Chillers Preference

[ry521178]

Hey, I'm looking at changing up my chiller and looking for advice. I currently use a DIY immersion chiller made of coiled 3/8"x25ft copper tubing. It works ok if you stand and stir the wort while running it, but definitely not efficient. Wondering what people use; whether a plate chiller, cfc, or immersion chiller. looks like some value plate chillers available on amazon in 100-150$ range, and CFC available through NG for similar price. Alternatively, copper tubing from HD is available 1/2"x50ft for similar. Mainly doing 5 gallon batches right now, and i have a pump. Any and all opinions/thoughts welcome!

Thanks!
Ryan

[GAM]

Slow your water flow to a minimum. Stir from time to time(leave spoon in hot wort),

Immersion works fine for the price.

Sandy

[KMcK]

I'm wary of plate chillers because I can never be certain they're completely clean inside. You're exposing the wort to potential contamination when it's most susceptible.

In the winter when we have snow I put the brew pot in the snow and keep piling snow around it as the snow melts. Call it Canadian-style chilling.

[amartin]

I just use an immersion chiller too, although mine is 50’ and 1/2”. Overkill for 5 gallons, but I used to make bigger batches. I like it because it’s easy and I don’t need a pump and it’s easy to clean. I swirl it a lot while it’s chilling, that helps. I’ve also been only using kveik yeasts so I only chill it to 80F or so.


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[McGruff]

I stir often and don't wait until it gets to pitching temp. Usually with my well water, I can get it down to 80 F in 30 minutes. I then let the fermentation chamber do the rest. Yes, that means a later time to pitch the yeast. That gives me lots of time for a good clean up.

[Celiacbrew]

I’m like Mcgruff, I get to below 30c and then finish cooling in my freezer.

I switched to a stainless immersion cooler because I read that iron and copper accelerate oxidation reactions. I used to use a copper counterflow chiller but it is slower going from 100c to 75c which makes whirlpool additions a pain. One other downside is cold break goes into your fermenter with a CFC or a plate chiller rather than being left behind in the kettle.

[mumblecrunch]

I make 5 gallon batches and I use a 25' x 1/2" stainless immersion chiller. I use my pump to generate a whirlpool rather than stirring. At my scale and with the hoppy beers I tend to brew much of the time, it's never seemed worth it to deal with the cleaning pain associated with homebrew-level plate chillers or the expense associated with really good counterflow chillers (e.g., the Chillzilla). You can also visually tell how clean an immersion chiller is.

[know1]

I made a CFC which works great at cooling but had plugging issues 2-3 times out of the 5-6 times using it. I may explore better kettle drain screening, (open pickup now). I rely on my 50’ immersion with pumped recirculating whirlpool most often for convenience and sanitary peace of mind at the trade off of some additional cooling time.

Before I bought a pump I would use a sanitized (dedicated) paint mixer on a drill to whirlpool manually. Made a huge difference in cooling time. I was thinking about building a motor driven rig to replace the drill.