Super Wort Cooler

Hi, I had a newb idea for a wort chiller (may already be in use) I would like some feedback on. I'm building my own copper coil chiller, for fun and savings, and I wanted to increase it's efficiency and decrease water waste. I was looking to combine the method of ice bath and immersion coil and use a recirculation pump instead of a hose. I have everything but a 50' roll of 1/2" copper. Which I can get at Menards for about 50 bucks.

So, I would use a sizable enough Rubbermaid (sanitized) with an ice bath to set the pot in. Instead of hooking my chiller to a hose and flushing the water into the yard/ drain, I would set a small submersible pump into the ice bath and let the water flow back into the tub. It would melt the ice faster but the circ water would be much colder. Plus it would create a small counterflow around the pot if I angled the return hose right. Right?

It takes a LOT of ice to do that.

Most folks will use hose water until the wort gets to ~100 or so, then swap to the ice water recirc. That method is very efficient.



It would take about 20 gallons of 32 degree water to bring 5 gallons of 200 degree wort to 70 degrees.

If you drop the wort to 100 degrees first, it would only take 4 gallons of ice water.

Huff360 said:

It takes a LOT of ice to do that.

Most folks will use hose water until the wort gets to ~100 or so, then swap to the ice water recirc. That method is very efficient.



It would take about 20 gallons of 32 degree water to bring 5 gallons of 200 degree wort to 70 degrees.

If you drop the wort to 100 degrees first, it would only take 4 gallons of ice water.

Click to expand...

Ditto!

One thing I would add is that stiring (whirlpooling) the wort in the pot will make your immersion cooler MUCH more effective.

Good to know. I just watched a youtube video of a chiller in action. Had no idea the water came out so hot. I guess that would melt the ice pretty fast. That'll be more important when I start doing full boils on the next batch and won't be adding cold top-up. Currently I only need to get down to about 90 before top-up anyway, but 3 gal boils are soon to be a thing of the past for me.