3 replies to this topic

[VirginiaBeach]

In an effort to save some money I've come up with a good idea (I think) for cooling wort using a single stage immersion wort chiller. I don't feel like spending double the money for a two stage where one set of coils goes in a bath of ice water and the second set into the wort. My idea was to hook up the single stage immersion chiller to my big plastic brewbucket full of ice and let the ice cold water run through, gravity-fed. Since the water isn't supposed to run through fast anyways I figure I'll just have to periodically fill up the ice-water bucket with cool water to keep it topped off. I think this will cut down on cooling time.Any thoughts/input?

[djinkc]

It'll work. Lots of people do this with an sump pump immersed in ice water. Chill to 90df or so with tap water and then switch to the ice water. Most of us recirculate the water through the ice at that point. You can pick up a cheap pump at harbor freight. Gravity fed will probably take longer.

[MakeMeHoppy]

With all the rain we've had I decided to use the swimming pool as a water source. I just ran a hose thru the chiller for a minute to start the siphon and it ran at a good pace the whole time. The only down side was carrying the hot wort over to the pool area. I have used your idea of a bottling bucket gravity fed through the chiller. It worked well but I needed to get the bucket about 5 feet above the floor to get a decent flow.Give it a try and report back.

[BrewerGeorge]

It'll work. Lots of people do this with an sump pump immersed in ice water. Chill to 90df or so with tap water and then switch to the ice water. Most of us recirculate the water through the ice at that point. You can pick up a cheap pump at harbor freight. Gravity fed will probably take longer.

Do this.Tap water to 90F or 100F then switch to ice water. Recircing is a bit better. Replacing the ice and water (not recircing) would be the absolute fastest method, but it would be expensive in ice. A cheap $10 drill pump will be a bit slower, but will pay for itself in 3 or 4 bags of ice.