs an ice slurry in the summer to chill to pitch temps.

If I were to use a chiller that I had to run my precious wort through then I would be using one of these..

http://www.ibrew.com.au/collections/wort-chillers/products/stainless-convoluted-wort-chiller

 

[Bribie G]

Swimming pool method is common.

If I'm pitching within a day or so I use two 10L cubes from Bunnings which hold around 23L between them. They have a better surface to volume ratio than one big cube so they cool a lot quicker, are easier to handle and clean and I just pop them out of the door (like you used to do with the cat) at night.

If you are a hot break freak and want to leave any small amount of HB in the cube it's far easier to do that with two small cubes rather than wrestle a big bugger.

Next morning if they are still above 20 they go into a cold fermenting fridge to bring down to pitching temperature, for example if doing a lager at 11 degrees. For ales they are usually right after an hour or so.

 

[Beamer]

Thanks guys all very insightful I will do some more research on the no chill method as this seems it would suit my set up real well, as I rent and don't have a water tank and am a little worried about the water usage on chillers.

With the no chill process do you just put your wort in the sanitised cubes and then once it has cooled to desired temp pitch your yeast?

Can I place the full cubes into an ice bath to get to temp quicker then into a sanitised fermentor?

Sorry for the questions guys just eager to get into it

 

[Kingy]

That's exactly right Beamer or you can just leave them in the cube for months untill you want to ferment it. I've got 10cubes with varying recipes and just ferment each one as required. Simple really.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

With the no chill process do you just put your wort in the sanitised cubes and then once it has cooled to desired temp pitch your yeast?

Yes.

Cubes make awesome fermenters.

Just be careful you have some headspace for krausen

 

[Fents]

Does anyone cube then immerse in a swimming pool?

Sorry if a bit OT

Cheers

Yep sure do. Fill cubes, tip them on their side to sanitize the space in the handle for 5 mins, then straight in the pool until they are cool. (Usually just on the deep step so the whole cube is not immersed and the top sticks out of the water.

 

[Batz]

I sanitize with phos. acid and turn the cubes over several times as I brew. This is perhaps not necessary but I'm over the top comes sanitation and in 10 or more years of no chill I have never had an infection. At times I have cubes waiting to be fermented for several months owing the fridge space or being called away to work.

Once you have a bit of experience with no chilling very hoppy APA's an IPA's are not a problem, late hopping, cube hopping and keg hopping all have a place.

Best of luck with it all, and don't be afraid to ask for information here...most of us are helpful guys :lol:

Batz