Wort Chill Method

[Kleiny]

Heres a poll to get some response

Give me the good and bad experiences with the different equipment
and tell me which way you prefer to chill

With a lot of the chilling equipment costing around the same $$$$ i need some sort of idea
of which way to go (im still considering no chill as well)


have fun :beer:

 

[Screwtop]

Use three methods. Using the Immersion Chiller recirculating swimming pool water for an hour gets the wort down to 30C in summer.

Using a 30 plate chiller recirculating and whirlpooling wort, and recirculating swimming pool water through the Imm Chiller in an ice water bath for pre chilling and then through the plate chiller for 1 hour gets the wort down to 24.

Once all the wort is in the kettle I heat water in the HLT with a little caustic for cleaning. Usually finished cleaning the MLT, heat exchanger, pump and hoses and have drained and cleaned the HLT by the time the boil is finished. The kettle is cleaned separately after draining to the cube or fermenter, final job for the day.

Using the plate chiller I have to wait until the wort is chilled and then flush through the pump, hoses and chiller, then drain and clean the HLT before cleaning the kettle. Adds more time and cleaning to my brew day :angry:

No chill occasionally which shortens the brew day considerably

 

[andreic]

no chill all the way - never tried anything else. One day I might get a chiller... after getting a keg setup, a separate HLT and burner, grain mill, rainwater tanks and many other essential purchases... the chiller's probably some time off yet!

Andrei

 

[warra48]

Counter flow chiller to get temp down to about 30C in 30 minutes.
I also use a pre-chiller, which is a smaller coil of copper tubing in line with the counter flow chiller inlet, and this sits in an ice bath. Drops it down to 20C in another 10 to 15 minutes, depending on the season.
Ales are pitched at about this temperature.
For lagers, the fermenter sits in the fridge overnight for pitching the next day at about 10 to 12C.

 

[SpillsMostOfIt]

no chill all the way - never tried anything else. One day I might get a chiller... after getting a keg setup, a separate HLT and burner, grain mill, rainwater tanks and many other essential purchases... the chiller's probably some time off yet!

Andrei

Yes! Unless you have infinite means, I think it makes sense to work out where you get maximum value from your spend. This is not being cheap, but understanding what you want/need/desire and how to get the high priority stuff sooner.

I'm kinda dancing with the chiller devil atm, but to do it the way I would want to will cost me far more than just a heat exchanger, so I expect I will be nochilling (perhaps with the enhancement of a water bath) for some time to come. (Ditto proper kegging which probably won't happen until next house.)

 

[RobB]

Has anyone tried Mr Malty's immersion chiller plus vortex technique? See it here: http://www.mrmalty.com/chiller.php

Link

It sounds very efficient but I'm wondering if all the testimonials are coming from brewers knee-deep in snow.

I'm currently an ice bather.

 

[sah]

Yes! Unless you have infinite means, I think it makes sense to work out where you get maximum value from your spend. This is not being cheap, but understanding what you want/need/desire and how to get the high priority stuff sooner.

I'm kinda dancing with the chiller devil atm, but to do it the way I would want to will cost me far more than just a heat exchanger, so I expect I will be nochilling (perhaps with the enhancement of a water bath) for some time to come. (Ditto proper kegging which probably won't happen until next house.)

Keep in mind that there are many any experienced brewer that has given away their immersion or counter flow chiller for a polyethylene drum.

You'll be happy what every your decision.

regards,
Scott

 

[Thirsty Boy]

I was chilling with an IMC but had been pretty unhappy with the amount of water used...oh I saved it to clean the brewery and water plants, but there was still a lot going down the drain.

Happily I won a Mashmaster plate chiller as part of the whole Mash Paddle award dealy. Only used it once before Christmas... chilled down 38L with less water than I used to use for 20. Very happy.

Next brew the old IMC will be going into a brine bath as a pre-chiller and hopefully I will be able to cut that water usage in half again as well as chilling to or closer to lager temperatures

 

[newguy]

I've used 4 methods.
1) Kettle in bathtub full of cold water. Only works well if you have a jacuzzi to stir the water. Wastes a lot of water.
2) Kettle in snowbank. Takes forever, or seems to, when your hands are freezing.
3) Immersion chiller. Wort must be stirred to maximize the heat loss. Wastes a ton of water.
4) Counterflow chiller. What I presently use and prefer. Wastes the least water, and is very fast. I chill 10 gallons in about 20-25 minutes. In winter I can chill my wort to about 6-7C with the tap water going full out. In summer with the flow going full out the wort gets chilled to about 22-23C at best.

No chill is not something that I ever would have considered before reading all of the positive things about it here. I may try it this year sometime just to be able to say that I did.

 

[Back Yard Brewer]

(im still considering no chill as well)
have fun :beer:

Here goes debate again.Peronally I won't risk the no chill option.The chance of infection whilst you are waiting for the wort to cool to pitching temp is risky. I use one of these My Chiller Bought one from this chap a year ago, second hand. With freight still cost me $190 ($80 for freight).Get it down (temp) get it in (yeast)

BYB

 

[crozdog]

Question to all of you you use a prechiller (in either brine or ice): Why do use a prechiller ie on the input?

To my way of thinking it would be more efficient on the output where the wort temp has already dropped considerably. I know there is a greater temp difference if it is used on the input, but surely that would quickly diminish due to the ice melting as the heat is extracted from the hot wort. If used on the output wouldn't there be a greater "body" of cold to drop the warmish (20 - 30 deg) even lower?

Has any one tried both methods (ie pre or post) or wants to comment re why you to use a prechiller instead of a postchiller?

thanks,

crozdog

 

[shawnheiderich]

I use a combo of immersion until I get to about 40c then wack it in the fermenting fridge until I pitch usually only 2 to 4 hours. It works ok for me probably not the best solution but it is ok for now.

Shawn

 

[justsomeguy]

Has anyone tried Mr Malty's immersion chiller plus vortex technique? See it here: http://www.mrmalty.com/chiller.php

Link

It sounds very efficient but I'm wondering if all the testimonials are coming from brewers knee-deep in snow.

I'm currently an ice bather.

It works very well in knocking the initial heat out of the wort. I'm certainly not in knee-deep snow and find it works pretty well.

I have the following setup. March pump handling the recirculation. 18 metres of 3/8th inch copper chiller wound into double coil. A 60 litre rubbish bin containing water from the washing machine and a small submursable pump. Around ten minutes before flameout I start the whirlpool, then at flameout the submursible pump gets turned on as well. The first lot of water out of the chiller is very near boiling so gets put into a bucket to cool and go on the garden later. Once the chiller water has cooled a little more I feed it back into the bin to keep the temp coming down.

I've found that I go from boiling to around 80c in around 30 seconds and to 60 in around 4 minutes using water at around 25c. It takes around 15 minutes to get to 30c. I normally stop at that point and transfer to a fermenter and the fermenting fridge to bring it down to pitching temperature.

By using the water from the washing machine I can reuse the water several times over. As an example, I used the bin of water from the washing machine and pump to control a 'condensor' I was running on the weekend. Now that water is sitting ready to use on the next brew day. After that I think it will go onto the lawns. So using the same water three times over is a pretty reasonable effort I think.

gary.

 

[Screwtop]

Question to all of you you use a prechiller (in either brine or ice): Why do use a prechiller ie on the input?

To my way of thinking it would be more efficient on the output where the wort temp has already dropped considerably. I know there is a greater temp difference if it is used on the input, but surely that would quickly diminish due to the ice melting as the heat is extracted from the hot wort. If used on the output wouldn't there be a greater "body" of cold to drop the warmish (20 - 30 deg) even lower?

Has any one tried both methods (ie pre or post) or wants to comment re why you to use a prechiller instead of a postchiller?

thanks,

crozdog

The pre-chiller is not in the wort line, it's used to chill the water from the tap going into the chiller (plate/cfc etc) for higher efficiency/less water/lower temp.

Screwy

 

[TasChris]

Hi all,
I use a immersion chiller with the waste water going back into the rain water tank.
With my annual rainfall water use is not an issue.
Chris

 

[drsmurto]

Plate chiller - as others have said, recycle your water and the debate on its usage becomes a moot point. Not to mention the use of rain water returned back to a holding tank. With summer here i will be considering passing the hose thru an ice bath first to cool the wort down beyond the current 25C. If i can be arsed.

 

[SJW]

I used to immersion chill years ago prior to the No Chill revalation. Then I no chilled the past 20 or so AG's but lately I have been going back to the immersion, but only down to 30 or 40 deg C then transfer into the fermenter without airating and sticking in the fermentation fridge o/night and airstone in the morning and pitch. This method seems to be working good. I love no chill but there is just something about that does not sit right with me.

Steve

 

[phonos]

I chose "other", although I guess I could have also used "ice bath", as I simply dunk my kettle (with the lid on) on the step of my pool. It cools down to about 30degrees in an hour in summer. I then syphon the wort out which means there are no problems with sanitising a tap.

 

[enoch]

Has anyone tried Mr Malty's immersion chiller plus vortex technique? See it here: http://www.mrmalty.com/chiller.php
Link It sounds very efficient but I'm wondering if all the testimonials are coming from brewers knee-deep in snow.

I have done a few brews like this recently.

• 1st couple I used a counterflow chiller with tap water then recirced ice water for a lager.
• Saturday rejigged an old 18m immersion chiller and used tap water to about 30 then ice water to get down easily to 14C for a hefe.

Immersion was more water efficient but the whirlpool was much better with the CFWC. Ended up with a lot of trub going into the fermenter this time. On balance prefer the immersion as it was faster, more water efficient and has one less hard to clean bit of gear.

In both cases used 10-15kg of ice which had been frozen in ice cream containers and cracked into an esky for a 50L brew Ice was no where near gone by the end.

Recirc pump is then used to pump the cooling water out onto the garden.

 

[Jerry]

Immersion chiller.

I can get the wort down to mid 30's in anything from 30 to 60 mins depending on the season and how much I stir. Water used is generally around 40-50 ltrs which is used to wash dishes and brewing equipment.

The fermenter is then taken downstairs (temp fluctuates from around 12c in winter to a max of 23c in summer) and sits on a concrete floor until pitching temp is reached. This usually takes around 6 hrs but occasionally its left overnight.

Scott