Wort Chiller Water

[MyQul]

Just wondering what you guys who use a copper coil wort chiller do with the water to cool the wort as is seems like quite a lot of water is needed and if not used would be a big waste.

As a do Maxi BIAB I use ice to both cool the wort and dilute at the same time plus a few PET bottle full of ice, so have never used a wort chiiler

 

[danb]

I don't do anything with it. I suppose I ought to really but by chilling time nothing needs cleaning or rinsing.

 

[rpt]

How much water does the chiller use? I use a no-chill cube but have considered building an immersion chiller. However, I have read it can use 400L of water which really puts me off.

 

[Pjam]

I have read it can use 400L of water which really puts me off.

:shock: You got some kinda water shortage in Yorkshire? ............. Seriously though, your right. We've had so much rain recently but that's not always the case ........... my meter will be spinning like a top!

 

[nobyipa]

How much water does the chiller use? I use a no-chill cube but have considered building an immersion chiller. However, I have read it can use 400L of water which really puts me off.

9 litres a min on full pelt
so times that by your cooling time

 

[MyQul]

How much water does the chiller use? I use a no-chill cube but have considered building an immersion chiller. However, I have read it can use 400L of water which really puts me off.

9 litres a min on full pelt
so times that by your cooling time

I've read other poster cooling their wort in about 20mins using a cooling coil. So time 9L per min that's 180L :shock:
And I thought I was extravagantly wasteful freezing 7L in pet bottles then tipping it when its defrosted

 

[Algernon]

If you brew often enough, i.e. back to back brews, you can dump the hot coolant back into your HLT ready for the next brew. This was what they did down at the microbrewery I was lucky enough to spend a day at last weekend. For my purposes, I just chill overnight at the moment. You could maybe (part) fill a bath with hot water or something? Over summer it would be good for the garden once cool enough not to injure plants.

 

[jonnymorris]

400L!?! I use about 30L to get down to 35degC. Takes 20mins.

 

[beermaker]

Takes me about 30 litres to cool 8 gallons from boil to pitching temperature with a 10m CFC. Definitely worth building if you have a pump. As for what I do with the coolant, as previously mentioned it goes into my HLT and is either used for another brew or used for washing down the copper and flushing out the pumps and the CFC.

 

[WER]

I've been thinking about chiller water as well and had come to the conclusion that a submersible pump in a large bucket (spare FV?) should work. Pump water out of the bucket, into the coil and the used water goes back in the bucket.

Admittedly the reservoir water would get warm fairly quickly at the start and may need to be changed but as long as the water running through the coil is cooler than the wort then it will still have a cooling action. Depending on where you're doing your brewing the reservoir could even be outside while you're chilling inside to help with cooling the outflow.

It may take a little longer, but in these environmentally friendly times it should save water over running the outflow down the drain.

 

[jonnymorris]

I don't think that's going to work. The run off water from my chiller at the start of the chill is 70-80degC. Unless your reservoir is a pond this isn't going to chill anything when it gets pumped back through the chiller. If it is a pond your fish may not be best pleased.

 

[graysalchemy]

brew 55l brew lengths and probably use about 100L of water. What you want is the lowest flow you can get with out efecting cooling. What you need to do is turn it on full tyhe cut down the flow to a point just before the temp in the out flow starts to drop. I use the first 30-40L for cleaning up with the rest goes down thedrain.

Using frozen PETS is not ideal as unles you sanitise them they are not going to be safe to use and even then the least you put in the wort the better at this stage.

Have you thought of a no chill method ie a 5L jerry can which you fill with the hot wort, seal it up (it will be sterile because the wort is just off boiling) and leave it to cool naturally. :thumb:

 

[WER]

Fair point - just a thought. Back to the drawing board then

Perhaps 2l bottles of ice in the reservoir......posting.php?mode=reply&f=36&t=51414#

Or, as beermaker and algenon said earlier on send the chiller water back into the HLT for the next brew. Get some casks and start a production line!

 

[graysalchemy]

I have used the cooling water for the next brew before now, works well. :thumb:

 

[Swift Pint]

Just wondering what you guys who use a copper coil wort chiller do with the water to cool the wort as is seems like quite a lot of water is needed and if not used would be a big waste.

As a do Maxi BIAB I use ice to both cool the wort and dilute at the same time plus a few PET bottle full of ice, so have never used a wort chiiler

How does the maxi biab work? I thought with BIAB you used all of the water up front in the mash.

 

[MyQul]

Just wondering what you guys who use a copper coil wort chiller do with the water to cool the wort as is seems like quite a lot of water is needed and if not used would be a big waste.

As a do Maxi BIAB I use ice to both cool the wort and dilute at the same time plus a few PET bottle full of ice, so have never used a wort chiiler

How does the maxi biab work? I thought with BIAB you used all of the water up front in the mash.

Basically you make a concentrated wort, sparge twice, add sparge to the boil to keep the pot topped up almost to the rim during the boil, then dilute the concentrated wort (using the ice) in the FV.

http://www.biabrewer.info/viewtopic.php?f=89&t=352

There's no mention of ice in the above but I prefer to use it instead of putting my pot in the sink

 

[beermaker]

got me thinking about water usage now! I don't have the room at present but if/when I do, I was wondering about the workability of having a tank for "clean" effluent such as CFC coolant. The water can go into the tank and stored. It could then be used for subsequent brews and such. Obviously you'd need to drain it down to clean from time to time and if you were only brewing once in a blue moon I think the problems with growths and off flavours would be too much of an issue but if you were brewing regularly it could have some potential, especially if you were on a meter.