Hi,
I,m getting ready to brew my first ten gallon batch.I,ve been doing five gallon batches but just got a keggle. My question is I have 2 emersion chiilers at 3/8 od both about 50 ft long…I know i,ll need more time to chill but want to do it as short as possible as i use city water and need to keep expenses down. should i join the two chillers or would it be betterto use one in an ice bath to chill my watter down more before it goes to the primary chiller?
Pond pump in the ice bath, pushing ice water to a T that feeds both chillers would give you the most chilling with two ICs. And be sure to move the wort across the ICs somehow, either by gently stirring or by wiggling the ICs - this makes a huge difference.
Most people find the a pre chiller doesn’t do much. You get the best results when there is a large difference in the temperatures. Use tap water until you get the wort down to ~100*. Then do as Shadetree mentions and use a pump to circulate ice water through the IC.
I have 2 IC chillers both are 3/8 OD and 25 ft long. I’m able to place one inside of the other which really shortens the chilling time.
I also use a fan blowing on the bottom of the kettle and burner to dispense that heat.
Thanks All,
I dont have a pump…yet. So if pre- chilling dosnt work to good I may just join the two chillers together. cant hurt…Thanks again… Tankie :cheers:
Put your funds towards a counterflow chiller… boiling to 70F as it transfers. You won’t regret it.
[quote=“ipa”]Put your funds towards a counterflow chiller… boiling to 70F as it transfers.[/quote]That would require sub-70F cooling water, so you’d still need some sort of ice bath arrangement anywhere south of the Mason-Dixon.
i have been hooking 2 chillers together. the first chiller ( attached to city water) goes in a bucket with 20 pounds of ice. the second chiller goes in my wort so ice cold water is running through. i can get the temperature from 212 down to about 68 in about 15 to 20 minutes using this method. hope that helps.
Yeah, I think my ground water is in the low 60s and I don’t use a pump so flow rate isn’t too fast.
You can’t brew beer down south. 
Hi All, what i wound up doing was a concentrated extract boil…I started with eight gallons of water thinking i,d lose at least a gallon in a 60 minute boil,then at flame-out added three gallons of sterile, near ice water to it and chilled using both my chillers, one in an ice bath. chilled down in around 17 minutes…Thanks all for the sugestions and my next major upgrades will be a pump and a counterflow chiller…thanks again…Tankie :cheers:
For what it’s worth, you can get extremely cheap (compared to march pumps) fountain pumps for your ice water bath. Harbor Freight sells them, anywhere from $5 to $40.
