Immersion Chiller

[banora brewer]

Hi Guys, I currently no chill my brews, been thinking about getting a chiller of some sort, just wanted to know the benefits, or just stick to no chill.
Thanks

 

[geoffd]

Hi Guys, I currently no chill my brews, been thinking about getting a chiller of some sort, just wanted to know the benefits, or just stick to no chill.
Thanks

Rapid chilling causes cold protein break, these protiens are the cause of chill haze if they survive they do not affect flavour, i think the broken down protiens also act as yeast nutrient.
Rapid chill allows you to get to pitching temp quicker, less time for any nasties to develop, though I never had nasties even before I used an immersion chiller. so it just cuts a day off your production & reduces chill haze.

 

[bignath]

Hi Guys, I currently no chill my brews, been thinking about getting a chiller of some sort, just wanted to know the benefits, or just stick to no chill.
Thanks

BB, the benefits of using a chiller means that you can effectively "lock in" the hop flavour, aroma, and bitterness levels more accurately. If you did a no chill recipe in summer when the ambient temp is 35/40 degrees, and the same recipe in the middle of winter, the summer one would most likely be more bitter and have a different flavour and aroma profile.
The difference may be unnoticeable to some, whilst others will pick a discerning difference.

I am also a no chiller, but i do have an immersion chiller too. I have some recipes (and also depending on my mood) where i like to use the chiller, others where i couldn't be bothered and just let it no chill. However, my mind is made up about this before i start the brew process as i have separate recipe folders in Beersmith for no chill vs chill.

The downsides of using a chiller are: You use a huge amount of extra water to cool down a brew, and in these times when people are starting to become more water conscious, if you can save some water.......
also time is a big difference. It used to take me a good 45mins to chill my brews down to anywhere near pitching temp. If you can shorten your brew day, why not?

For me it comes down to saving water and time vs having a little less flexibility in my hop profiles by chilling, as i feel no chill probably blends the lines between the hop additions. (opening a can of worms there i know, blast suit is definitely being put on...)

If your happy with no chill, then there maybe no NEED to go down the chilling road, but having said that, i like the flexibility that i have to be able to do both methods.

Cheers,
Nath

 

[geoffd]

BB, the benefits of using a chiller means that you can effectively "lock in" the hop flavour, aroma, and bitterness levels more accurately. If you did a no chill recipe in summer when the ambient temp is 35/40 degrees, and the same recipe in the middle of winter, the summer one would most likely be more bitter and have a different flavour and aroma profile.
The difference may be unnoticeable to some, whilst others will pick a discerning difference.

Good point Nig Nath, I forgot that. no chill flame out hops will surely loose a lot more aroma oils, & to a lesser extent, extra bitterness extracted, particularly on late additions, not so much utilisation diff on 60min + hops

 

[Cortez The Killer]

It's all about hop presence as Big Nath says. Some styles you can get away with no chill, others are not as convincing. There are ways to get around the hop issue eg hop tea, dry hopping.

But when tasting Bitterman's brews (a chilling IBU) there is an appreciable hop presence which seems to be lacking in my no chill brews and other IBU no chill brews

I've got the copper to make my chiller but am still to pull my finger out and do it

Will be making something similar to this http://www.mrmalty.com/chiller.php

Cheers

 

[Bribie G]

I acknowledge the hop effect - you can particularly notice this in FWKs that are essentially mass produced nochill kits. I cube hop all my brews now and dry hop some styles and find that - especially with C hops - it's possible to get good hop aroma.

In SEQ unless you have a tank and can recirculate without wasting water you would indeed have to use a holy heap of water to get the brew down to pitching temperature if you could even reach that. At Chappo's brew day last year he offered around a surplus plate chiller and didn't get any takers
Tidal Pete bought a plate chiller and he intended embedding it in a bucket of solid ice - if TP is reading this how did it go Pete?

 

[Cortez The Killer]

I've been cube hopping for a while and was picking up a fair bit of grassy-ness to some beers

Have been doing a whirlpool addition 30+ grams and have been letting the beer sit for 10-15 mins before filling the cube and have been getting a beer hop aroma

Cheers

 

[Phoney]

The downsides of using a chiller are: You use a huge amount of extra water to cool down a brew, and in these times when people are starting to become more water conscious, if you can save some water.......
also time is a big difference. It used to take me a good 45mins to chill my brews down to anywhere near pitching temp. If you can shorten your brew day, why not?

I use a plate chiller and the extra time it takes to chill my wort is basically as quickly as it comes out of the tap and drain the kettle. ie: Not long at all. I also divert the water out into my cubes that I used to use for no-chilling - So I fill 3 x 25L cubes and sometimes about half of a spare fermenter before the whole wort is drained, chilled and in the fermenter. That saved water is then used on the garden over the next few days so none is wasted.

In summer tap water only cools my wort down to about 25 - 30C, so I need to give it a couple of hours in the fridge before I pitch the yeast.

 

[Fents]

BB, the benefits of using a chiller means that you can effectively "lock in" the hop flavour, aroma, and bitterness levels more accurately. If you did a no chill recipe in summer when the ambient temp is 35/40 degrees, and the same recipe in the middle of winter, the summer one would most likely be more bitter and have a different flavour and aroma profile.
The difference may be unnoticeable to some, whilst others will pick a discerning difference.

I am also a no chiller, but i do have an immersion chiller too. I have some recipes (and also depending on my mood) where i like to use the chiller, others where i couldn't be bothered and just let it no chill. However, my mind is made up about this before i start the brew process as i have separate recipe folders in Beersmith for no chill vs chill.

The downsides of using a chiller are: You use a huge amount of extra water to cool down a brew, and in these times when people are starting to become more water conscious, if you can save some water.......
also time is a big difference. It used to take me a good 45mins to chill my brews down to anywhere near pitching temp. If you can shorten your brew day, why not?

For me it comes down to saving water and time vs having a little less flexibility in my hop profiles by chilling, as i feel no chill probably blends the lines between the hop additions. (opening a can of worms there i know, blast suit is definitely being put on...)

If your happy with no chill, then there maybe no NEED to go down the chilling road, but having said that, i like the flexibility that i have to be able to do both methods.

Cheers,
Nath

Good post!

 

[jakub76]

It's not just the hops. Lighter malts will produce DMS when at high temps (simplified). If you did an all pilsner beer, boiled for an hour then sealed it in a cube to chill slowly you'd be creating a lot of DMS with nowhere for it to escape. I don't have a wort chiller but I avoid this problem by boiling for 90 minutes, creating a whirlpool and then putting my kettle straight into a cold bath. I add heaps of frozen 3 litres bottles that I keep in my freezer. This normally gets the temperate to ambient within 90 minutes or so. Then it's into the fermenter and into the fridge with temp control, I usually pitch yeast the next day when it's at temperature.

This method has been very effective for me and I figure a lot of breweries actually whirlpool for 20 minutes after flame-out anyway. In fact then the transfer into fermentation tank takes time too so the last bit of wort could actually be in the whirlpool for up to an hour.

 

[TidalPete]

Tidal Pete bought a plate chiller and he intended embedding it in a bucket of solid ice - if TP is reading this how did it go Pete?

Bribie,

I think you may be referring to my intentions a while ago to freeze my immersion in a block of solid ice but advice from Batz turned me off this course as after the chiller initially heats up it melts the ice around the coils & creates a pocket of warm water thus slowing down the whole process. Crushed ice in an esky is much more efficient.

In the final stages of setting up the plate chiller & using my immersion for the last time as we speak.
Planning on using my bore water for chilling once the plate chiller is up & running. I will then have a 16 metre immersion up for sale if you're interested Banora?
You should find a pic of the immersion somewhere in one of my albums below.

TP

 

[malt_shovel]

For reducing water consumption, I was planning to divert the initial cool off water from my IC to a bucket to use for cleaning after racking the wort to a fermentor, until i get below a scorching temperature (no large amounts of steam etc), then connecting up a pond pump immersed in a prepared bucket of ice water that recirculates through the IC to get to final pitching temps. It should get the temps down much quicker with using much less water. Just need a pond pump and prepare/buy some ice beforehand. All a plan as yet, but me thinks it should work! I am sure someone has done/does something similar that can comment. I like to preserve hop aroma by adding my aroma hops while I begin the initial chilling stage. It usually takes a few minutes before the wort temperature is low enough such that aroma volatiles are not driven off further.

All comes down to how much effort you want to expend on your brewing. I think it is worth it for hoppy ales, probably less so for bitter addition only ales/lagers

Cheers
:beer:

 

[TidalPete]

Been doing that for 140 AG's MS. You might find it cheaper & easier to freeze water in ice-cream containers to use in conjunction with your pond pump.

TP

 

[Phoney]

I wonder what would happen if you pumped liquid nitrogen through an immersion chiller.

Anyone tried it?

 

[malt_shovel]

Been doing that for 140 AG's MS. You might find it cheaper & easier to freeze water in ice-cream containers to use in conjunction with your pond pump.

TP

Great, I imaginge after 140+ goes, it is worthwhile for saving both water and time? Any further experience / recommendations you can elaborate on?

Cheers

 

[Malted]

I wonder what would happen if you pumped liquid nitrogen through an immersion chiller.

Anyone tried it?

Or maybe you could pump refrigerant gas through it, then into a vessel to let it expand so that you can pump it back around and compress it to make it cold again as it goes into the heat exchanger. You'd probably need a fan too. Oh hang on isn't that essentially an airconditioner?

 

[Dave70]

Would shoving the cube in the fridge be regarded as partial chilling?

Or might it blow the fridge up?

 

[TidalPete]

Great, I imaginge after 140+ goes, it is worthwhile for saving both water and time? Any further experience / recommendations you can elaborate on?

Cheers

If you read Post 11 you'll find that I'm upgrading to a plate chiller to save time even though in my case the bore water I "waste" goes to the council garden on the other side of the fence.
Immersion chillers in the norm do waste water but there are a few ways around that recirculate to water tank or pool, save to water garden, pots, etc. Keeping the water in the esky just above the pond pump intake helps get the wort cooled down faster. FWIW I agree with all the positive comments above.

TP

 

[beerbrewer76543]

Immersion air-wort-conditioner anyone? h34r:

 

[XavierZ]

What's the general consensus on running the wort from the kettle, thru a small section of copper piping,
then into coiled clear plastic tubing sitting in an ice bath (filled with ice and water topped to level of ice)?

Yes, the plastic doesn't conduct heat as well as copper, but running the wort slowly thru the tubing should
chill it down quicker than running water thru copper coil plus you can have more coiled turns than you could
with copper tubing.

And when it gets too hard to clean, the tubing is easily replaced. The wort shouldn't absorb much of a plastic
taste as it's only in the tubing for a short while.

Plausible?