Just letting folks know, it's my intention to swing by late Saturday
And put the immersion chiller on the cold water-in side of the counter flow to act as a prechiller. I know there were plans to put valves and stuff, but this costs zero dollars and involves simple screwing on of two hoses...instead of an over engineered valved solution that costs dollars. If there are objections speak now. I will perform some testing and provide the results and instructions for success. Moving forward if this goes as planned, bring some ice when you brew to toss in the prechiller bucket. Or maybe some frozen 2 liters in the freezer...whatever you prefer. We simply unscrew it when groundwater temps drop again. Problem solved.
I think this is a great idea Joe. If people don't want the pre-chiller, then they just don't put any ice water in. Keeps it simple.
I'd say just make sure there's enough extra line on there so that its easy to dump out the bucket when we're done.
Oh... my... god. Why haven't we done this? http://thechive.com/2013/09/17/guys-rig-up-buddies-plumbing-with-beer-wh...
We need to make sure that the pre-chiller and the counterflow can be easily cleaned. The bucket was filled with water and may have been a breeding ground for our fruit fly friends.
Good plan, Joe. Thanks for doing this
Is there any way to use an extra bottling bucket so you just flip open the valve and the bucket drains onto the floor?
The standing water issue has been noted, I'll see what I can do to eliminate it. Maybe a lid with notches for the lines. Maybe a squirt of bleach...I don't know, but I'll think about it.
Pechiller is hooked up. Ran boiling water through it and then chilled 2 of Jesse's batches this morning, this is what you need to know and what I learned:
For you "too long didn't read" types: Use a ton of ice and move the prechiller up and down...
1. You're gonna need more ice than you think. In testing i was using about a third of a 10lb bag and a lot of water, I was hoping this would allow us to run full bore on the pump but that is not the case. We were getting low 70's high 60's with it choked back significantly. I think if you toss in a whole 20 sack you probably can run the pump full bore, I didn't buy enough ice to continue testing, plus I ran out of time.
2. With about five pounds of ice in and a full bucket of water I was measuring 64 degrees at the output of the prechiller, sloshing the chiller around like you're churning butter with it lowered it a full 12 degrees to 52. With a full 20 sack of ice in there or more I imagine that number will continue to drop. I think the key is more ice than water.
3. I'm not 100% convinced this is everything I hoped it could be just yet, the prechiller has a smaller diameter so that will limit the flow of the cooling water through the counter chiller, possibly negating any benefit gained by the cooler groundwater, a larger sample size is needed to know if it's worth it, as I stated I believe with significantly more ice than I had it will be more beneficial. We'll have to see how it goes as more people use it. It's pretty simple to undo though.
Also, the only solution I have for the standing water issue right now is to just dump out the bucket. there is enough line on the prechiller to pull it out of the bucket, pull the bucket out and dump it no problem.
Brewing today and using the prechiller setup I have the following recommendations:
1. Bring a 20lb bag of ice and dump it all in, you use a lot more than you think because you're knocking 20-30 degrees off the groundwater temp.
2. Grab the prechiller by the horns and move the chiller through the ice bath in a butter churning motion, you can get your wort in the mid 60's if you churn real hard, but about 70-72 with minimal effort and the valve choked back a little.
3. I'm not entirely happy with this setup, but it does the job, and I haven't figured out how to make it better as of yet.
Most of the folks on HBT who use a pre-chiller recirculate their wort (run the chiller out hose back into the kettle) using only groundwater until their wort gets below 100* or so, and then start using the pre-chiller, as it's a much more efficient use of ice. 75* groundwater will still chill down to the 90s or so pretty quickly.
Obviously once you're actually using the pre-chiller, moving it around like Joe recommends is a good plan, to maximize contact between the icewater and the pre-chiller.