Adding an IC will stop the boil… briefly. It really shouldn’t impact things though like you said.
Forgive my brewing ignorance, but what exactly is an “IC”?
IC is an “immersion chiller”. I takes a while to get all the acronyms we use here 
1 Like
Don’t apologize. We have to learn!
1 Like
Well if I put the ic into the boil earlier, more heat is transferred onto the metal of the chiller. So, if you put the chiller in for 0.5 seconds of the boil before running cold water through, not nearly the same amount of heat is transferred to the metal as if you had left the chiller in for 15 minutes.
This would make the metal closer and closer to ~212 degrees F, following a heating curve. That would then take longer to cool the coil down with ~55 degree water, making the water inside have to cool the metal before it could ever transfer heat of the wort, thus taking a longer overall time. I can’t say how MUCH longer, for all I know it would only add a few minutes. But it certainly couldn’t have helped my efforts
well I get that but If your going to put your IC into the boil you are probably doing it to disinfect it . if you put it in a 1/2 second before the end of the boil why bother. Just drop it in when the boil ends. It’s hot enough to disinfect it then if you give it 10 minuets or so before you run water through. even if you put it in within the last minute you probably should wait the 10. I just throw it in after my last hop addition and move on. We are talking about a minuscule difference in chilling time
Well I was normally in the 45 minute to over and hour range, I undersold my original number. It was frustrating and I hated it
Yesterday I was thinking about this. Of course it makes sense. We talk about the isomerzation of the hops boiling for a set amount of minutes. But the wort doesn’t break a boil until a higher boiling point than water. Now where I am water boils at 212 but my wort boils at closer to 220. So if I toss my immersion chiller in and it stops the observed boil its not dropping the boil below the isomerzation temp. I thought about it because when I am in CO water boils at 180F and they can still make beer, Im sure others especially professionals using closed systems already know this temperature point. I’m late to the party I guess
I just looked it up. Between 185f and 210f. So as long as your wort doesn’t drop below 185 its good. Of course this starts another obvious question in my mind
I think the only reason to drop the IC in about 10 minutes before the chilling cycle, was to kill any bad bugs that have collected on it.
I’m not sure there is any more logic to this. The original way brewing is taught, for us modern folks, the sooner it’s chilled, the sooner you can pitch the yeast. And that will help keep airborne contamination risk low, to non-existent.
Sneezles61
Just a thought, but would it might be an option to set the IC in sanitizer before immersing after the boil dissipates?
Somewhere I remember, that a temp over 168 will kill most bugs. With that, is it safe to believe you can turn off the heat, then put the IC in the wort? Sure seems plausible. But I’ve not tried it. That would save time.
Sneezles61
To help assist in the IC not knocking the boil out, make sure you drain it. I used to hook it up to an air compressor and blow it out.
Although as @brew_cat said, as long as it doesn’t drop below iso temps it’s fine.
