Chiller Size

[Keith]

I have a 50' 3/4" immersion chiller. I'm going to get a 25' pre chiller in a ice bath. Anyone know if this would be sufficient to chill a 30 gallon batch?

[Jimmy]

No idea if that will work or not. I'd think something like this would work best..from what I've read, you can recirculate during the boil to sanitize without clogging.

http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/chillzilla.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[LeafMan66_67]

Yep - chillzilla is a beast. I love mine. Recirc with no worries of clogging due to pellet hops.

[know1]

Maximizing contact and convection is your friend when it comes to chilling. Unless you are constantly stirring the wort around the immersion chiller you wont have huge gains. You might be able to achieve this by an aggressive high flow whirlpool recirc but you will also use a ton of water. You can setup a counter flow to recirc until you hit pitch temp and then open a two-way valve to transfer directly into the fermenter. You can also speed up chilling a bit by aiming the cooling water to spray down the outside of the pot with either method. It will obviously be warmer than when it came out of the tap but still cooler than the metal pot of hot wort. But for 30 gallons, you are still probably looking at upwards of an hour+

Personally I love the idea and efficiency of a counterflow chiller but with rapid stirring and my 25' 3/8" copper immersion chiller I can get a 5 gallon batch down to around 30 degrees C in 10-15 minutes. Plus I'm not equipped for recirc so its a big expense for minimal gain. Maybe a counterflow in an ice bath could gain you a few minutes.

If you are going big, get a plate heat exchanger but you have to have a hop stopper or it WILL clog. These guys, http://www.dudadiesel.com/heat_exchangers.php list a plate chiller for $210 that claim to chill a 10 gallon batch in 3.5 minutes!

There's also arguments for the down under no-chill method specifically around DMS. I don't argue though that a rapid chill gets you to pitching temp faster minimizing opportunity for contamination.