What tools or tricks is everyone using to cool their wort down after the boil? How long does it take you to get down below 70 degrees? I am using an older copper wort chiller (hooks up to a garden hose) that a friend of mine made and has worked okay in the past but its getting kind of beat up and losing its nice coil shape so I was thinking of an upgrade. In the Michigan winter I am …
I am thinking on buying an immersion chiller and from other threads I've thought of using the post-chiller hot water for cleanup, and I've also heard of using the water (after it starts to cool down) to water the garden. How much water does a wort chiller use to cool a 5 gallon batch of beer down to pitch temp? Does any one kind use significantly more/less than the others? EDIT Sorry, I worded the question poorly. I started this …
Just moved into a new apartment and I'm ready to start brewing. Except I have this unique faucet... it's the type that can switch between a solid stream and a spray and also is able to extend via a snake. Does anyone have any experience with this type of sink? I'll have to check to see if the entire thing comes off, but I'm worried I won't be able to chill my wort.
I'm assembling an HERMS equipment and noticed that very few people use the coil as chiller after the boiling is over. Besides all the sanitation of tubing, lines, pump, etc..., is there any other drawbacks? EDIT: The coil will be permanently attached to the kettle and brewing two batches in a single day is never going to happen. I have no space to ferment two beers at the same time.
I am planning to build a counterflow wort chiller using a hose outside of a copper tube. There are a great variety of lengths and types available commercially and I have read that many commercial solutions are not long enough to chill properly What is the optimal length for a counter flow wort chiller? It seems that with counterflow, it should not matter whether you are chilling 3 or 5 gallons. Is this correct? Do you just need the correct …
Just bought a counterflow chiller... tested it with boiling water and it worked fine. I also siphoned sanitizer through it, no problems there. However when I tried to siphon the wort, it clogged immediately. Realizing my mistake, I flushed the chiller and then retried, using a grain bag to filter the hops/trub. But it seemed that this still wasn't enough; the siphon simply would not flow. Can someone advise on what I'm doing wrong? What is the standard practice here? …
So I am looking into upgrading the gear I use to do a boil. Currently I have a 5 gallon stainless steal pot, I use an electric range to heat the water, and my kitchen sink to cool down the wort. It works, but I have had problems with my wort boiling over lately. I have tried putting less water in for the boil, then top up in the fermenter later, but this has lead to some scorching. Not to …
I have made a few batches of beer from those home brew kits sold at Brew n Grow. When I cook the beer, I only am boiling 2.5 gallons instead of the whole 5, per instructions, and then I add the other 2.5 gallons from my tap water. My question is, is they recommend a wort chiller. When I add the 2.5 gallons to get my total of 5 gallons, it naturally cools down the beer because the tap water …
So, I bought myself a pump and a chillizilla-type chiller and a chugger pump for christmas...thanks for the christmas bonus, Boss...also, silicone tubing and stainless fittings and such to make it work. After I had everything plumbed in the basement to make sure that things were where they needed to be, I could run the pump full bore and get LOTS of water coming thru the outlet tube back into the pot. All was well, I thought. Yesterday, when I …
I haven't done any brewing this summer because when I brewed some mead last summer, my apartment was very warm during the days, and I think this higher brewing temperature was related to some solvent-y flavours that some people detected in that batch. I'd like to start a batch now to be ready later in the fall, but it's still rather warm (gets close to 30C indoors in the daytime) in my apartment. I don't have a budget for a …
I have been reading here about immersion, counterflow and plate chillers and they don't seem to chill the wort much faster than my current method; ice. Many people have stated that their chillers cool the wort to pitching temperature in 20-25 minutes. I'm able to to chill mine to 75-80 degrees F in 25 minutes or so just filling my sink with ice and water around the brew pot. Is the extra 5-10 minutes cooling time really going to make …
I am building an recirc arm for my chilling set up. Should my recirc have a gentle bend in it to 90degrees or would it be OK to just use a 90degree elbow of a piece of straight pipe under the wort surface?
Based on your actual experience with each, what are the pros and cons of the two most common types of wort chillers - immersion and counter-flow? Which do you prefer?