recommendation for wort chiller

[IPAman]

Well I purchased a 15.5g keg brew pot today. Want to brew 5g batches maybe going to 10 g in the future, any recommendations for a good wort chiller to fit this type of set up? thanks

 

[mbird]

I have used 50' of 1/2 copper coil emersion chiller successfully for many years. Recently I purchased the Schirron plate chiller (the small less expensive one) and a pump. Now I use the emersion chiller to pre-chill the water going into the plate chiller.
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[missing link]

I have a 25 ft 1/4 inch immersion chiller. Pretty wimpy on 5 gallon batches, very slow on 10. My buddy has a 1/2 inch 50ft chiller that drops 10 gallons down in a hurry. It works great for 5 gallons even though only about half of it is in the wort.

Linc

 

[IPAman]

missing link: that was one of my first thoughts if brewing 5g batches was the wort chiller even going to be in the wort? I assume that since it worked great for you this is not an issue?

 

[nathan]

for almost the same price as a 50' immersion chiller (maybe cheaper), you can do a 25' counterflow chiller. Use the thread tutorial and it's simple. If you can't sweat copper pipe, learn. It's sooooo easy to learn. Then you can get some hoses and garden hose qd's, a cheapo pump, and use the ice-water method to conserve water and reach lager temps easy.

FWIW, thrumometers are cool, but their range doesn't reach lager temps.

 

[HenryHill]

For a keggle, and 5g and 10g brews:

 

[HenryHill]

IPAman, your inbox is too full.

 

[TwoHeadsBrewing]

I use a counterflow chiller, build from Bobby_M's tutorial. Works great, even when you have warm tapwater the wort coming out will the within 1-2F of the tap water. I built it with a friend, so we split the cost...which was about $50 each. Not bad, and works for whatever size batch you make. One thing I love about it is that you can rack to your fermenter AND chill at the same time. Shaves a few minutes off the brew day for me.

However, a nice 3/8" x 50 foot immersion chiller would be great too. Either one for 5 or 10 gallon batches is a good option.

 

[McKBrew]

I'm building a 50' immersion chiller when my copper gets here. Now is a great time to buy copper.

 

[SumnerH]

I've heard a few people on another board say that they went back to immersion chillers after using counterflow chillers for a while, do to ease of use/cleaning on the immersion ones and figuring that recirculating ice water through an IC makes it cool the wort almost as quickly as a CF chiller. Anyone have thoughts on that?

Right now I'm leaning toward an immersion chiller with recirculated ice water.

 

[mbird]

I think the immersion chiller is convenient and easy to use. When it comes right down to it for me, the amount of water I waste with the immersion was what made me move to the plate chiller. Using the immersion chiller I would try to water the lawn and such to recycle but I can do that too with the plate chiller and conveniently pump the wort directly to my fermenter. I save time and water. It is also easy to clean.
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[SumnerH]

I think the immersion chiller is convenient and easy to use. When it comes right down to it for me, the amount of water I waste with the immersion was what made me move to the plate chiller. Using the immersion chiller I would try to water the lawn and such to recycle but I can do that too with the plate chiller and conveniently pump the wort directly to my fermenter. I save time and water.

The ones I'm talking about are re-circulating immersion chillers, you pump icewater through it out of a single bucket so no water waste (the outlet drops the water back in the bucket to be pumped through again). They seem pretty popular on another board.

 

[TwoHeadsBrewing]

I've heard a few people on another board say that they went back to immersion chillers after using counterflow chillers for a while, do to ease of use/cleaning on the immersion ones and figuring that recirculating ice water through an IC makes it cool the wort almost as quickly as a CF chiller. Anyone have thoughts on that?

Right now I'm leaning toward an immersion chiller with recirculated ice water.

I could see a CFC being a problem if you didn't flush it out and sanitize it properly after use. However, if you have a pump it's really easy to hot sanitize. I start a recirculation back into the kettle about 5-10 minutes before the end of the boil. If you're wanting a more simpler approach to chilling wort, the immersion chiller can't be beat. And with cold ground water in the summer, you'll have no problems getting your wort down to temp quickly with a 50' IC.

 

[mbird]

SumnerH,
how much water do you have to have in the resevoir and how cold? What does the water temp get to by the time you have finished chilling the wort?
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[SumnerH]

SumnerH,
how much water do you have to have in the resevoir and how cold? What does the water temp get to by the time you have finished chilling the wort?
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First, I was asking for feedback here on whether these work since they're apparently popular elsewhere. My cooling ATM is an ice-water bath (to which I'll be adding frozen soda bottles full of water), so I'm trying to see if anyone else has used this approach. It seems pretty low-maintenance and effective to me.

Most of the people on the other board run a bucket or 2 worth of water through into the sink then start the recirculation (to save on ice melt with the first very hot water), some recirc all the way and just refill the ice when it melts.

They can get it down as cold as you'd want (One guy says 20-30 minutes to cool 6 gallons to 55F), you're running ice water through it so I guess in theory 32F is the lower bound but getting south of 40 might be slow going.

 

[jmp138]

Anyone got a recommendation for a economical pump for a counterflow chiller?

 

[hughmac]

I really love my ridiculously monstrous CFC:
Counter-Flow Chiller Length?? - Page 3 - Home Brew Forums