setting up for AG, what chiller?

[thedragon]

$15 from bunnings

Or buy yourself a FWK from a sponsor and you get to keep the cube. Typically hold 17 litres.

 

[treefiddy]

In a nut shell,
Immersion chillers are slower, less efficient (more water used), cheaper (less fittings etc) but very simple to construct and don't take up any extra space.
Counter flow chillers are external to kettle, faster and use less water to chill the same volume of wort, but more difficult and expensive to construct
Plate chillers are compact and efficient, but virtually impossible to construct. Not sure what they are selling for at the moment.

So it depends if you want a DIY device and if your water usage is restricted.

I use a plate chiller myself, after trying all of the above methods.

Everybody here seems to love this guy, so I'll just leave this here.
http://www.mrmalty.com/chiller.php

When I chill I use my jocky box coil with river water, then chilled water to drop to pitching temps.

 

[431neb]

re Immersion chillers.

Anyone who has a water tank in the garden with a pressure pump attached can simply run the water in a loop out of the tank, into the chiller and back into the tank.

Obviously if you live in the tropics it may take a little longer but here in Melbourne it works very well and wasted water is eliminated from the process.

I made a rough immersion chiller from a coil of half inch I found in the shed. http://aussiehomebrewer.com/topic/71974-ghetto-immersion-chiller/

Previously I was no chilling in cubes. I still do if I have brewing time but no fermenter space (temp controlled fridge space is usually the limiting factor.)

 

[stretch69]

Thanks heaps everyone for all the feed back, I didn't even realize you could just store the wort in 'cubes', I've got plenty to learn still.

I reckon I'm still leaning towards making the chiller, even though the copper costs a bit its still substantially cheaper then buying a new one.

Unfortunately I don't have a rain water tank to recirculate the water but I do have a 100ltr esky, I sorta thought the same sorta thing as khellendros

 

[431neb]

Thanks heaps everyone for all the feed back, I didn't even realize you could just store the wort in 'cubes', I've got plenty to learn still.

I reckon I'm still leaning towards making the chiller, even though the copper costs a bit its still substantially cheaper then buying a new one.

Unfortunately I don't have a rain water tank to recirculate the water but I do have a 100ltr esky, I sorta thought the same sorta thing as khellendros

Will your pot /keggle fit into the esky? My first thought when I started BIABing was to put my whole keggle into my big arse esky with a ****-load of ice water, whirlpool the wort and walk away for an hour. ******* esky is just a bit too small though. Or the keg is too big . Meh. Whatever.

 

[Northside Novice]

Using an immersion chiller ( copper coil) will add at least 30-60 mins to your brew day . But once chilled you can pitch the yeast ASAP . If your not in a hurry you can no- chill in a cube and then pitch yeast when your ready . I have tried both and feel that chilling and pitching ASAP results in a ' better ' beer
But taking into account all the other variables of the brewing process the difference between chill and no chill is very nominal ( *** all ) when you take into account the two different methods . ie hops and when you use them . There is **** loads of threads about this on ahb if you do a search for them . Both methods result in beer . Good beer .


I use a copper coil with a small pond pump . ($15 Bunnings )
Chill first with garden hose till temp reaches about 40* then change to pond pump in a garbage bin full of water and 2-3 bags of servo ice or a few frozen milk bottles of water .

Research and try what you like mate , chilling is great to finish the brewing day and no chilling is great for an easier brewing day time wise and cleaning wise. Although you are just putting off the cleaning till later




As you will find with searching this topic is a can of worms . Everyone likes their own method . You will find your own be it same same or diff diff who knows . Both will grant great beer .
It's fun finding out I think . I got my copper from an air con supplier . They were cheapest . But there are lots if nice chillers on eBay that look good for the price too , and get a cube and try no chill too !

 

[Sprungmonkey]

Im tossing up between immersion and plate heat exchangers - Im more leaning towards copper immersion for the simple fact that its easier due to the fact that there less chance of infection and blockages due to hops and trub (than PHE).

The cost is virtually the same - I think ill do the same as northside novice where you use the garden hose first to get from 100 to 40 degrees and theb recirc in a cold water bath to get down to pitching temps

 

[Sprungmonkey]

also I like the idea of hot water car wash - might earn some brownie points while im brewing

 

[bum]

Haha. I just got a plate chiller and had been wondering how I would re-use the water. Top idea.

Although, actually washing the car? I dunno. It's been a while and I wouldn't want to set some sort of precedent.

At least you didn't suggest washing the windows!

 

[stretch69]

@ treefiddy, thanks that's a great article, I'm really leaning towards something like that now, the thing I'm still a little confused about is how he transfers the wort at the end without getting any trub?. If he pumped it out the bottom wouldn't that suck the trub up too?

 

[5150]

I use the same system as Northside Novice.

"I use a copper coil with a small pond pump . ($15 Bunnings )
Chill first with garden hose till temp reaches about 40* then change to pond pump in a garbage bin full of water and 2-3 bags of servo ice or a few frozen milk bottles of water ."

If you circulate your water from the beginning the water will get very hot very quickly melting all your ice and therefore it'll be very hard to chill it down the last 20C.

The one other thing that I do which dramatically helps in the cooling is I take my keggle outside and hose it down a bit. If you go the immersion chiller make sure you move it around in your boil vessel a lot to circulate the wort around the chiller.

This is just from my fairly limited experience.

 

[slash22000]

I use a copper coil with a small pond pump . ($15 Bunnings )
Chill first with garden hose till temp reaches about 40* then change to pond pump in a garbage bin full of water and 2-3 bags of servo ice or a few frozen milk bottles of water .

Do you remember exactly what sort of pump you bought? I don't know jack about pumps, and I've been looking to get one for pumping ice water through the chiller (hooray, 30ºC Darwin water).