Wort Cooling

Ideally, once the wort has been boiled, you want to cool it down to pitching temperatures as quickly as possible. This is generally done with either an immersion chiller (IC) or a counterflow chiller (CFC). Which of those I use depends on the equipment I’m using to brew with and whether or not I’m planning to use the conical for fermenting.

Unfortunately the ground water in our area is relatively warm. During the winter, with a reasonable amount of water and time, I can get wort temperatures down to 70 degrees using either the IC or CFC. During the summer, it’s an entirely different story. Using the CFC and a slow transfer rate from kettle to conical, I can generally get down to about 80 degrees. If I use a lot of water and take the time, I can get down to about 70 using two ICs. One IC is in a bucket filled with ice packs, frozen water bottles and water and the other IC is in the kettle.

As such, I’ve recently been researching ways in which to drop temperatures to the low 60s in a reasonable amount of time with a reasonable amount of water and not using the temperature controlled conical. Using the temperature controller takes a lot of time (8 hours during the winter to drop from 73 to 60), uses unnecessary electricity and it’s not always available for every beer. Plus I really just want to get to the pitching already!

At this point the plan is as follows:

a) Keep the IC in the bucket filled with ice packs/bottles and water.

b) If using the IC in the kettle, connect the garden hose.

c) Drop the temperature of the wort to the 90 – 100 degree range.

d) Then, using a submersible pump placed into the ice bath, switch to a recirculation method where the ice water in the bucket is being run through the IC in the kettle or the CFC, exiting the chiller, and then back into the bucket.

Others who have done this seem to have success in conserving water (relatively speaking), dropping temperatures to the low 60s and doing it all quickly.

My next scheduled brew date, when I’m brewing a sticke altbier, is the weekend of December 27^th. I’m anxious to give this plan a run through but due to family commitments and due to the fact that my conical is currently filled, brewing that weekend may not happen.