New and More Efficient Wort Chilling Method?

Wed Aug 22, 2012 5:52 pm

I don't know why running wort through an immersion chiller would be any different sanitation-wise than using a counterflow or a plate chiller, so I wouldn't worry about that given you follow good cleaning procedures.

I've thought about going with the pump in a bucket of ice water before. Has anyone ever had issues with small pieces of ice damaging the impeller or the housing? I used to build ponds and fountains and the enemy of submersible pumps in that field is sand/silicate that can get in the housing and score the well that the magnetic impeller sits in. If this "impeller well" got damaged enough, the extra friction and the lack of a tight fit for the impeller would eventually reduce the pumps ability significantly. I don't think ice would score the housing, but it seems like with cold temperatures, it could cause the impeller to crack upon impact with ice over time.

As far as plate chiller with pre-chiller setups, I wonder if anyone has ever just submersed the plate chiller in an ice water bath? It seems like it would get close to the cooling power of the pre-chiller setup and eliminate an extra piece of equipment. The only drawback is that the prechiller can't be mounted to the stand neatly. Of course it could be mounted neatly in the ice-water reservoir, as long as it had a way to drain the ice water. This is all fantasy for me; I have a cruddy old IC that my dad used in the early 80's.

Wed Aug 22, 2012 6:17 pm

foomench wrote:As others have alluded to, an equal amount of ice water isn't going to get your boiling wort down to pitching temperature. You will need to add more ice as it heats up. When you use 15-20 gallons of water now, that "waste" water has done its job. If you absolutely want to conserve water with an immersion chiller, you should set your flow rate so the temp of the waste water pretty much matches the temp of your wort at that time. If the water comes out colder, you've wasted water that could have absorbed more heat. It won't come out hotter, but if it is at the temperature of the wort before reaching the end of the coil, you're just wasting time. That last foot of coil isn't doing anything for you.

My typical regimen to minimize water, time, and energy use is to run tap water through my chiller for the first 15 minutes or so. This lowers the wort from 205 F (5000') to something around 90-110 F, depending on the tap water temperature. Then I switch to using a pre-chiller in icewater to finish the job, usually in another 15 minutes or less. Typically I am brewing 10+ gallon batches.

+1 I do a few things a bit differently and have been happy with the result.
I run hose water through small chiller in ice bath to large SS chiller in BK. I add salt to the ice bath, for what it's worth. I run out my waste water as hot as I can get it which means, relatively slowly.
Once the degree of change has slowed I replace the hose with pond pump, running ice water through pond pump to the large SS chiller, waste water is recircd into ice water. I do whirlpool. Pitch at desired temp within about 15 to 20 minutes

Mon Sep 17, 2012 11:51 pm

So I'm taking a flyer on my theory and am going to see how it works in practice...

I picked up a Therminator and am going to incorporate it into the recirculation loop of my Jamil whirlpool chiller. A couple of reasons why:

1. Since I recirc for 20 minutes before the end of the boil, I can ensure that it will be fully sanitized (as far as I can tell, the only real knock on the Therminator is sanitization)

2. The immersion chiller gets my wort chilled pretty quickly, but the addition of a plate chiller in the whirlpool loop should really hammer the temp down in nothing flat.

3. The speed in chilling should help eliminate any off flavors but should also help me use less water

4. Recirculating like this should also allow me to do a finer job of achieving the exact temperature I am looking for into the fermentor.

I'm not sure how this will all work in practice (hell, I might wind up using my more beer whirlpool chiller in a bucket of ice as a pre-chiller for the plate chiller) but it will be an interesting experiment nonetheless.

I brew this weekend and will share my results.

~widget

Fri Sep 21, 2012 5:37 am

I think you would have to recirc hot water only through the Therminator. I think it would get clogged with break and hop material if you tried to recirc wort through it.

Fri Sep 21, 2012 12:07 pm

Well, my Erlenmeyer flask shattered on the stove this week leaving me with a two hour clean up and no starter to brew with this weekend. Looks like I'll be picking up a new flask this weekend and trying my theory out next weekend... Damn it.

You bring up an interesting point, Quin. I use hop bags and have a screen in my kettle, you think I'd still clog the Therminator? Another thought, I guess, would be to use my immersion chiller to chill to ground water temp (Summer in SoCal means ~80 degrees) and then use the therminator into the fermenter with a recirculating ice bath to chill down to fermenting temps.

That makes me start thinking about contamination in the Therminator over time, though.

Damn it, again.

~widget

Fri Sep 21, 2012 2:40 pm

Use the search function of the forum, you don't need to reinvent the wheel. Tasty has his setup out there! Plate chillers work great, but you need to concentrate on the basics like getting a good settled trub pile in your boil kettle. I haven't used a Jamil whirlpool chiller, but I would expect it might distrurb the trub pile. I have recirculated through my plate chiller back into my boil kettle and messed up my trub.

Plate chillers only like clean wort to go in! Concentrate heavily on this first or you will probably end up frustrated, going back to your immersion cooler. Having a clogged plate chiller is like sitting on a beach with bloody hemorrhoids! It is an experience worth avoiding!

I still use my immersion cooler when I know I am not going to get a nice trub pile, like when I am using my homegrown whole hops.

:pop