rbhargan
New Member
I have just gotten back into brewing after a long hiatus and have found myself trying to decide between immersion or counterflow chilling (I have both).
As I understand it, one of the reasons for chilling wort as quickly as possible is to maximize the cold break and precipitate out the maximum amount of proteins and tannins from the wort. However, you also want to minimize the amount of break material that finds its way into the fermenter.
It seems to me that an immersion chiller is the best way to do this. A counterflow chiller may chill the wort quicker, but it is also going to leave all of the cold break material in the fermenter.
I suppose that if you are using a conical fermenter, you can let the trub settle and the drain it off, but for small batch brewers using carboys, it would seem that an immersion chiller is the way to go.
Does this make sense, or am I missing something?
As I understand it, one of the reasons for chilling wort as quickly as possible is to maximize the cold break and precipitate out the maximum amount of proteins and tannins from the wort. However, you also want to minimize the amount of break material that finds its way into the fermenter.
It seems to me that an immersion chiller is the best way to do this. A counterflow chiller may chill the wort quicker, but it is also going to leave all of the cold break material in the fermenter.
I suppose that if you are using a conical fermenter, you can let the trub settle and the drain it off, but for small batch brewers using carboys, it would seem that an immersion chiller is the way to go.
Does this make sense, or am I missing something?