Cooling wort to pitching temps

Where the chilling stops is a function of the temperature of your source water. When mine is too warm, I use ice water and a pump. I used to use a pre-chiller in a cooler filled with ice water, but the pump works faster for me.

Mine is 1/8 horsepower, and the flow is about 21 Gallons per Minute.

 

I use a Flotec 1/6 horsepower sump pump (80$ at home depot) to circulate the ice water through my immersion chiller. To make it chill even quicker, I also added a "whirlpool arm" to my immersion chiller (using a March pump).

I'm pretty confident that my system should now be able to get me down to ale & lager pitching temperatures no matter the season.

 

Got one of these. Got it through Amazon per the link. The first one was a dud: the impeller would not turn. Fortunately Amazon had a good return deal and I could get another shipped before I had to send the other back. I used this on my last brew. Nice, ice-cold water flowing through the chiller got the temps down quickly.

 

My thoughts are to not put too much faith into others' results unless they tell you the temp of their inlet water. Example: in the summer my inlet water is 90F, which gives drastically different results from someone who lives farther north. No show-stopper here, just be aware of big differences based on the temp of your cooling water.

That said, a submersible pump and a cooler of ice-slurry is a sound approach. I had good luck getting a cheap-o from Amazon, but most anything will work. In theory the faster you pump the quicker you cool, but there is a compromise in how much water you want to send down the drain. I ended up getting a low capacity pump to minimize the water loss. As mentioned, your IC is more efficient when circulating/whirpooling with a pump . . . alternatively a constant stir will do the same.

Finally, it's harder than you think to get an ice bath really cold (<35). Unless you have ice packed from top-to-bottom in the cooler your pump will be picking up the warmer (relatively) bottom water. If you can spring for it, consider a plate chiller.

 

How does a faster pump waste water when it is being recirculated? I think I must be misinterpreting something.

 

Recirculating - No. But my IC (or plate chiller) output is initially very hot (150+) which is dumped down the drain. When my output temp is less than my water supply inlet I move to recirculate. Do you do it differently?

 

I switch from faucet to ice water pump as soon as cooling slows significantly. But I'm still trying to figure out how a faster pump wastes water. Are you using a pump to move tap water through the IC (and then down the drain)?

 

Yes.

If really interested, consider the extreme case of using no water and using a massive amount of water. If no water is used (i.e. let the wort cool naturally) then no waste and it would take about half a day. If you hooked up a fire hydrant (~750 GPM) the heat would be transferred much more quickly but at the cost of a whole lot of water. Because my water is expensive and I don't own an icehouse I compromise somewhere in between, a relatively low flow rate (tap, then ice-slurry), the majority of which goes down the drain.

For the OP: do you have an idea of your inlet water temp by season?

 

Interesting. I had never heard of anyone using a pump to move straight tap water through their IC. I agree about the thermodynamics and diminishing returns on ultra high flow rates.

 

Summer needs ice water recirculation,

I was able to chill to 45F with the immersion chiller last winter. Thanks polar vortex!

 

What temp is your tapwater?

Look, my tapwater is a lot fucking higher than where I want it when I pitch my yeast if I can at all help it. So being uncertain how much 50" of (? gauge) copper tubing you're talking, let's talk about water.

When you have enough cooling tubing, but your water is warm, there's no way around it, you're gonna have to cool that water somehow. There are re-circulate methods and there are non-re-circulating methods. Mine is to put another coil of copper before the wort chilling coils, and dump ice on it to get the last extra bit of cooling.

Cuz you see you'll never get wort below the temp of you water, at least not theoretically... and it certainly does slow down big time when it's getting close. And - this part is important, if you dump the ice on early, it will melt friggin' fast, but you won't be down to temp yet. So the difference between 212 and 80 is far, and no need to waste ice on it. The difference between 95 and 60 is FAR, but I usually add the ice about 80 or so. It's a strange situation of the closer you get, the farther you are.

But the fact is water at 80 degrees still melts a lot of ice. So take advantage of the differential when it's large, and save your ice for when it's small.