10 gallon batch, where to chill?

I only do 5 gallon batches but chill on my car port where I boil. Immersion chiller hooked up to the ground water. I use a sub pump and ice water during the summer time. I don't move it to my basement until it is in the fermenter. I use buckets so they are easy to get up and down the stairs.

 

I chill on the patio before I move the wort. I generally do ten gallon batches. Depending on the mood, the alignment of the stars, and the audience, I either drain the kettle into a corny (two trips), then carry the corny to the basement fermenter, or I sanitize a 50' length of vinyl line that I run that through the basement window to the fermenter. For five gallon batches, I just fill a Better Bottle with chilled wort and carry it down to the brewhouse. I can carry a glass carboy, but it's just too risky.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't ground water the same temp year round?

 

Mine certainly isn't. It's about 42 F now. In the summer it's more like 65 F.

 

Im in a large (but very old) apartment building and get similar swings. I am about 40-45 this time of year but 70+ in the heat of the summer.


And to the OP I boil on my stovetop which is near my sink. When the boil is over I just turn off the burners and begin chilling the wort right where I boiled. When it is done chilling, I transfer to the carboy from that stove top and move the carboy all of 10 feet to my fermentation chamber. I am a fan of consolidating as much of the process as possible.

 

During the summer I can get it down to around 70-75 but it takes forever. Right now I can get it to 60-65 in 15-20 minutes and have to be careful that it doesn't go lower than that.

 

I chill my wort the same place I boil my wort. A long hose saves your back.

 

I'm interested in what others think about this also. I leave my fermenter open outside while I add O2 and then the yeast but it is under 5 minutes. I should probably leave the lid partially on while I do this.

 

Hmmm... My only experience with ground water was from a deep well, where the temp was virtually a rock solid 47 degrees year round. Perhaps shallow well temps are not as stable. Lake Michigan water delivered to my house varies from around 45 during the winter to around 70 in the summer, but that's not ground water. I had no idea ground water could vary that much.

 

We chill with a plate chiller (with an immersion chiller in a bucket of ice water as a pre-chiller) and run wort from kettle to carboys. Then we have to carry the carboys downstairs to the fermentation area. Carrying glass carboys down a flight of stairs is very nerve-racking, but I'd rather carry room temperature carboys than boiling hot kettles (if I'm understanding what you're doing correctly).

We've considered running long tubing from the plate chiller outside through a basement window to carboys in the basement like mikehartigan described. Not sure why we haven't pulled the trigger on that yet, might be the next project.

 

It probably doesn't make much of a difference, but I sanitize some aluminum foil and use that as a temporary lid. You could also purge the fermentor with carbon dioxide.

 

Maybe I misspoke when I said ground water. I was refering to the water that comes out of the spigot outside of my house.

 

I do it all in the garage.

 

the rule of thumb is that the average air temp at the well head is right around the average groundwater temp in many areas.

if your source is from till, or shallow or perhaps from a deep bedrock well... could be a lot cooler or a bit warmer. and gw must come to the shallow surface and enter the dwelling so there is that to consider as well. most people have a pressure tank in the basement. that water will eventually equilibrate with the basement air temp if left alone.

also, water from a bedrock well could be 1,000 to 10,000 years old or more. that water is not very effected by what goes on up top.
Cheers.

 

I chill in the garage where I brew. I fill one bucket with tap water and drop my pump in there to send that water through my immersion chillers. Since I got the pump I drop my old pre chiller in there with the post. Once it gets to 100 or 120 I move the pump to a tub with water and ice to drop it to 70 or so. This works much better compared to using just tap water, of course I live in Houston and tap water can make it into the 80's during the summer. I run the water through the chillers and back into the bucket/tub. I usually leave my fermenter full of sanitizer outside until I start chilling, then I pour it into another bucket to stick the chillers in if I am doing a hop steep.

 

You're right -- it will tend to warm in the pressure tank. But filing the pool with 20,000+ gallons pretty much bypasses that for the final 19,950 gallons

Indeed!

 

I agree with most of what you said. But I don't know anyone here in New England that has a pressure tank. Most water comes in being pushed by the muni water supply system. So for me the term "groundwater" has always referred to the temp of the water after its equilibrated to the ground temp on its long journey from the town's source (springs and wells) to me.

Oh and for the original poster.... I chill with an IC in my garage. Usually catching the hottest water in buckets for clean up, diverting the rest of it into the lawn or into the garden. Or a bucket to wash the car with later (rarely that happens).

 

groundwater is just that, but it is generally understood that any potable water that does not come from a private well is municipal water. sometimes muni water is from a reservoir, sometimes from a well, often times both. a lot of NE has private bedrock wells, there are a large number of pressure tanks out there.

in my world, it is assumed that anybody who has a supply of groundwater has a well and does not receive municipal service. but I can see where that is not everyones understanding of the term.
Cheers.

 

You can hold your hot 10 gallon kettle in a planting tub like this one and run water around it or pile snow and let it cool out side.