Using my immersion chiller in ice bath instead of wort

I've been thinking about using my copper immersion chiller a little differently lately...

Instead of placing it in the wort near the end of the boil and circulating cold water through it, I'm thinking to place the chiller in an ice bath and circulate the wort through the chiller, either into my carboy or back into the kettle for recirculation.

I took a quick video of the setup here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BI43QHaNjBEfeature=autoshare

I liked the results I got, and it'll allow me to expose less of the surface of the wort to air which I also like, but I haven't seen this approach anywhere before... any thoughts on whether it's a good idea or not or whether it should be any better or worse than the traditional immersion chilling technique?

Topic wort-chiller chilling homebrew

Category Mac

1
answered at

It's a fine idea.

The nice thing about the "traditional" approach is that the surfaces that touch the wort are exposed, easily cleaned, and can be inspected for cleanliness. Plus, as someone commented, you'll need a pump to move the wort through the IC, which is another complication and something else to clean.

For a long time, I did something similar (and maybe what I'd recommend instead): an ice+water "pre-chiller", which I used a $70 1/4hp Lowes sump pump to move through the IC in a closed loop. During winter, the whole pre-chiller would freeze into a solid block of ice, which I would break up with a pick and add some water to for the next brew session.

Some people can seem to get ice near pennies/pound; it is a lot more expensive here in Vermont for some reason.

1
answered at

A lot of people use copper immersion coils in a ice bath as a "post" chill, but you can also use it as your only source of chilling if you have enough ice.

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