Woohoo!!
I cut my wort chilling time by more than half in my batch yesterday and it was definitely cheaper and easier than the whirlpool chiller. I was doing my standard chilling procedure using my immersion chiller with tap water and then switched over to recirculating ice water when I got down to around 110F. The discovery came when I realized I could use my paint stirrer at a low speed to get the wort moving without aerating it.. Once I got down to below 85 or so I switched to high speed to aerate the wort as well.
The end result: I had my wort to pitching temp (63F), aerated, in the fermenter and the yeast pitched in about 40 minutes! I'm used to spending over an hour just to get the wort down to 85 and leaving the fermenter in an ice batch for a few hours to get to pitching temp. Sweet...
Wort Chilling
Moderator: Post Moderators
- backyard brewer
- Posts: 3774
- Joined: Fri Feb 18, 2005 5:38 pm
- Location: Orange County, CA
- Contact:
If others want to do this technique but are not so excited about a paint stirrer you might consider a lees stirrer. I have seen Pete go to town on some mead and our Blackwine IV with a lees stirrer. They also fit down the neck of a carboy. I have been thinking about using a stirrer on mash-in instead of a mash paddle.
I've used a clever way to chill my wort when I did full wort boil extract brewing:
Insert chiller into wort (I used 50' or 3/8" copper in a double loop the diameter of a co2 5# tank)
Fill a cornie keg with 20#'s of ice, fill with water and hook up to chiller and hook up overflow to an ice chest.
Push with co2 at 5 psi, refill once. (you could use a compressor for this as well)
Wort chilled from boiling to 68 degrees in 12 minutes and I've got a full ice chest of warm water for cleaning up.
Insert chiller into wort (I used 50' or 3/8" copper in a double loop the diameter of a co2 5# tank)
Fill a cornie keg with 20#'s of ice, fill with water and hook up to chiller and hook up overflow to an ice chest.
Push with co2 at 5 psi, refill once. (you could use a compressor for this as well)
Wort chilled from boiling to 68 degrees in 12 minutes and I've got a full ice chest of warm water for cleaning up.
Cheers,
Lyn
Everybody has the right to be stupid. Some people abuse the privilege.
I hope life isn’t a big joke, because I don’t get it.
What I don't Know Far out weighs what I do.
Lyn
Everybody has the right to be stupid. Some people abuse the privilege.
I hope life isn’t a big joke, because I don’t get it.
What I don't Know Far out weighs what I do.
I do the same thing pretty much. I use tap to cool down to <110 then move the hoses over to a sub pump sitting a 5g bucket of ice and water. I can easily get the wort temps down to <65 even when its 100d outside.
Not quite the best pictorial example but this is what I do:
I then use an O2 tank and stone to aerate before pitching the yeast.
Not quite the best pictorial example but this is what I do:
I then use an O2 tank and stone to aerate before pitching the yeast.