I have always used the house water supply to chill wort with my counter flow chiller. When the ground water temps start getting high in the summer I would run it through my old immersion chiller in a plastic storage bin filled with ice water. The 60 something or more would melt ice very quickly even using the blue reusable ice things along with them. I do 20 gallons so the chill time is longer.
So now I’m thinking of using my spare March pump (waiting on replacement housing and 815 impeller) to circulate the ice water from the bin instead of running water for so long and hoping to be able to chill lower. For those of you that do that, how fast do you go through ice? I’m starting to build up a supply in the garage fridge for the next brew session.
I usually chill to 80° then recirc cold water. I fill a 5gal bucket half way with ice and just enough water to full the CFC. Takes it down in no time to mid 40s while I recirc the wort.
I assume you take it down to 80 with an immersion chiller? Then use the ice water in a CFC? If I could get to 80 first it sure would make the ice go further.
Mark I use my CFC for both. I recirc the wort the whole time. When I get down to 80° I the recirc ice water through CFC while the wort continues to recirc. By dropping the temp as low as you can with plain water it will make your ice water more efficient.
Thanks Josh, I got it now. I assume you are using two pumps?
I am thinking now that I can use my IC with the garden hose to drive the temp down first then use ice water and the CFC. The water supply seems to be warmer than it used to be. Must be that global warming thing.
Yeah Mark I use a chugger for wort and a utility pump (1800 gph) for the ice water.
I have an IC and have thought about “teeing” my water supply and using the IC and CFC at the same time for ultimate cooling. Not sure if its worth it or could even provide enough water to run both.
