Recommendations for a wort chiller

[Radshoes]

Seems like you miss out on free heating of your cleanup water to me....

Maybe I should put the cube back in my boiler once I have filled it with water for cleaning?

 

[AJS2154]

Hey zorsoc, rude,

I have a plate chiller, but my chosen cooling method is no chill into my 30 litre fermenting corny. I don't feel the plate chiller is ever thoroughly clean. I know, I have OCD issues!! But let's move on.

I am really interested in making one of those bad boys. I have watched a youtube build for one of the systems and thought it would be a fun project. One thing always makes me wonder though. The system would of course have a certain amount of wort wastage, as do all cooling systems, but can you recover a large proportion of the wort in the unit, and how do you do that? I currently have about 4-5 litres left in my brew kettle, can't afford to find ways to increase that number by much.

The other thing that makes me wonder is the approach of recirculating the cooled wort back through the brew kettle. That must increase the cooling period, as not only are you cooling the x litres of wort in the kettle, you also need to cool the thermal mass of the kettle which would require a large expenditure of cooling water.

Am I missing something? Anthony

Anthony

 

[AJS2154]

Maybe I should put the cube back in my boiler once I have filled it with water for cleaning?

that is not such a silly suggestion.......I have a corny that I chill in to. Could pop that in my kettle for a while and it would cool / heat. Like it, will try it.

Why didn't I think of that? Genius redshoes.

 

[Zorco]

Maybe I should put the cube back in my boiler once I have filled it with water for cleaning?

I'm trying to think why this isn't a great idea.

First thing I come up with is that dT/dt would not be high enough to overcome loss to ambient. Far greater heat transfer rate using the chiller and therefore you reach a higher peak temp for the cooling water.

Definitely pool chilling esque...

 

[AJS2154]

I currently use the pool to cool my corny. Works well. I put it on to the lowest step in the shallow end.

 

[Zorco]

Hey zorsoc, rude,


The system would of course have a certain amount of wort wastage, as do all cooling systems, but can you recover a large proportion of the wort in the unit, and how do you do that? I currently have about 4-5 litres left in my brew kettle, can't afford to find ways to increase that number by much.

Zero loss in the chiller.

I built mine as a single column with 4 rows. I pump to the top row and gravity takes the wort back to the BK. The outlet of the chiller is above the inlet of the BK.
When I'm done chilling (if I do it, I'm on a no-chill kick at the moment) I turn off the pump, disconnect the silicone hose from the chiller inlet and all the wort drains into the BK.

The other thing that makes me wonder is the approach of recirculating the cooled wort back through the brew kettle. That must increase the cooling period, as not only are you cooling the x litres of wort in the kettle, you also need to cool the thermal mass of the kettle which would require a large expenditure of cooling water.

Paul Wicksteed did an excellent video on this. Two boils, one chilled in recirc to the BK to pitch temp, the second flowrate managed direct into ferment vessel at pitch temp.

Negligible net benefit.

The kettle radiates a lot with all that skin....

 

[AJS2154]

OK, that design makes sense. Thanks for explaining it.

Paul Wicksteed was a an enquiring mind. Such a shame he was taken too young.

Thanks, I will look at the videos mate. Anthony

 

[Radshoes]

i fully submerge two cubes in the pool end of brew day

 

[rude]

i fully submerge two cubes in the pool end of brew day

So what is youre 0 min hop addition 10 mins or 5 mins instead of 20 min

 

[AJS2154]

I have put some serious thought to that idea, radshoes. The thing that stops me is the concept that the corny will cool and therefore go from positive to negative pressure, and if all the seals aren't perfect it may suck in some pool water......we all know what happens in pools, and that can't be in my beer.

 

[Zorco]

There is no 'P' in POOL.

 

[Bribie G]

B) B) B) B)

 

[Zorco]

You've left someone's award frames in the background there.....it's distracting. I'm trying to work out if you displace all your wort over the floor when you put that frozen jug in the kettle!

:lol:

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

At the end of the day, the only reliable way to pick a chiller type is to ask 10 brewers which they would use and then pick 1 of the 15 answers

 

[MastersBrewery]

At the end of the day, the only reliable way to pick a chiller type is to ask 10 brewers which they would use and then pick 1 of the 15 answers

or mishmash 4 different solutions into one that sorta does the job.

 

[rude]

championship wort cooler.jpg

B) B) B) B)

Well done mate gold for 2nd

What colour was 1st

 

[Matplat]

How much difference does the garden hose setup make matplat? I love how ghetto this is!

I timed it with the 'pre-chiller' last night, after 2 mins it was down below 80deg and took 17mins to get to 26deg. That was with whirlpooling at the same time.

Next brew I'l try it without....

 

[sixfignig]

I picked up 18m of 1/2" copper from Masters for $68 (yay for pricing error). I made a somewhat dodgy double coil chiller that will be going for a maiden voyage sometime this week.

 

[tumi2]

Question for immersion chillers, I have only ever No Chilled so not sure about the whirlpool process......

I now have 2 immersion chillers, one 15m for the wort and one 5m to sit in a esky of iced water. Do you whirlpool the cooled wort after taking the chiller out or do i forgo the whirlpool due to infection risk?

 

[mstrelan]

Whirlpool while chilling will help it to chill faster. I give it a stir after too, making sure the paint stirrer is thoroughly sanitized first.