Wort Chilling

[AZBeer]

Hey All,

I have an NZ/ AU hop IPA chilling right now, and this is by far the biggest time suck of brewing.

I have a SS coil chiller, but for this brew I didn't even bother. Honestly, I don't see much of a difference in the time it takes to chill down my wort to a pitching temp with the chiller vs an ice bath.

Anybody have any suggestions on speeding up the process?

I seem to get down to 90-100F no problem. Then it stalls. I am considering a SS Brewtech Brewbucket with an FTSs, but that may be a bit before I am ready to lay out that kind of cash. So I am curious if anybody has any good tips for the mean time.

 

[soccerdad]

My contrarian opinion - chilling is overrated. Just let it cool overnight.

 

[Qhrumphf]

Get it to your 90-100, and then instead of tap water, use a pond pump and blow ice water through it. Boiling to lager pitching in 20 mins.

 

[Gravity]

Get it to your 90-100, and then instead of tap water, use a pond pump and blow ice water through it. Boiling to lager pitching in 20 mins.

This works really well

i use an aquarium pump, best 10$ I ever spent

 

[LittleRiver]

Using a cheap pump I first recirculate from a 5gal bucket of tap water. Then I recirculate from a cooler filled with ice and 5gal of pre-chilled water (I have a mostly empty shop fridge, so I can put a 5gal bucket in it to chill water). Takes about 10 min to get to pitching temp, using a homemade 50ft "ribcage" immersion chiller.

The bucket of now hot tap water gets used for cleanup. The water in the cooler is used for rinsing.

 

[brandonlovesbeer]

Take this for what it's worth.

Here is what I use
- 2 Rubbermaid trash cans. One filled with ice (from one of those 20lbs for $1 kiosks) and the other catches the run-off (water the plants after it cools down).
- 1000gal/hr Water pump (http://a.co/diehO7D) submerged in the trashcan full of ice water.
- 1/2 inch 50ft Copper Wort Chiller (http://a.co/f8VplV1)

All of this connected to my garden hose.
During a brew day in December I timed the cool down. It took 20 minutes from Boiling/Flame Out to 70ºF pitching temperature using this method.

Here is a video of the basics behind the process.
https://youtu.be/yqBJ-AuspK0

 

[AZBeer]

Interesting, thanks guys. I have played around with using an old aquarium pump, but it has an MTP outlet and I just never got around to it. I didn't think about just picking up a cheap little maxijet or something like that and the hose will probably just fit on the outlet (At least that what I do with an old maxijet for water changes on my reef tank).

 

[TungstenBeer]

Interesting, thanks guys. I have played around with using an old aquarium pump, but it has an MTP outlet and I just never got around to it. I didn't think about just picking up a cheap little maxijet or something like that and the hose will probably just fit on the outlet (At least that what I do with an old maxijet for water changes on my reef tank).

MPT? If it's a common size and you have a homebrew store near you, you can probably pick up a cheap $3-6 barbed fitting and clamp your hose to that.

 

[tooldudetool]

Use your immersion chiller to drop it down to 100 degrees F or whatever it gets to quickly, then put it in the icebath. Should work much more quickly..

 

[AZBeer]

MPT? If it's a common size and you have a homebrew store near you, you can probably pick up a cheap $3-6 barbed fitting and clamp your hose to that.

I don't know why I was trying to match fittings and screw the cost down to the pump...simple solutions.