wort chiller

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donshizzles
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wort chiller

Post by donshizzles »

So with a copper tubing wort chiller that you immerse in the wort (as opposed to a counterflow system) where does the cold water end up after its run through the copper tubing? Is it just siphoned of into a bucket, drain, etc?
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jawbox
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Post by jawbox »

you got it. I usually save a few gallons of the hot water for cleanup. A counter flow chiller would also go down the drain.
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billd220
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Post by billd220 »

Yes it just goes down the drain...but I've read lots of ways people reuse that water...Some people run it into the washing machine and use it to do a load of wash. Use it to clean your tools....watever use you have for some good hot water. You might as well take advantage of it.

I'm just building my wort chiller now so I haven't yet experienced it, but I will try to reuse that water if possible. Think Green!
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ColoradoBrewer
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Post by ColoradoBrewer »

After going through the chiller the water goes onto the lawn or into a flower bed.
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donshizzles
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Post by donshizzles »

How about the counterflow system.......how does that work with the water thats already gone through? Same idea?
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jawbox
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Post by jawbox »

Same idea water is running in one direction and the wort runs in the other. Waste (hot water) goes down the drain.

One thing to consider is that an immersion chiller is easy to santize, just put in your boiling wort about 15 mins before the end. No worries about trub or hop debris collecting on the inside as you would with a counter flow chiller.
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Post by liv2fly88 »

I constructed a wort chiller (simple immersion style), but rather than using "cold" water from the tap (in Florida, there is no such thing as cold tap water) and sending it down the drain or into the garden, I used a fountain pump in a cooler.

Consider the standard immersion coil of copper, but the inlet (cold) is fed from the pump and the outlet (hot) gets returned to the cooler where the water is cooled off again. McDonald's will set you up with a 10 lb bag of ice for $1, so I just take the cooler down there right before the brewing session.
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wottaguy
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RE: wort chiller

Post by wottaguy »

say liv2fly88...

i've been doing that exact technique to cool wort for a few years now but i use a sub-pump and a cooler of ice and a few inches of water. It works great and fast too.

Where in FL are you? I'm in the NSB Daytona area.

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Post by liv2fly88 »

I grew up in Ormond/DAB, now live in Lake Mary. I haven't been able to convince the wife on brewing at the house (lack of storage mostly), so I brew with a friend near downtown Orlando.

Running the iced water through the immersion chiller via a pump is very efficient in terms of bringing your wort down to pitching temp... and especially helpful in places where "cold" water is a relative term. It also helps prevent sinkholes in Wottaguy's back yard.
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