The Art Of Chilling.

[Lyrebird_Cycles]

I no chill in an assortment of 10L and 5L cubes.
I expect LC could provide a formula for the increased speed of chilling compared to a 20-25L cube due to the far increased surface area to volume ratio.

If doing a morning brew and no chilling, I find that by sitting in the laundry tubs with a trickle of cold water, by the early afternoon the cubes are often cool enough to pop in a fridge and pitch that evening.

Klangers is your man for cooling calculations, he does this for a living.

Basically heat transfer rate is given by U x A x delta T where U is the transfer characteristic of the heat exchanger*, A is the surface area and delta T is the temperature difference across the surface. All things being equal this means the heat transfer per unit volume will be proportional to the surface area to volume ratio so for constant geometry it's an inverse three halves power law.


* changes with things like the flow over the surface etc etc.

 

[Rocker1986]

I no chill and no hop cubes!
Brew a little over target boil and no chill as per normal but don't add hops.

When your ready to ferment boil some water and do your hop schedule and add it to the fermenter!

Heaps better for late hop additions

I might give this a go as well, not with the entire hopping schedule but make up a hop tea on pitching day then strain it into the FV with cubed wort. Might use this to replace my flameout additions or do smaller flameout additions and make up the rest this way. I'll do it on a previously brewed recipe though, as it will be easier to evaluate any differences.

 

[Lyrebird_Cycles]

I use 3x2 litre long-life milk cartons. They take up less room in the freezer than equivalent volume round drink bottles and they're much easier to break open.
I give them a few whacks with the blunt side of a tomahawk to smash the ice up, then flip it over and cut them in half with the sharp side.

Brilliant. You've saved me $4.00 or $8.00 per brew day. I owe you a beer.

 

[damoninja]

damoninja, on 17 Nov 2016 - 09:24 AM, said:

I just built something that might help with that. It was meant to go into use today but too busy with bike stuff so no brew till Monday:

https://flic.kr/p/PfmEtj]

The idea is to run the chiller as normal until the delta T reduces to under 20 degrees then couple this thing into the line and dump a few kg of ice into it (hence the wide mouth drum, easier to get the ice in). The water flows up through the ice and drops toaround 0oC, improving the delta T.

Once I've run it a few times I'll post more info.

Cheers someone mentioned the idea of ice in another vessel already, I plan on giving this a go next brew which will likely be in a few weeks and mid 30s here in Adelaide. Have ordered a $5 evilbay pump to recirculate water through ice in my mash tun

 

[Moad]

I am doing double brew days, first chilled and run the water into the HLT for the second brew which I then no chill.

I hate wasting water even though it is cheap. Just doesn't feel right.

My last batch was only the third time I have no chilled and it is shaping up to be one of the best beers I have made, I cube hopped for the first time too.

Just give it a go!

 

[billygoat]

Brilliant. You've saved me $4.00 or $8.00 per brew day. I owe you a beer.

Takeaway food containers, the ones you get from Chinese restaurants, are good as well. They stack well in the freezer and are reusable as the ice block comes out easy.

 

[Bribie G]

Cubed last night around 11pm and put out onto patio - I'll finish off in fridge and pitch before lunch.

Rag tag collection of cubes 20, 10 and 5 litres for a double keg batch in my 60L FV
I rarely use the large cube - I have a couple more 10L but they are full at the moment.

Currently

20L cube 32 degrees
10L cube 26 degrees
two 5L cubes (one out of shot) 23 degrees

So with a bit of a touch up they are good to go.
Another point, I only used bittering addition hops and will use a bit of wort to cook up the late additions then add to the FV, thus by passing the cubes altogether.

Search "Argon Method".

 

[TheWiggman]

Bribie, the smaller the vessel the faster the cooling rate (contrary to your prior post). There's the evidence in your brew day.

 

[manticle]

Overall rate per unit (due to surface area exposure) or just time due to less total volume?

 

[Bribie G]

Bribie, the smaller the vessel the faster the cooling rate (contrary to your prior post). There's the evidence in your brew day.

As I said in my post, the larger surface area to volume of a smaller cube ... however that could have been read the other way around

If you were hypothetically to split a 20L cube down the middle to form two 10L cubes that gives you two extra "faces" to radiate / convect heat out of the wort.

I'd always encourage anyone going into cubing to get smaller cubes, more $$ up front but faster results. Especially in Winter. And a lot easier to handle and pour.

 

[Matplat]

damoninja, on 17 Nov 2016 - 09:24 AM, said:

I just built something that might help with that. It was meant to go into use today but too busy with bike stuff so no brew till Monday:

https://flic.kr/p/PfmEtj]

The idea is to run the chiller as normal until the delta T reduces to under 20 degrees then couple this thing into the line and dump a few kg of ice into it (hence the wide mouth drum, easier to get the ice in). The water flows up through the ice and drops toaround 0oC, improving the delta T.

Once I've run it a few times I'll post more info.

Is that tub currently hooked up the wrong way round? or are you planning to run it with a pump in a closed loop?

I was thinking you could run it as an open loop system without a pump, if it fed the chiller by gravity from the bottom outlet.....

 

[Lyrebird_Cycles]

No, designed to run on water pressure: the garden hose is connected to the lower outlet, the incoming water is cooled by the ice, flows out the top through the chiller to drain.

I designed it as upflow because I'm not sure about air escape. I'll try downflow as well to see if that's more efficient.

Brewing got pushed to Wednesday, bike stuff took longer than expected.

 

[Matplat]

Fair enough, although I think you may struggle to get the lid to seal against mains pressure. This looks like a far superior option to having a second pre-chiller coil in an ice bath.