Chilling ideas

[Michael]

Around these parts cooling the wort is difficult as the ambient temperature and water from the mains is high.

Most people here use a pre-chiller in a bucket of ice to get the water colder. However, I am kicking around an idea I may try if I can get a pump cheap enough:

 

I have a spare Rubbermaid cylindrical cooler. I am thinking about putting my chiller into this cooler, and running the wort through the inside of the chiller. I can also put two fittings into the cooler, one high, and one low for water circulation.

 

The idea here is that I can always throw ice into the chilly bin, or use water from the mains in the winter. The only down side I see is that there may be a sanitising problem on the inside of the chiller, and it may be possible for hop 'gunkiness' to clog the works.

 

IDK. Maybe this is not a good idea after all. The pre-chiller is easier. :/

[Richard Jack]

I don't know if this would be practical for you, but I use a pump to recirculate cooling water (it's my still's cooling circuit, I just plug the chiller into it), but I run into the same problem where you can't chill below the temperature of the coolant, which gets up to 30+ on a hot day. What I was doing is grabbing a couple of frozen bottles or a bag of ice and throwing them into a fermenter, and chilling down the water there then just moving the pump to be pumping out of and then back into the chilled bucket. This knocks it down the last couple of degrees very effectively.

I opted for that over a pre chiller because I a) didn't want to make a pre chiller and b) didn't want to have to worry about if the inside of a copper coil is sanitary enough to pump my wort through.

[DP]

I get nervous enough about putting my IC into the wort 10 minutes before the end of the boil let alone having to worry about running wort through the *inside* of that thing with god knows what gummed up inside it.

At this time of year I manage to bring my wort down from 100 to 28 in about 15 minutes and then I move the kettle to my pre-chilled fermentation fridge to take it down the rest of the way to 18deg which also gives the protein and hops plenty of time to settle out prior to syphoning off into my carboy. In winter time it's usually 100 to 18 in 15 minutes IIRC.

Moving the IC around and/or swirling the wort makes a huge difference time-wise.

What kind of times and temperatures are you getting?

[Michael]

Right now I am only able to get my wort down to 30-32C. I expect this to be worse as we approach june-august. (I am in Miami for now.)

 

I understand your concerns with the sanitisation. I have the same concerns. I do not want to go the route of using a fermenting fridge, although this would be good for Miami as well. I just cannot see spending the money on one, when I know I will be back in NZ eventually, and do not want to buy stuff that will not work there. (he same reason I did not convert my keggle to electricity.)

 

I know some people that drop some pre-boiled ice in their wort, and they make good beer. However, my wife won't let me waste space in the freezer for that. :( As such, I am looking at options. More and more I am thinking I will have to go the pre-chiller route.

[DP]

Ah, I see. Yeah, if you've got no other way of getting the wort down to pitching temp then perhaps a pre-chiller would be the best for you. But how are you managing to keep your fermentation temperature down in the heat of summer? That's a pretty important part of the whole process.

[Michael]

Like most houses in Miami, the house has central air conditioning. So, I set the whole house to 22, which leaves the downstairs to about 19 or 20. A little high, but not too bad for ales.