Wort Chiller not great

[detunednath]

Howdy. I'm looking for some advice or wort chillers. I've built a copper two coil system. First coil is immersed in ice. Second immersion coil in wort. Connected by garden hose between two coils.

I can drop wort from 100°C to 30°C in 30 minutes - WINNING - but won't go any lower than 28°C

Any tips for making chiller coil more effective? It's a double coil, very tightly wound. Would space between the coil winds help?

In pic - left is immersed in ice, right is in wort. Cheers!

 

[Maheel]

is the ice bath coil filled with hose water or wort ?

if the ice coil is like a ice prechiller for tap water i would change that

1st i would cool using tap water then i would use the ice chilller once down closer to tap water temps
i would run the ice coil last to try to get below tap temps

space between coil will help a bit
so will stiring the wort

 

[Adr_0]

I would use the doubled coil in the ice bath. Make sure you shake them both around if you can

AnD soak the wort one in citric acid or vinegar before you soak in in wort...

 

[Drew]

I reckon that you've got so much copper there that changes to the spacings is not likely to make much difference. (Nice copper!).

Do you stir the wort? Do you stir the ice water? Motion is the key of heat transfer.

It's also quicker to cool down the wort if you first use just tap water to knock most of the heat off (say down to 30 or 40 deg?). And then connect the pre chiller.

That's all I've got..

 

[wynnum1]

Ice is only needed when it cools down to near room temperature.Room temperature water will cool hot wort.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Ditch the coil and make an FSM immersion chiller.

A gentle stir and agitation of the wort will help LOTS.

 

[Bribie G]

To me, asking the #1 coil to chill water by transferring the heat of the water through the copper layer to the ice seems a little inefficient when you could be simply pumping ice water directly through the coil that sits in the wort. How about adding a $20 pond pump to the equation and try just the double coil in the wort. Recirculate back to the ice bucket until all the ice has gone. I've seen this done heaps of times. I've actually bought a pond pump myself but every time I've intended to set it up my 60L FV has been in use (where the ice is going to go).

Excuse kindergarten diagram but basically ice water pumped through the coil by the submersible pump and if it works for you, I'm sure the spare coil will be easily sold. Guy who regularly won Nats with lagers uses this system in Qld, seen it drop wort to pitching temp very quickly.




If water usage isn't a problem for you, perhaps do a pre run with just tap water when the difference in temperatures between the wort and the cooling water is at its max, then switch to ice in the bath for later stage.

And yes, it would help to "birds nest" the coil as far as possible without breaking anything.

 

[Adr_0]

The problem with that Bribie is that you are then losing your differential halfway through, because the heat you take outiin the right bucket you are then recycling back through the pump. So it will be worse than normal tap wate.

Pump works if you are topping it up with freshttap water, then moving the hot water to your mash tun to clean it out.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

There was a 500 page debate on this topic lest year.

It was almost as epic as one or two of the ..umm...yest threads... :lol:

 

[Bribie G]

Yes what I meant was use fresh tap water first and pump waste out to garden or something, then switch to recirculating with the ice. The blue stuff in my kindy diagram represents ice and water mix.

ed: When I lived on Bribie we had level n restrictions where n is a large number, hence the use of extreme water saving cooling setups. The one I described was common with the PUBS club guys. Then I seem to remember that the Garden Gnome, when he got in, scrapped water restrictions as the water companies who no doubt donate to his LNP weren't selling enough water.

 

[Adr_0]

There was a 500 page debate on this topic lest year.

It was almost as epic as one or two of the ..umm...yest threads... :lol:

So should we rehydrate yeast with cooling water or not?

 

[wynnum1]

or Chinese Hops? What Next

 

[Bribie G]

Pity we don't have a qualified thermal engineer on the forum who could do a "coils 101" sticky for us.

Is there a doctor in the house? :blink:

 

[Adr_0]

Pity we don't have a qualified thermal engineer on the forum who could do a "coils 101" sticky for us.

Is there a doctor in the house? :blink:

I'm only a process engineer, so can't help you there...

 

[NewtownClown]

"Coils ain't coils, Sol"

 

[Parks]

Ice is only needed when it cools down to near room temperature.Room temperature water will cool hot wort.

Absolutely. Do not use your ice until you are trying to drop your wort from <40 deg to pitching temp (ideally <30 deg). This may just mean not dropping your ice-bath coil until you've taken the majority of the heat out of your wort.

 

[Snow]

In addition to Parks' advice, I would add that adding salt to your ice bath will make it colder and colder for longer. That's how my old ice cream maker worked.

Cheers - Snow.

 

[detunednath]

Gents - this was my first post & I'm overwhelmed by the response! Thank you so much!

I used to recirculate into an ice bucket with a pond pump, but ice just melted way too fast. Already doing the ice and salt water which brings the ice coil down to 0° - sometimes probe is even reading a little under!

Last brew I had ice ice coil into wort coil running out to top up the pool. Couldn't get under 28°C

Next brew I'll try tap water til 40° then drop the first coil into an ice bath to bring it down to pitching temp - or would switching to a recirculating pond pump into ice water work better?

Trying to hit under 12° for lagers at the moment. Failing this . . . Winter is coming. Albeit slowly in Brisbane.

Cheers!

 

[yum beer]

I use my chiller to get to around 28c..in around 30 minutes then transfer to fermenter and into ferment fridge set to desired temp and let it do its thing.
I pitch yeast for ales straight away and temp down to right place in about 4 hours. Lagers take a bit longer but can get yeast in and active within a safe timeframe.

Above methods of late ice should help to get the lower temps but as you temp differential becomes smaller your cooling efficiency really drops off as well, if you have the water to waste use go for it.
I have found my beers have stepped up since using the chiller, probably last 6-7 brews, getting the temp below hop utilisation temps is the main thing then getting yeast in as quick as you can, probably depends on what timeframe you are happy to run with...it work for me as I said above.

 

[brewermp]

Next brew I'll try tap water til 40° then drop the first coil into an ice bath to bring it down to pitching temp - or would switching to a recirculating pond pump into ice water work

Yeah get a pond pump dude. Make sure the ice bath and the kettle are fairly level in order to make it easier on the pump