 338winmag
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Posted: 7/5/2012 11:06:27 AM
THE IMAGE ABOVE IS A PAID ADVERTISEMENT |
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Sniper_Wolfe
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Posted: 7/5/2012 11:11:38 AM
If I understand what you've done correctly, this is like a "prechiller" but on a closed loop.
I take it you have shoved the refrigeration tubing inside the flexible tubing and have made a counterflow heat exchanger? |
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Posted: 7/5/2012 11:56:24 AM
In the summertime, I take my immersion chiller and put it into a bucket of ice and a little bit of water. Then I hook it inline to my plate chiller that circulates the wort through a copper chamber that is separated by Stainless still with the chilled water on the other side. Providing I don't get a stuck drain, I can chill an entire batch from 212 degrees to around 70 in 5 mins using very little water. It takes a little to setup and prep but once done it's extremely efficient.
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338winmag
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Posted: 7/5/2012 2:07:32 PM
Originally Posted By Sniper_Wolfe:
If I understand what you've done correctly, this is like a "prechiller" but on a closed loop. I take it you have shoved the refrigeration tubing inside the flexible tubing and have made a counterflow heat exchanger? No. I have made my immersion chiller a closed loop system circulating chilled water after initial cooling using tap water. I guess I need to take some pictures. |
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speeddemon11L
The Double Deuce!
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Joined: Dec 2005 FL, USA
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Posted: 7/6/2012 11:46:11 AM
Originally Posted By 338winmag:
I really like making my own beer. The part I dislike the most, with the exception of bottling, is cooling the wort. I made myself a heat exchanger by using 50' of refrigeration tubing and some flexible tubing and hooking it to the water faucet. This workes great to get the wort temps down to 100. After that, it takes forever to get it lower. Recently, a friend of mine showed me a pump he uses in his parts washer. He picked it up at Harbor Freight for around 10 bucks. Once I saw it, I knew what to do. I bought one, and put a short length of tubing with a male garden hose end on it. I put the pump in a cooler with about 10lb. of ice, and 3/4 gallon of water. When I want to cool down wort, I first hook up the heat exchanger to a hose spigot on the house, and turn it on. With a thermometer in the wort, I cool it this way until the wort temps get down around 100F. This takes between 12 and 15 minutes. I then unhook from the houaw spigot, and hook up to my pump sitting in the cooler. I put the drain hose from the heat exchanger in the cooler too, so I can recirculate the water back over the ice. I turn on the pump and pump 32F water thru the heat exchanger. This pulls the wort temp down to 70F quickly. Yesterday, I dropped the wort temp from 212F to 70F in 19 minutes. That is exactly how I did it before I ponied up and bought a plate chiller! |
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Posted: 7/6/2012 6:46:23 PM
Move it around the pot slowly. It keeps the heat from forming a thermal barrier (best I can describe it. I'm not an thermal engineer.). Then, when the temp reaches below 100oF. grab below the connectors & shake it vigorously up & down.
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Cpt_Kirks
Starfleet Brewmaster
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Posted: 7/6/2012 7:44:05 PM
Get you a plate chiller.
I use a 30 plate, kind of wish I had spent the extra to get a 40. I feed it with ice water from a cooler, pumped with a little Harbor Freight submersible pump. It took 4 bags of ice today. Today, in 100*F heat, I took 110 gallons from 200*F to 70*F in about 15 minutes. I use the valve on the output of my chugger pump to control the temp via the flow speed. |
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Posted: 7/20/2012 11:48:27 PM
A plate chiller is the single most usefull brewing piece of equipment I own.
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338winmag
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Posted: 7/21/2012 9:26:57 AM
Originally Posted By Cpt_Kirks:
Get you a plate chiller. I use a 30 plate, kind of wish I had spent the extra to get a 40. I feed it with ice water from a cooler, pumped with a little Harbor Freight submersible pump. It took 4 bags of ice today. Today, in 100*F heat, I took 110 gallons from 200*F to 70*F in about 15 minutes. I use the valve on the output of my chugger pump to control the temp via the flow speed. You brew in 110 gallon batches? Post pics of your equipment. |
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Sniper_Wolfe
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Posted: 7/21/2012 9:56:08 AM
Originally Posted By 338winmag:
Originally Posted By Cpt_Kirks:
Get you a plate chiller. I use a 30 plate, kind of wish I had spent the extra to get a 40. I feed it with ice water from a cooler, pumped with a little Harbor Freight submersible pump. It took 4 bags of ice today. Today, in 100*F heat, I took 110 gallons from 200*F to 70*F in about 15 minutes. I use the valve on the output of my chugger pump to control the temp via the flow speed. You brew in 110 gallon batches? Post pics of your equipment. LOL, he does 10 gal batches, but from the sounds of it he's cranking them out about every damn weekend. |
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TaylorWSO
Kool-aid
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Posted: 7/21/2012 12:52:53 PM
[Last Edit: 7/21/2012 12:54:34 PM by TaylorWSO]
I just sit my canning/brew pot in 3 dollars of ice and stir, usually takes 7 minutes or so to get from boiling to 70. I'm trying not to accumulate a bunch of single hobby only type stuff.
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