Using a Recirculating Wort Chiller
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- Опубліковано 16 січ 2017
- Putting my latest DIY project to the test, I chill a batch of boiling wort down to lager pitching temperatures (55 deg F). It exceeded my expectations. I saved dozens of gallons of water while chilling my beer in record time. Win! Win!
Recirculating Wort Chiller: A DIY Project
• Recirculating Wort Chi...
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i like that idea of not integrating that first 4-5 gallons off the top, and using it for something else to save the ice.
i like this!
Hey, I just made one of these. Thank you so much for sharing this. It helps me keep water loss to a minimum and get faster results. With the cold weather I keep the cooler out side with it cracked open and full of water the night before brewing and I skip the ice part. Thanks again!
Now you can use all of that ice water and chill some of your home brews down! Thanks for the video Larry.
Great video Larry! Instead of buying ice, I collect ice from my kitchen fridge every once and awhile and then bag it and store in my garage chest freezer in-between brew days. I always have plenty of ice on hand to do the job. I also stir the wort and the temps drop twice as fast. Once I chilled 5 gallons of wort from flameout to 70 deg F in eight minutes!
I'm highly impressed and encouraged with your results. I picked up a hose fitting at Home Depot for my pump and a clamp, and I'll be ready to try this when I brew again during my upcoming Christmas vacation. Thanks again for sharing this idea.
Used mine last weekend! Love it!!
Just made me a replica of your recirculating pump. Cant wait until this weekend's brew day! Thanks Larry!
Thanks for sharing your experience. I like the fact that you dump the initial hot water off, I wasn't doing that, so it took a bit longer than I had hoped. I'll try this the next time.
Really awesome Larry, I live in southern California and conservation is a must; I felt the same way about brewing and water wasting. This idea makes it more viable going forward! Thanks for posting.
Wow, I was thinking that using a jockey box would work but this is even better. I have always had a problem wasting all of the water in chilling. Really great idea.
Thanks for another informative video! I'll be trying this setup here pretty soon!
Good video, Larry. You can use the hot water you save to soak your chiller coils in after you're finished... if the container will allow them to fit. I add a little Dawn dish detergent and slosh the chiller coils up and down a few times then rinse and wipe clean. The soak in hot water will keep the wort from drying and adhering to your coils.
I’m definitely trying this my next brew session. I love the content; keep it up!
This is amazing and going to build one this weekend...thanks for sharing...
Thanks for sharing this. I am in South Africa where water is scarce and precious. I’m going to definitely, positively, absolutely for sure-ly do this. Thanks!
Good video again, I bought a counter-flow chiller a couple years ago and love it. I flame out and start transferring to buckets right away with it, Gets me down to about 72 in the summer and 66 in the winter when the tap water is colder. I also fill a bucket with hot water for cleaning to start.
Good I found this. Keep the good work Larry.
Great idea, Larry. 👍
I'm new to brewing and recently found your channel. Just ordered a pump and tubing from Amazon after following the links from your site (hopefully you see a little of that revenue). Thanks for your really helpful ideas and videos. Being in CA and recently coming out of the drought, water conservation is still at the front of my mind. On top of that, cooling my wort in cold bath water was painfully slow. Many thanks
Good work! Awesome way to save water
Been using this setup for last 2 batches works great! Thanks.
Excellent!
Great job. Im going to look into making something similar. Keep up the great videos.
Great video again Larry! Something I had't.thought of is to let the initial (hottest return water) be collected in a different container, so you don't dissolve your ice too fast. And thanks for doing a temperature reading / time check for typical Ales.
Nice job!! Great video
Nice Video, here is my tip for getting a shorter cool-down time. I put my stirring spoon( stainless ) into the boil at the same time as the immersion chiller( 10 minutes ) to sterilize, then I use the spoon to whirlpool the wort during chill down, leaving the spoon in the wort the whole time. I also put the kettle lid on (keep the bugs out), with just enough gap for the chiller and spoon. I have been able to decrease my chill down time by 30-40% .
Great idea! I might try this method with a new tool I picked up. Basically just a paint stirrer that attaches to a drill. Running it on low should create a nice whirlpool.
Great peace of chiller - i will actually build a similar one myself
Keep on brewin‘ 👍🏻
Great video! I did my first all grain BIAB yesterday and cooled the pot in an ice water bath. Ice melted almost instantly and it took forever to get the wort down to pitching temp.. want to try this method now. love the channel to by the way.
great video. thanks
Love this idea. I plan on making one but will drill a hole on the top for the hot water. Reason is to have the warmer water on top and cooler water near the pump. Thank you for the awesome idea :)
wow. i'm definitely doing this.
If you have a larger vessel especially one that your brew pots handles can rest on while hanging the pot you can fill that up with regular spicket water while also using the chiller. Would be very effective
I set mine up the same way nd it worked great!! Thank you Larry dont you ever stop doing these vids! 🍻 Lol
Good to hear. Thanks!
Thanks from the Aussie tropics ... wondering what they could do in reference for a lager. like yourself I didn't fancy going from tap water temp of 27-30°C ( 80-86°F) to a lagering temp in the fridge.. i'll be making one! My new fav beer in the world is a wheat lager, its a crime not to be able to make a copy.
If you stirred your wort while the pump is recirculating the cold water, you would probably get it down to below 80 in like 5-10 minutes. I just bought a pond pump on Amazon and I am going to be doing this to cool my wort. Thanks for the video! Cheers.
Return water coming in over the top of the ice (maybe over a sparge plate) may stop the water in the bottom warming up... and stop frost bite in your fingers.... my fingers are hurting just watching you 👍
Larry,
Use an aquarium recirculation submersible fan to keep the ice water circulating to stop the bottom from getting warm.
I've actually pushed my beer thru my coil since day one. Submerge the coil in a bucket of ice water. Works like a charm.
It will be a bit more efficient if you spray the return water on top of the ice keeping this way by convection the hotter water up and the coolest down supplying always the coldest water possible.
I was looking to do a system like this for mine, but thinking of saturating the water with salt and sanitiser, one to drop the temperature down and two be able to keep and reuse. But who knows, I might just cool the wort and fill up the bath... light some candles and voila romantic evening post brew with the missus.
great results! I believe recirculating between my pre-chiller and wort chiller via this method with a pump should get the results I'm looking for
@@BEERNBBQBYLARRY true I forgot about the restriction to flow, I'll play with it next brew day. Thanks for the channel and responding!
Even though I live near the Lake Erie, fresh water is plentiful. I still hate wasting water because I know some aren't so lucky. I need to make one of these.
Been thinking about this but using a small chest freezer and a glycol mix straight in the freezer as if it were a big esky or bucket.... kind of a permanent use for a freezer but if you got the space... could double as a fermentation chamber as well if you were clever about it and dont mind a wet fermenter
Awesome! I do the same thing except I take old water bottles and fill with water and freeze them to save money instead of buying bags of ice. Cheers!
Kevin Klino great idea...i always go thru at least 30lbs of ice like this. Saving money is always good!
I like to freeze water balloons into largeish ice chunks they melt slower
Would it be too much of an aggravation to move the stand, kettle, and chiller unit outside? The ambient temps out there might cool down your lager quicker, but I imagine standing outside, or having to go in and out often could be an aggravation in and of itself. Also, maybe if you have an abundance of snow you could nest the kettle in a pile of snow while using the ice bath wort chiller? Idk, just an observation and thoughts.
How much GPH is the pump? I have one laying around that's 140, but I'm wondering if that'll be strong enough
Cool no pun intended
How would u recommend I do this using counterflow chiller and chugger pump? I do 10 gallon batches and waste too much water.
Great work Larry. May i suggest if you try letting the returning warm water fall freely via a gravity and a spray first in open air. Maybe spray over a piece of some metal roofing or sheet metal then into a gutter then back to your ice bath. Exposing the water to the air as much air as possible first would considerably bring the temps down and save on ice.... They use this to cool nuclear power plants so it should work here.
sort of like fly sparging the ice.
Have you ever put in Salt into your cold water to bring the temperatures down even further?
Hi Larry I've thought about trying to set up some sort of recirculating system. I i hear you used 2 x 22lb. bags of ice how many Gallons of water was added? it looked to be at least 15 from what i can tell?
Thanks
It works pretty well. But you need a chest freezer to do this or spend about $20+ on ice per brew. I think its better to knock it down to about 35C (95F) then finish it off with ice (and a lot less of it)
Great videos Larry, you got me hooked! Just wondering, would we not be able to just sit the pot of boiled wort in a bath of ice water directly? Would that damage the pot I guess because of going from so hot to so cold too fast?
Other than finding a vessel large enough to hold a full kettle and even larger to hold a lot of ice water, it’ll take many hours to chill all the while exposing the wort to sugar craving germs and wild yeast.
how many bags of ice did you use for the lager? Normally for ales I use 6 bags and cold tap water with same type of cooler to get to 66-70° before aerating and pitching yeast (with starter). I start with 3 bags then depending on the temp decrease by 10-15 mins in, I do 2 more bags, add a little more cold tap water, then with about 10° left add in the last. But taking the first running of the hot water exchange into a separate bucket is the key 👌 Another good video Larry
Thanks Larry, it might have helped if instead of adding the last half a bag of ice you just let the water level drop by filling another bucket. This way the remaining ice would only have to cool a smaller amount of water. It might sound backwards but I think there was to much water in the cooler near the end.
But if he didn't add that last bag it might have let the water heat up. Once all that ice melts the temperature starts to rise. More ice /water mix more capacity for cooling. IE less ice/ less mass didn't slow down cooling the wort.
Great to see that this worked out for you! How about using reusable ice packs to cut down on water even more?
in the winter you can use snow in that thing...
what kind/size tubing did you get? thanks for the idea, thinking of making one to go with my grainfather. not a big fan of the counter flow chiller
I read this too late and just built my 3/8 immersion to custom fit my grainfather. What are the specs on your pump if you dont mind me asking?
Good work. I tried this but I don't think I used enough ice and probably too much water in the cooler. Trouble is here in NZ you pay a premium for ice so I might start stock piling some home made ice between brews. Cheers. Enjoy your channel
Can you buy the reusable ice packs?
nice idea but the thought of needing 20 min for wort to cool down makes me nervous. I try to cool my wort and xfer to fermenter as quickly as possible to avoid infection
I get chills from boil to 75 deg F in about six minutes with a JaDeD immersion chiller.
You can always fill water bottles and freeze those you dont waste water because you can always refreeze them
BEER-N-BBQ by Larry turns out my friend and i have figured out what the problem may be soo we’re gunna try it out and see how it goes i will let you know if the test works
It shouldnt take any extra time to cool if you use the ice first, as you will use the same amount of energy either way to cool your wort, just use more ice if you want to go faster. I save any excess water not used for cleaning for filtering and using in my next batch.
Would it be better for your return water from the kettle to pour in over the top of the ice as opposed to coming in down by the pump? I could imaging the pump is picking up the warm water befor it gets chilled. Also stirring the wort really decreases the time. I think I might try this setup. Thanks!
I used this method too, it works great but it took me a lot of ice. Maybe in the winter time since I live in Canada I’ll use snow ?
Yes I filled my hot liquor cooler and a bit more into another cooler making my clean up a breeze but still went through a fair amount of ice. I’ll try snow next time. I don’t know how much you get but here it’s nothing to have 5 feet of it in my back yard
Thanks for the video and quick reply Larry!
wouldnt dry ice be better?
Can anybody explain why no put the chiller into the ice water and run the wort through the pump and inside the chiller? Seems like it would be much faster?
Thanks for doing this, awesome video. I think I'm going to go your route with the ice bath, but I'm curious what are the advantages over using a counter flow? My first guess would be higher risk for contaminating the wort.
Hey Larry, whats the size of the cooler used in this video?
Thanks! Will do exactly as yours next time! Cheers from Brazil!
Ever try to use frozen milk jugs or something instead of ice? may last longer and you could refreeze and reuse?
what about small water bottles? @@BEERNBBQBYLARRY
i did one last weekend and just kept shoveling snow into my tub. got it down to 75 in 15 minutes. 😁
I tried snow once, and it failed miserably. It kept jamming my fountain pump with slush. Maybe I’ll have better luck with my new utility pump.
@@BEERNBBQBYLARRY yeah thats what i was using worked great for me.
And you can use rain water.
I just put the chiller in the ice bucket and reciculate the wort back in the kettle. So much easier.
I don’t understand. Putting an immersion chiller in an ice bucket doesn’t chill the wort sitting in the kettle at all. You’d just be “chilling” (warming actually) the ice in the bucket.
@@BEERNBBQBYLARRY it does if you pass the wort through the chiller and re-circulate back in the kettle.
@@drebourbon7616 you pass wort inside an immersion chiller?!
@@BEERNBBQBYLARRY.yes
@@drebourbon7616 interesting. Never heard of anyone doing that before now.
Great idea, would hate to see all that water go down the drain.
You can drop the temperature more by adding salt. Just like making ice cream.
If you stirred the wort at the same time it would cool even faster.
I wonder if angling the warm water hose so it creates a whirl effect will keep all the water in the cooler cold. Or even use one of the round coolers you had then you could stir your wort. Thanks for the video!!
Add 2 pounds of pool salt to the slurry.
@@BEERNBBQBYLARRY ahh yes! Disposal is a problem I didn't think of, I live near the beach and salt is a part of life. Recirculation through copper or stainless I haven't found to be a problem corrosion wise.
Plus having water at 32F (0degC) but adding salt can get the water to -6F (-21degC) definitely speeds things up.
@@BEERNBBQBYLARRY oh, and your my hero mate, you have definitely helped my food and brew game.
Thanks for the vid's.
just make a counter flow chiller. it would do this in 5 minutes.
Larry, great video as always. Wonder if I could propose a further upgrade to the setup: brulosophy.com/2014/09/23/the-hydra-immersion-chiller-by-jaded-brewing-a-review/
Just add salt or alcohol and the water will be way colder.
add salt
I don't think he understood what I meant, he would be saving a lot of ice and making the system more efficient, but he didn't get it
I guess he'll use the salt to cook and alcohol to drink instead
Salt would probably cause corrosion in the copper chiller
Ok I have probably a crackpot idea but here it is. 1 - Find the largest cooler that will fit in your freezer. 2 - Fill it with water and enough rock salt that it can never freeze. 3 - Recirc to your hearts content. Thought of this when looking into a homemade glycol chiller. If you ever leaked food grade glycol (BIG $$$) into your beer it would sweeten it and you may not notice. If you ever leaked salt (LOW $) into your beer it would REALLY TASTE BAD and you would notice. Hit me Larry.
So you saved water but wasted more energy(to make the ice), not sure it's worth.
@@BEERNBBQBYLARRY Ok, in that case, it make sense. I taught the goal was to save some natural resources ;)
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