Last time I brewed, it was hot outside 85, middle of July. Everything was fine, I have a pool next door, so I jumped in between mashing and boiling, etc. However, it came time to cool my wort to 66 and it never happened. I'm using a copper immersion chiller, but I'm quite certain the issue is the ground water temp. It must be around 70, as that is about as low as I could get it. I did move my beer to a bath of cooler water to help bring it down and keep it at a lower temp in my basement. Doing this, I was able to maintain closer to 67, still warmer than I had hoped for. Anyway, the question is, without a fermentation chamber or any "extra" tool, what is my best option for cooling this down? I assume setting it in a bucket of ice water is one option... Freezing groundwater is nice in February though! Thoughts?
If you're looking to cool to that temp rapidly for your cold break, i would suggest getting a small pump and a cooler that you can use to recirculate ice water through your chiller coil. For maintaining cooler temps during fermentation, here's a cheap option: Use the cooling effects of evaporation by placing the carboy in a shallow pan of water and covering it with damp towels. They'll have to be changed frequently, but it works well.
In the summer (eight months out of my year), my supplied water will reach the low 90s. So I use it to cool the wort to around 120 - 130, then switch to an ice slurry supply for the big push. You'll need a submersible pump (Amazon <20 bucks), some vinyl tubing, and brew day sees me visit the ice house for a cooler of frozen water. I ultimately switched to a counter-flow plate heat exchanger and it halved the time. You'll find sitting the kettle in a bucket of ice isn't as efficient as it sounds . . . you really want to keep the fluids circulating.
a chest freezer is really essential for summer brewing. you need it to cool the wort below ground water temp, and you need it to control ferment temps anyway. you can cold crash with it too which is a huge plus. there are workarounds of course, but i think any experienced homebrewer will tell you to bite the bullet and get a freezer/fridge or just take summers off brewing. i did the t-shirt and water trick like everyone else, but it's not very effective at keeping temps down and it's a huge hassle. I bought a small 5 cu ft chest freezer for my apartment brewing. $180 shipped to my door, not bad.
Wife already can't stand me and me buying anything ever. Then there is buying things for brewing... I would love a fermentation chamber. Everything I've read says temp control is as important as most anything. Taking the summer off from brewing sounds a little extreme... Am I just supposed to drink beer someone else brewed all summer long? My wife agrees with you. She also thinks our summer is 10 months long now! Thanks for the info.
I just brewed a 10 gal batch and was having the same issue. Ground water was around 85, so my wort chiller wasn't getting it any colder than that. I was a bit rushed for time and ended up pitching warmer than I intended.. Put both fermenters in a large Tupperware container in our basement, filled with cold water and loaded it up with frozen water bottles. That seemed to get it pretty cool in just a few hours. Hopefully that helps to eliminate too many off flavors from the slightly warmer pitch.. If temp gets too high then keep re-circulating those frozen bottles. 2-liters work best for me!
Will be freezing 2 liter bottles as soon as I gets some. Great idea. Of course, in not too many months we will be gathered around the burner to keep warm up her in MN! Cooling to 66 will not be a problem!!!!
Like Portlargo, I have 8-10 month long summer as well. You have a few workarounds: 1) using tap and an immersion chiller to get as low as you can, then switch to a pond pump in a ice chest. 2) get a minifridge, or a chest freezer (go with the latter if you have the choice), and mod it to be a fermentation chamber. I got a minifridge used off craigslist for $50 Don't go smaller than 5 cubic foot. After chilling your wart as best you can, use the fermentation chamber to get you to pitching temp overnight. 3) use a heat tolerant yeast strain. Saison yeast are very good at this. The good news is, in Minnesota, you will be in prime time for brewing here in a few months. I'm kinda jealous. And I kinda miss snow a little.
There is only so much you can do quickly with an immersion chiller all by itself, so that caveat about no other tools handcuffs me. Are you stirring as you are cooling? That will help. I have played with recirculating the wort, using a pump, and that helps. Someone else already mentioned recirculating the chiller water, which should help too. I have two immersion coils, which I setup in sequence. The first cool is in a cooler with ice water, the second, in the wort. This helps.
