wort chiller

[BrewNoob]

takes about 20 lbs of ice but I plan on making my own using the bottled water empties from the batch before and just smashing it on the ground when I need it, then just recycle the cut up jugs. I have an extra fridge/freezer.

Gerard

[scorpio_fl]

hey there brewnoob, got something for you to try...put your chiller in a 5 gal bucket or whatever It'll fit in and fill the bucket with water, hook up water hose to in and out on the chiller, put it in the freezer, barely move the water through the hose( moving water doesn't freeze) let the water in the bucket freeze...theres your FREE ice...the copper is open to receive your wort, monitor the temp and restrict the flow, or not...I don't believe 5 gals will melt a 5 gal block of ice...let me know what you think of this...buddy b...

[beer_bear]

put your chiller in a 5 gal bucket or whatever It'll fit in and fill the bucket with water, hook up water hose to in and out on the chiller, put it in the freezer...... let the water in the bucket freeze....I don't believe 5 gals will melt a 5 gal block of ice...

I think this is a good idea but I would have a problem doing the freezing of a 5 gallon anything. I don't have that much freezer space. I think I'll work on making it fit my system though. It sounds like it would be really efficient and a lot cheaper. The only other thing I will do until then is get my ice from a fire station. They all have ice machines here and don't have any problem letting me get some.

[scorpio_fl]

kool...you said you didn't pay for water, you didn't say you could get free ice too, anyway maybe someone else can use it...laterbuddy b...

[linuxelf]

Why not just freeze a couple of 1gallon milk jugs? I like the idea of making the solid 5gal block of ice, but I would think that keeping the water moving throught he coil would be difficult for me, as I'd have to have water in/water out in my freezer.

[WichitaBrewer]

I kind of like Brewnoob's idea of the frozen water bottles. They're smaller so they'd be easier to fit into limited freezer space, plus you would have good ice "surface space" relative to some of the other jugs that you could use. Freezing the entire bucket is a pretty good idea too, but I'd be concerned about not having good circulation to efficiently chill quickly. Remember, a cooler with water and ice chills more efficiently than a cooler of just ice because the water allows for the heat transfer easier than just the ice would.

WichitaBrewer

[mykafone]

I need to make a prechiller also. Its really hard getting wort temps down in 115º heat.
About those copper prices - - Ive been seeing stories about people going out and cutting down powerlines and taking the copper in them to recycle centers because the price has gone up so much in the past year. Copper theft is a real big problem right now - - So lock up yer chillers!!

[beer_bear]

I need to make a prechiller also. Its really hard getting wort temps down in 115º heat.

I hope to avoid this problem by just making a second chiller and placing it ahead of the other one. My ore-chiller will be in a cooler full of ice. I won't run the water through there until the temp gets closer to about 120F. I haven't done it yet, so I might have to rethink my temps for this, but what the hell. The worst that could happen is that I'll blow through some free ice.