Wort Chiller - Minimal Water Waste....

[bear09]

Hey all get this...

When it comes to cooling a wort a wort chiller is best. As we know though this is a blatent waste of perfectly good ( and not to mention scarce ) water. I do still use one but I use it very efficiantly and I use bugger all water. here is how....

Now a hard core brewer will scough at this. Once you turn the water on always ensure that the water coming out the other side is as hot as possible. That way you are getting maximum heat trasfer. Slow the flow. Once the water on the outgoing end cools a little... circulate the wort... NOW WAIT - I KNOW THAT THIS WILL STIR UP THE PROTIEN TRUB BUT PLEASE READ ON....

Circulating the wort will rapidly make the outgoing water heat up again ensuring maximum heat transfer and minimal waste. Keep circulating and regulating water flow until you can touch the pot on the outside. Now at this stage you will have a very cloudy wort with protein and hop residue spread everywhere. At this point take your pot and sit it in the ice bucket for half an hour. You will be amazed how the cold makes everything drop straight to the bottom.

Now before you bag this - try it. I have been making brilliantly clear beers with this method and I seriously rekcon I can cool down 15 litres of wort with say 20 litres from the tap and say 2 litres of ice.

A good cold break leads to better beer - not mention it gets fermenting quicker and you end up with the finished product and day earlier :beer: .

What does everyone think? Or am I a water wasting fool???

Cheers!! :super:

 

[Bobby]

A good cold break leads to better beer - not mention it gets fermenting quicker and you end up with the finished product and day earlier :beer: .

you base this on what?

 

[Jye]

Hey bear09,

This is the same method as the Whirlpool immersion chiller, it works very fast and I can get below 50C in about 5min... the next 30C takes a bit longer. I also recycle about 60L of 2C water through the IM chiller, this is then placed back in the fridge for next time once cooled.

 

[bear09]

you base this on what?

On all the books that I have read. A quick cold break apparaently helps for clarity and reducing infection risk. I am well aware that it is not essential but micro breweries who make the worlds best beer do it - It must be beneficial.

 

[bear09]

Hey bear09,

This is the same method as the Whirlpool immersion chiller, it works very fast and I can get below 50C in about 5min... the next 30C takes a bit longer. I also recycle about 60L of 2C water through the IM chiller, this is then placed back in the fridge for next time once cooled.

Thats the spirit - it just takes a little thought. Plonking your chiller in the wort and leaving it stagnent is of course only going to cool the water around the coil. Its then the water that cools the water - this leads to time and water waste.

Im no expert but recirculation and flow regulation do help.....

 

[bugwan]

As Jye said bear09, gently whirlpooling the wort, counter to the rotation of the water through the copper will greatly improve chilling, due to surface area increase.

Having said all that, I don't chill at all, so I probably don't know best!

 

[domonsura]

I have 2 x 200 litre drum rainwater tanks hooked up specifically for running through my counterflow.

Using an old pool pump, it draws the water from one tank, runs it through a water/ice bottle bath just prior to running through the counterflow,

and then runs back into the other 200 litre tank which is also the rainwater catch tank and has an overflow into the first tank. the idea is that I fill my HLT and a few buckets of water for the brewday cleaning water from the catch tank. That reduces the level of the tank enough that the returning warm water from the counterflow does not overflow into the supply tank for quite some time (not at all if you empty the return tank completely). So no water is wasted at all, and none of it came from the town supply anyway.
It cost me about $70 to make, but I picked up the pool pump for nothing and already had the copper for the bath. Used it for the first time on the weekend (put it together the night before) and it dropped the temp of the wort from 95 deg/ ~40 degrees in one pass, but I put the bottles of frozen water in the bath tank too late for it to cool the water tank down before using, and discovered a kink in the hose from the supply tank in the morning....so it probably wasn't running as much water through as it could have been and the ice-water bath probably wasn't as cold as it could've been......
A little bit of mucking around will sort those little problems out though, and it'll be guilt free counterflow use.

 

[Chris]

On all the books that I have read. A quick cold break apparaently helps for clarity and reducing infection risk. I am well aware that it is not essential but micro breweries who make the worlds best beer do it - It must be beneficial.

You also dont have to wait for it to cool down over 24hrs before you can pitch.


My chiller is made from 4m of 3/8 and 7/8 copper left over from a split sytem a/c install that I annealed over my nasa and formed into a convoluted copper chiller, I adjust the feed until it comes out at 30 degrees which goes straight into the fermenter in the fridge which is set at ferm temp. the tepid water from the chiller goes to a drip irrigation system on my vegi patch.
I've quite often thought about the waste heat lost from chilling all that boiling wort, maybe rig it so that a hot bath becomes part of brew day.

edit: spelling and pics added.

 

[Josh]

I use a pre-chiller after the initial heat has been lowered.

I top up the pool whenever I brew.

A nice warm bath could be a great idea too though.

My main problem is that I don't have a tap on my kettle, so once the wort is chilled to pitching temps, I still pour the contents through a strainer into the fermenter. Not ideal, but I don't want to modify this kettle as I'll soon be in the market for a bigger one.

 

[Tony]

I have been doing this for years. I turn on the water to my chiller and stir the hot wort over the chiller till i can touch the kettle. I then let it go and stir it every few minuites.

I find when i get it down to pitching temp it only takes a few minuites to settle out as the break is fantastic, thick and heavy.

I get almost 2 inches of settled break in a 50 liter batch in the bottom of an 18 gallon keg.

I am planing to set up a line to recirculate the wort over the chiller using the pump and worlpool.

I have recently taken to a water waste free chilling method using recirculated water from my swimming pool.

I posted some pics but i dont think anyone was real interested.

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...showtopic=15603

cheers

 

[Dr Gonzo]

I saw Domonsura's system in action on the weekend. Very practical and effective.
I'll be doing the same as soon as i find a cheap pump, and recycling from my rainwater tank.

 

[johnno]

I posted some pics but i dont think anyone was real interested.

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...showtopic=15603

cheers

I thought that was the kreepy krawley, cleaning the pool.

cheers
johnno

 

[Tony]

ahhhh if it could clean the pool to i would be very happy

It cleaned a 10 inch round circle on the step

cheers

 

[johnno]

Well I am still being lazy and doing the no chill, but will start using the chiller again now that I have a water tank.

If i get it down to28-30 C I am happy with that. A few more hours in the fridge and it is ready to go.

cheers
johnno

 

[leeboy]

Great work on the water saving!!! I collect off my garage roof into an old wine barrell and use it for my heat exchange. Means the lime + mandarine trees get a great watering on brew day!!! Soon to be hop rhizomes also...