Immersion Chiller

[beerbelly]

used my home made immersion chiller for the first time last weekend worked ok brought temp down from boiling point to room temp 26-27 degrees in about 30 mins [still fairly warm inQLD]trouble is i want the wort below 20 degrees.Iwould appreciate advice on how to achieve this and what sort of equipment i would need

 

[Jye]

Hey beerbelly,

You can try a pre chiller, another copper coil in an ice bath, the hose water passes through this and then through the IM chiller. Also do a search for 'bilge pump', a few brewers chill down 30-50L of water in the fridge and then hook up the pump when the temp is as low as the hose water will take it. I also have a dozen 2L milk bottles cut in half and the bottoms filled with water in the freezer, I add this to 30L of chilled water and recirculate it through the chiller.

This some times works to well...accidentally chilled a Blonde down to 11C today

Cheers
Jye :beer:

 

[PistolPatch]

Those last few degrees are the hardest up here Belly. If you want to hit 19 degrees, here are a few options...

Firstly, a bag of ice (only $1.50 if you buy at Coles/Woollies), soft drink bottles full of salt water or freezer blocks are going to be a necessity. (Ice is best).

Secondly, you can either sit your kettle in the ice water bath and move it around from time to time or you can buy a pond pump for about $40 and pump the iced water through your immersion chiller which will be a lot quicker.

Cheers
PP

 

[johnno]

Also dont forget the no chiller method.

And if you are in a real hurry try the "No Brew" method.

cheers
johnno

 

[Batz]

if you are in a real hurry try the "No Brew" method.

cheers
johnno

[post="124889"][/post]​

:lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[beerbelly]

i have a pond pump and put it in a esky full of ice water and ran it thru the immersion chiller and it did chill it down but i think the pump is a bit under powered it was just a bit more than a trickle at the other end so does it matter how fast the cold water goes thru the coil and also would you pump it from the bottom to the top or top to bottom .

 

[lonte]

cold water to enter the top - hot rises and so the wort will be hottest at the top so hit that with your coldest cooling water.

 

[PistolPatch]

Yep Belly, it's annoying when your pump is underpowered. I was lucky that I could exchange mine. Maybe you can do the same? A trickle isn't going to be much better than putting it in a sink.

One thought, if you were only getting a trickle try sucking water through your immersion chiller before attaching the pump. This way the chiller will be full of water and so the syphon effect will come into play resulting in a lot less work for the pump.

As for which way to pump I don't think it will make any difference. Personally I'd go the top as that makes the syphoning effect easier to get under way. It's also the part of my chiller that I use as a handle so it is always cool when chilling down from a boil.

 

[beerbelly]

thanks guys good info.

I think i will purchase a bilge pump and that should solve this problem it certainly is a lot to think about when you start AG brewing :beerbang:

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

I use tank water ( cause thats all I have) and recirculate the chiller water back into the tank. It takes a lot of hot water to change the temp in a 30,000ltr tank..

I usually leave it chill for about 30-1hr mins, this also helps with the trub settleing on the bottom of the kettle

 

[beerbelly]

went out to bunnings and brought a pond pump 2000l per hr the other pump a friend lent me was only a 1000l per hr will try new one out this weekend. Next brew will be a AG old ale got the recipie from vicbrew 2004

 

[warrenlw63]

i have a pond pump and put it in a esky full of ice water and ran it thru the immersion chiller and it did chill it down but i think the pump is a bit under powered

[post="124894"][/post]​

Beerbelly

My original pump was an 1800 LPH (2.4m head) I used it to pump ice water through a 15m immersion chiller. While the throughput was slow it still did a satisfactory job. Trick is some sanitary means of stirring your wort while the chilling is in progress.

I now use a 3500 LPH (I think 3m head :unsure: ) model that seems to give a better throughput and to tell you the truth doesn't really seem to chill any faster. I'm inclined to think that the slow flow of the older pump works just as well so don't be overly put off by flow rates.

If you want to speed the flow up a little make sure your ice bath isn't too far below the level of the kettle. This will most likely make the pump's job harder.

With patience this method works really well. Trick is getting the wort down as far as possible with your tap water first.

Warren -

 

[Ross]

thanks guys good info.

I think i will purchase a bilge pump and that should solve this problem it certainly is a lot to think about when you start AG brewing :beerbang:

[post="125139"][/post]​

I use a bilge pump in this way the flow rate is pretty slow - Seems to do a great job though.
As warren says, you need to keep the immersion chiller moving in relation to the wort for speddy chilling, hence I'm about to fit a recirculation pump to my kettle to pump the hot wort out the bottom of the kettle & back into the top, creating a whirlpool effect. Hopefully trial it next week, so I'll post pics/results.

Cheers Ross

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

My fire pump can move 20,000ltrs /Hr thru a 1" hose....


Could be a bit much for the average chiller..... h34r:

 

[Darren]

used my home made immersion chiller for the first time last weekend worked ok brought temp down from boiling point to room temp 26-27 degrees in about 30 mins [still fairly warm inQLD]trouble is i want the wort below 20 degrees.Iwould appreciate advice on how to achieve this and what sort of equipment i would need

[post="124874"][/post]​

BB,
Not sure if you are use a burner to heat your kettle? If so, it helps to cool your wort if you squirt water over the outside of the kettle after flame-out. There is usually quite a bit of latent heat there.
Jiggling your immersion chiller will also speed up the cooling process.

cheers

Darren

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

I always take the kettle off the burner( and the bricks it sits on)...it is suprising how much of a " Roman march" you do when the burner etc are still very hot...

 

[beerbelly]

Guys thanks for all the help and advice can't wait to do my next brew and try out the pond pump