wort chillers

[tazman67]

Just getting my AG gear together..looking at wort chillers.
Dont know much about them..would need a garden hose attachment.
looked at "no chill method"..prefer a chiller...any particular supplier or type ?
Have just got a basic Ag set up... 60l pot...NASA burner... 55L Esky..basic steel braid mash filter.

[lethaldog]

I bought some copper and made an immersion chiller, just basically a copper coil and im happy with it but there are plenty of options, you can buy a good copper coil immersion chiller for about as much as you would pay for the copper anyhow and make it yourself, grain and grape have a couple of good ones or you can buy a plate chiller and chill that way ( not sure how much they cost) or you can go for the no chill ( which you obviously dont like) and im sure there are many other options that i have not mentioned but you get the idea

[SpillsMostOfIt]

I made 10-15kg (three shopping bags plus a bit) of ice over the course of a week or so and chilled the NoChill cube down to pitching temps in about half an hour yesterday.

Cheap and cheerful, if nothing else.

[drsmurto]

Plate chillers are very quick and effective, i am in love with mine. Linky

Doesn't add much time at all to the brew day, i can chill the wort to 25C rapidly on a single pass. Cooler if i slow the wort down.

Cheers
DrSmurto

[Trough Lolly]

Very noice Doc - but I can't ditch the CFWC just yet! I'd have to answer to the financial comptroller!!

Cheers,
TL

[SpillsMostOfIt]

I got a rather large tax refund cheque today and am wondering if I should take the opportunity to invest in some copper...

I reckon I can keep the water in a wheelie bin with some inappropriate amount of sanitiser/bleach/whatever and pump it through the chilling coil, adding ice as and when appropriate. It's not a huge wheelie bin, so I would have to single-pass it through the chiller into a temporary store and return it at the end.

[James L]

I went the chiller that DrS suggested.

I also bought a thermometer that you can connect to the outlet of the chiller to determine the out going wort temps and adjust the flow accordingly.

[drsmurto]

James, i bought all the extras as well, i think beerbelly has my c/card on file these days!

As for recirculating of water, i find that the average garbage bin is the volume i use per chill (of course this depends on how fast you have the 2 flows and what temp you want the wort to come out at - i tend to go for 25 so i use the least amount of water. It also depends on your water temp).

[James L]

so about 100L or so? thats ok... it'll go straight onto the garden... we already put all the washing machine water on the garden... i think 25C will be fine because once it gets to that temp, i'll chuck it in the brew fridge and it'll be down to 12 in a couple of hours, then i can chuck the yeast in.

I thought i had everything i needed from beerbelly, but looks like i'll need another bulkhead fitting to put on my HLT once i make it... I got quotes at other places, and they are twice as much and that doesnt even include a food grade silicon o-ring. I havent got my stuff from them yet even though i ordered in early Jan. i dont mind cos i know he's busy, and i havent even got a mash tun yet...

[lethaldog]

so about 100L or so? thats ok... it'll go straight onto the garden... we already put all the washing machine water on the garden... i think 25C will be fine because once it gets to that temp, i'll chuck it in the brew fridge and it'll be down to 12 in a couple of hours, then i can chuck the yeast in.

I thought i had everything i needed from beerbelly, but looks like i'll need another bulkhead fitting to put on my HLT once i make it... I got quotes at other places, and they are twice as much and that doesnt even include a food grade silicon o-ring. I havent got my stuff from them yet even though i ordered in early Jan. i dont mind cos i know he's busy, and i havent even got a mash tun yet...

Damn thats an awesome brewfridge, down from 25*C to 12*C in a couple of hours im envious

[James L]

Yeh... its a pretty new fridge..

[Fents]

Are people really using 100litres of water to chill? thats full on...i cringe at using 50 somthing litres just to brew with.

[rwh]

I mostly no-chill these days. Water restrictions have relegated my immersion chiller to the back of the cupboard.

The 10L container of water pre-chilled in the fridge helps, as does the wet towels covering the boil pot with a fan blowing on them (if I can be bothered) as does the brew fridge. The only issue is the fact that all of these processes use electricity, the generation of which uses water...

If I was going to go back to using the immersion chiller, I'd probably go the 100L container of water and transfer that through the chiller using a drill-pump into another container. If only I had a rainwater tank. <drool emoticon>

[drsmurto]

its called recycling, not to mention the fact that some of us chillers recirculate our water so it gets used multiple times which is better than you can say for water that is used for the shower, washing hands etc. I have no problem using a few 100L of water in my brewing, including cleaning. The average house would use more than that in a day thru showering, toilets and that number increases significantly if your are a breeder.

I dont and wont advocate no chill, i will however continue to advocate no-breed......

Back on topic - i find there is a big difference between aroma hops added at flameout compared to dry hopping. Far too often i see no chillers compensating for this by adding hops to the cube or dry hopping.

Rant over. damn i need coffee.
DrSmurto

p.s. rainwater tank = recirculating chill water!

[rwh]

p.s. rainwater tank = recirculating chill water!

Precisely.

[Trough Lolly]

I have a counterflow wort chiller, march pump and a 2100L rainwater tank on the other side of the wall to the brewery!

Cheers,
TL

[SpillsMostOfIt]

I fail to understand why some nochillers advocate adding hops to cube to improve flavour and aroma. I tried it on two cubes of my normal style of brew and found that it simply added bitterness. I was (and continue to be, even now as I am drinking a glass of said brew) thoroughly underwhelmed by the cube addition.

I've dry-hopped beers trying to add aroma and it works, but it is a different aroma to kettle aroma additions. For my taste when it comes to hoppiness, you need both.

I must say that I like the nochill process and I am continuing to search for a way of chilling in a cube. I recently took a brew from boiling to pitching in around 30 minutes in a cube but with a sizeable amount of ice. I found the process to be similar to what I like, rather than when I have borrowed a chiller and hated the experience.

It's almost enough to make me install a swimming pool, just so I can use it to chill my beer...

[James L]

I think when i finally get some money to spend on the house (and not my brewing), i would like to get a 1000L water tank to use for wort chilling and for fresh rainwater of course...

I dont feel too bad at the moment about hte prospect of using 100L of water, as i'll be putting it on the garden. i just dont look forward to putting it on the garden with a watering can..

[lethaldog]

I recycle all the water i use for brewing in many ways but the most part it goes in the washing machine and cleaning, the thing i dont understand is no chillers using ice to chill ( sort of contradiction anyway), do you realise that ice is made from water and yes i know its not as much but your still using it, i have 4 25litre cubes which i use to store water that i have not been able to use in the washing machine etc and it gets used during the week when it can be so i dont see myself as a water waster at all

[SpillsMostOfIt]

... the thing i dont understand is no chillers using ice to chill...

For me, it is an experiment to confirm that the effect of chilling my beer is what I think it is and therefore justify spending the money to build a chilling system.

I do not have a garden. I brew in a single vessel and have reduced the amount of equipment I use and needs washing to a minimum. So, I cannot find a secondary use for any water used to chill without incurring significant expense and/or effort.

I figure that I therefore have to store and reuse the chilling water. I brew in a courtyard that is about 3m x 2m - not a lot of space to install water tanks and still retain the use of the space for living and brewing.

I brew - on average - once a week. Clearly not commercial standards, but sufficient for me to want to find a solution that meets several criteria including do-ability.

My current 'if I buy a chiller, this is what I'll do' solution is an immersion chiller, a submersible pump, a wheelie bin or slimline water tank and some hose, plus an ongoing pool chlorine or other sanitiser commitment. It still involves ice to get the wort down to below pitching temperature as I like to pitch cool and none of the other solutions I've seen really work in my scenario.

I suspect that for many people, use of a NoChillCube (with or without ice) is a result of budgetary constraints. Having done it once or twice with ice, I don't hate the process at all.