Powering a wort chiller

[jceg316]

Hello everyone. It's my birthday coming up so this is a good excuse to get people to buy me a bunch of brewing equipment. I'm still thinking of ways to cool my beer rapidly and would like a copper wort chiller. The trouble is I don's have an outdoor tap and my kitchen tap can't take hose attachments.

I was wondering whether this would work: I will fill my bottling bucket with ice cold water, attach the tap to one end of the hose and turn it on. Would this work or am I missing something? Wouldn't wanna spend £45 on a chiller for it not to be any use to me.

As a side note, am gonna collect the refuse water in a bucket and recycle it.

Thanks in advance!

 

[jceg316]

Hello everyone. It's my birthday coming up so this is a good excuse to get people to buy me a bunch of brewing equipment. I'm still thinking of ways to cool my beer rapidly and would like a copper wort chiller. The trouble is I don's have an outdoor tap and my kitchen tap can't take hose attachments.

I was wondering whether this would work: I will fill my bottling bucket with ice cold water, attach the tap to one end of the hose and turn it on. Would this work or am I missing something? Wouldn't wanna spend £45 on a chiller for it not to be any use to me.

As a side note, am gonna collect the refuse water in a bucket and recycle it.

Thanks in advance!

Forgot to mention: The wort will be on the floor and the bucket of ice water will be high up.

 

[IslandLizard]

It takes more than 5 gallons of cold water to chill 5 gallons of boiling wort down to 65°F.

Besides, using ice water to chill boiling wort is a waste of ice. Regular cool tap water is just fine to get the wort down to within 10-20°F of that tap water's temp. Then chill with ice water to drop down the final 10-20° to where you want it to be for pitching.

How about using no-chill?

 

[brewingupward]

I'm not sure the water will actually flow with only gravity as your pressure. If it does flow I can't imagine it being very fast. You've got have some pressure to push the water through the chiller. Why can't you get an adapter for you sink? They make all types of adapters that just might do the trick.

As an alternative that would be more expensive... you could buy a pump to put between your bucket and the wort chiller to get some pressure! Would be total overkill but would work if you had the right fittings.

 

[jceg316]

I'm not sure the water will actually flow with only gravity as your pressure. If it does flow I can't imagine it being very fast. You've got have some pressure to push the water through the chiller. Why can't you get an adapter for you sink? They make all types of adapters that just might do the trick.

As an alternative that would be more expensive... you could buy a pump to put between your bucket and the wort chiller to get some pressure! Would be total overkill but would work if you had the right fittings.

That's what I was afraid of. I was thinking of alternatively attaching my auto syphon to it but then the flow of water would be really small.

My kitchen tap is an odd shape and not even sure where to start looking for the right attachment.

In terms of 5 gal not being enough, that's not an issue. I can top up the water easily.

 

[Dixon9717]

I ice bath my wort and put a pump on the immersion chiller and use the same ice water to pump through it and recirculate into the bath. Takes less then 15 minutes and 3-4 gallons of water and 2 bags of ice.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[poptarts]

I use a trashcan and a sump pump in the winter since I don't have the hose spigot turned on. The better news is you can keep reusing the same ~20 gallons of water for cooling several batches in a row.
I have some pictures of the process here
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/50-5-8-whirlpool-immersion-chiller-462405/index2.html#post5977504
and that chiller is for sale right now if you want to own a monster.

 

[flars]

Tap into the cold water supply line under the sink to add a "T" with a shut off valve. Attach your water supply line to it for the chiller.

 

[jceg316]

I use a trashcan and a sump pump in the winter since I don't have the hose spigot turned on. The better news is you can keep reusing the same ~20 gallons of water for cooling several batches in a row.
I have some pictures of the process here
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/50-5-8-whirlpool-immersion-chiller-462405/index2.html#post5977504
and that chiller is for sale right now if you want to own a monster.

So you use a pump to move the water through the chiller? And is this basically a counterflow system you have set up?

Dixon - what sort of pump do you have?

 

[poptarts]

no its an immersion chiller, but instead of a hose hooked up to like my houses water supply I use a sump pump in a can full of water. basically make my own running water.

 

[drewsk]

I have a utility pump hooked up to my home made immersion chiller to pump first "room temp" water, then ice water. It allows me to recirculate the water from my rain barrels through the chiller (and recapture it). The ice water is dumped into the barrels after it has melted - very little water waste from the chill process.

 

[sfish]

you can buy a small water pump and hook it up to a drill.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Flotec-Drill-225-gal-Per-Hour-Pump-FPDMP21SA/100145129

 

[Dixon9717]

I use a utility pump that I already had from a flooding issue a few years ago. Got it at Home Depot. you probably can get a cheaper pump but I just used what I had on hand.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[dyqik]

Are you sure you can't attach anything to your tap? If you have a mixer tap with an aerator, then you should be able to unscrew the aerator (may need pliers) and put a garden hose attachment in it's place.

I have a combined sprayhead/aerator on the end of a hose type thing in my kitchen which looks almost impossible to attach a hose to, but the aerator unscrews and I can fit a dishwasher type quick release adaptor in it's place, with an adaptor to a garden hose. The garden hose adaptor won't go directly on though.

Alternatively, you may be able to tee off an attachment from your dishwasher or laundry installation if you have one.

 

[jceg316]

Thanks for your help, I'll have a look at sourcing these things in the UK. Before I go ahead and buy this, has anyone tried using gravity instead of a pump?

 

[Black Island Brewer]

You might consider taking advantage of the power of a siphon. If you add a long outlet hose off your wort chiller, starting at the edge of your pot and dropping as low as possible, you'll create a stronger siphon. Between the elevated level of the pot and the low level of the outlet hose, you MAY be able to create a strong enough siphon to get water to flow. It might be worth a test before you buy a pump. Elevating the boil kettle may help as well, so your outlet hose creates an even stronger siphon.

 

[Smellyglove]

IMHO the way easiest solution would just go and get an adapter like already mentioned. I doubt your faucet is unique, unless home-made, so somewhere your should find an adapter for it.

 

[Owly055]

If you have a place to go with your waste water, just start a siphon from a sink full of cold water... suck or whatever is necessary to get it started, With suitable fall it will flow steadily and you will just have to keep the flow into the sink tuned.

Most kitchen sinks have an aerator that screws on....... a possible point of attachment, but it takes some ingenuity to connect to an aerator. They are fairly standard thread. Find an aerator with a matching thread and glue something into it to provide a connection point (JB Weld). You can then screw the aerator off and put your modified aerator on...... You of course pull the "garbage" out of the aerator you are using.

Look under the sink. I don't know what you have for plumbing, but most sinks these days have a flex hose attaching to the faucet underneath. The nut on the flex hose (either end) will unscrew easily. Install a Tee and a faucet under the sink for your chiller. If you have copper pipe or PEX, a Sharkbite fitting works great. Just saw the copper or cut the pex, and slip a sharkbite tee on........all you have to do is push the ends in. A short piece of CPVC, or PEX can go to a faucet (Sharkbites work on CPVC, but not PVC. CPVC is the stuff used on hot water, and is slightly smaller than PVC.


H.W.