Wort chiller preference

[richardagutteridge]

: HI all. I'm making my own chiller from copper tube. Would it be better to send the hot wort through the tube,via a cold bath, or put the chiller into the wort?

As a gardener I would prefer the former as this would not waste water, What do others think :wha:

Regards Richard

 

[Cussword]

Some people who put the chiller in the wort save the heated water to clean up with :whistle:

 

[jamesb]

The cold bath idea won't work. The water would heat up quickly and would stop being able to cool.

I'd just dump the chiller in the wort and use the waste hot water to clean your equipment with.

There is a thing known as a counter flow chiller where the hot wort is sent through the copper pipe. The copper pipe is in a hose pipe with cold water travelling in the opposite direction to the wort. These can be more efficient than an immersion chiller but have the disadvantage of not being as easy to clean.

 

[Sean_Mc]

Hi Richard, you'd also need a suitable pump realistically to move the wort.
On a water meter here and am dreading the next bill coming with my IC

 

[jamesb]

Hi Richard, you'd also need a suitable pump to move the wort.

Not strictly true, you could use gravity given the right design.

 

[Sean_Mc]

Edited post :lol:

 

[BarnsleyBrewer]

The cold bath idea won't work. The water would heat up quickly and would stop being able to cool.

I'd just dump the chiller in the wort and use the waste hot water to clean your equipment with.
.

I agree with those two comments James. :clap: I used the bath method when first started and as you wrote, it's not very effective..... plus it was also very risky carrying the very hot wort through the house.
I use the waste hot water to clean too.

I use a single coil immersion chiller, will be a double when I get some more copper, works great. :thumb:

 

[Moley]

I used an immersion chiller for the first time at the weekend and was quite amazed how effective it was. The hot water coming out the other end was absolutely scalding at the start, and some went back into the sink for washing up later. The hose feeding it doesn't need to be going full blast, so I wouldn't imagine it would be too costly for anyone on metered water.

 

[Sean_Mc]

Not on a meter then Moley

 

[jamesb]

What is the average cost of water per m^3 ?

 

[Sean_Mc]

No idea James that's probably why I'm dreading it coming.

If its high I'll blame Mrs Mc and her tomatoes

 

[ano]

What is the average cost of water per m^3 ?

Isn't it like £2? I've never looked at a water bill tbh. I know you may know this but for the benefit of others 1 unit = 1 cubic metre = 1000 litres.

If you're a gardener you may have a water butt which you could pump through an immersion chiller to cool it from boiling to 30 without much trouble. You may need mains water to drop it to pitching temp though.

 

[Lurch]

There is a thing known as a counter flow chiller where the hot wort is sent through the copper pipe. The copper pipe is in a hose pipe with cold water travelling in the opposite direction to the wort. These can be more efficient than an immersion chiller but have the disadvantage of not being as easy to clean.

I just pump some of the 'waste' hot water back through, works well. Before next use it gets a relatively strong bleach solution and a rinse.
I get maybe 10-15l of water through for a 5 gallon cool and it is very quick.

 

[beer taster]

: HI all. I'm making my own chiller from copper tube. Would it be better to send the hot wort through the tube,via a cold bath, or put the chiller into the wort?

As a gardener I would prefer the former as this would not waste water, What do others think :wha:

Regards Richard

If you are really keen to save water you can have 2 water butts and pump from one through the IC to the other. I cool my wort by pumping from a water butt. The first 30L or so is kept for cleaning and rest of the water is collected in a few buckets and returned to the water butt ready to use on the garden or the next brew day.

 

[evanvine]

I've always thought that the advantage of the IC is that the Cold Break material gets filtered out by the hop bed.
On the other hand the CFC is much quicker and more efficient.
I use the CFC and double drop.

 

[unclepumble]

I use an Immersion chiller on the 5 gal set up, and it works well, they actually work more effectively with a slowish flow, as with any chiller the coolant (tap water in this case) needs x amount of contact time to enable it to remove heat from the product being chilled, to great a flow of coolant and it starts to become inefficent, its a balancing act to find the best flow rate, but it helps if you have a digital temp probe as you can see when you have flow set at the optimum rate, the hot water comes in very handy for cleaning.

In the 150ltr brewery I use a Therminator Plate heat exchanger, this gives plenty of bang per buck, I can chill 150ltr from boiling to 20 deg in about 40 mins recirculating with a pump, Plate heat exchangers are very efficient, but maybe a bit over the top if you are only doing 5 gal.

UP

 

[ano]

I've always thought that the advantage of the IC is that the Cold Break material gets filtered out by the hop bed.

I recall a homebrewer using a CFC and consistently winning prizes for his beers, so the loss you get by using a cfc can be worked around. And if the break has been removed from solution would it make that much difference if it fermented on top of it?

 

[Aleman]

CFC / Plate Chillers are really good . .. Yes you have the disadvantage that they allow the cold break through to the FV . . .Simply settle for a couple of hours and then transfer to another FV .. . . leave behind all the break. . . .Also it is possible for the yeast to synthesise ergosterol (used in cell membrane production) from some of the cold break so there is a reason to leave 'some' behind.

And of course if you are using a pump then you can recirc through the chiller while cooling meaning break gets trapped in the hop bed . . . not that I am convinced that it does a brilliant job anyway . . . a pellet whole hop bed does a better job . . . I'm looking forward to the day when I get Connor all ready to drink beer as I'll be able to let the break settle and then drop it

 

[BarnsleyBrewer]

Not on a meter then Moley

No water meter here either

 

[unclepumble]

Not on a meter then Moley

No water meter here either

I just love the avatar John It fits this post perfect, :thumb: its been making me chuckle to myself for a bit now.

UP