Cooling Wort Efficiently

[wilfy1970]

Creating the cold break is the least efficient part of my set up. I've kept notes and to get a 25l brew down to pitching temperature can take up to 45 mins and over 50l of water ( I have one of those stainless steel immersion coolers ). We are on a meter and there must be a better way. I normally use the collected cooling water for the next brew, but sometimes I don't have time to brew for a few weeks and you can't use weeks old water, or can you?
Could plate exchange coolers be the answer, and if so, could anybody reccommend one. Thank you for your thoughts.

[escapizm]

I've an IC but haven't used yet due to plumbing issues in garage. Both times I've brewed iv just turned boiler off and put lid on and went back in morning. Not had any issues and wort is clear thus far. Also plows me to split day and reduce time spent away from young family.

[boingy]

I'm not sure you have anything to worry about. 45 minutes isn't bad. Multi coil ICs work quicker so some peeps get around 20 minutes. Plate chillers can be hard to clean and sanitise. Counterflow chillers work quickly but can also be hard to clean and will also use a fair amount of water.

As for water use, we are on a meter and our current price is about £1.30 per cubic metre, or 0.13 pence per litre, so 50 litres would cost me 6.5 pence. The best thing to do with the warm water is use it to clean the equipment and/or pump it into your garden water butt.

Incidentally, a couple of brews ago I experimented with using my water butt as the cooling water. I just circulated the water through the IC and back to the butt with a small pond pump. It worked well to get down to about 40 degrees but then the water butt water was too warm to be any further use. I guess I need a bigger water butt!

[vacant]

I'm on a water meter in the south west, very expensive water here (about £1.30/m3 + £1/m3 sewerage charge), but I don't worry about the cost of water for the IC.

Apparently the average family uses 500 litres per day so lets say a brew takes 100 litres (for liquor, sanitising, cooling, cleaning) and brewing every day would increase an average bill by 20%. Therefore brewing once per month woud be an increase of 0.7%.

My typical costs for 23 litres: ingredients £8.78 + £1.25 proportion of p&p% + elec £1 + water 24p (generous 100 litres) = £11.27

[Deebee]

I recently brewed over a couple of days and let the wort sit overnight before boiling etc.

It could be a combination of several things but it turned out have dropped totally clear when i kegged it.

It could be that the air temperature her is very low right now, but many of the Australians are using no chill methods for the time being,

Personally i am not sure it makes that much of a difference, transfer it to a clean FV from the boil, put the air lock on to stop any nasties and then put somewhere cold. Next morning you can likely pitch the yeast. As long as everything is sterile, the worse thing that will happen s that you might get a chill haze i suppose?

[Capped]

My boiler sits on the kitchen sink strainer. For cooling I attach a 10m copper coil to the boiler tap,and submerge the coil in the sink. The coil outlet hangs over the edge of the sink,where the completely cooled wort falls 18 inches or so into the FV below,neatly aerating it in the process. I set the cold water tap so that the input of cold water matches precisely that which is lost thru the sink overflow. I walk away and leave it to it,and it's usually done in 30-40 minutes (now I've got my hop strainer sorted!). Cooling takes place in the coil itself so there's lots of break material in the FV. Left alone it falls out of suspension very quickly,leaving clear wort above.

[clogwog]

I use an immersion chiller.
I capture my water in my HLT, and a 19 and 11 litre pot.
That water is covered, and can sit there for 3 to 4 weeks until I'm ready to brew my next beer.
I don't see a problem. The wort is boiled after the mash, so I don't believe any nasties will survive.

For lagers, I use rainwater from my neighbour's tank. I have no idea how old that is, but it comes out of the tank clear as a bell. We also use that rainwater to brew our tea. No problems.

Storing water at home isn't really any different than what the water authorities do. Some water sits in storage areas for years without ill effect.

[adm]

Hmmmm......I've been considering using rainwater to brew lagers as I imagine it's probably about as close as you'll get to a Pilsen water profile without excessive messing about with water treatment.

Rainwater run through a fine water filter should be perfect for brewing Lager shouldn't it? As you say, the wort gets boiled, so no nasties will survice, but I quite like the idea of a filter as my roof is covered in bird shite and god knows what else, so I'd rather try and remove some of that first.

[adm]

There's some interesting reading on rainwater harvesting and treatment here: http://www.tceq.state.tx.us/files/gi-36 ... 445350.pdf

Looks like the way to go is a "first flush diverter" to let the initial rain wash most of the crap off the roof before it fills your tank, then a filter, then either UV light or chlorine to treat and disinfect prior to use. Which might all be a bit much for me to mess around with, but who knows....

[boingy]

UV is pretty simple to arrange. Pond places sell 'em for keeping down the algae. Just connect the pipes at each end, plug it in and pump the water through. It won't be food grade but neither is the water butt....

[adm]

UV is pretty simple to arrange. Pond places sell 'em for keeping down the algae. Just connect the pipes at each end, plug it in and pump the water through. It won't be food grade but neither is the water butt....

Good point Boingy....I'd imagine that a UV unit for tropical fish would be more than food grade as the fishies are dead susceptible to leaching plastic compounds aren't they ?

[subsub]

Rain water is classed as sewerage. You need a fkin decent UV filter that is designed for the purpose. These generally cost in the region of 2k. I have a friend who built his own and as he's not dead yet, I think it's working but he says it cost him £500 for the parts

[flytact]

Back to the 45 minute cool time. Are you stirring throughout the cooling process. If not, yo need to. You need to circulate the wort past those coils or you are just cooling the immediate surrounding area. It's a real drag to stir constantly, not vigorously, mind you, but that's what assistants are for.

As for rain water, I wouldn't drink it untreated unless I absolutely had to. Wouldn't consider it for beer.

[wilfy1970]

Wouldn't stirring agitate all the of the fall out at the bottom of my copper? I'll try anything, but thought that could cause problems.

[flytact]

Once I've finished cooling I pull out the IC and give the wort a good minute or so swirl with my spoon and let it sit while I clean everything up. I'm left with a nice cone on the bottom of the kettle and clear wort.