I’m looking to replace my ancient (20+ year old) homemade 25’ copper counterflow wort chiller - I use it as a gravity feed chiller and would prefer to not use a pump. It’s served me well - I sanitize after and before every use but am concerned it has reached the end of it’s life (developed a metallic smell).
Any feedback regarding immersion vs counterflow designs and plate vs tube chillers as well as copper vs stainless steel would be appreciated. I generally brew 12-14 gallon batches in a three tiered system. Thanks!
I recently started using a Hydra chiller from JaDeD. With my 56F water, it took 5.5 gal. from boiling to 58F in 8 minutes. It’s pretty much as fast as a plate or counter flow with a fraction of the hassles.
Thanks for the feedback. Regarding the immersion style chillers - at what point do you add the chiller and how do you handle the whirlpool step? I generally whirlpool a few minutes and then allow hops/trub to settle in the middle of the kettle before draining off through my chiller.
For five gallon batches - the Hydra. For 10ers, I often go with the Jamil recirc then finish with a counter flow with an ice bath pre-chiller for the well water. Needless to say I get to lager temps pretty darn quick. Just depends on the outside temp and how much work I want to do in the clean up… Time saved chilling usually is eaten up by the extra cleaning time.
Recently moved from copper to stainless steel. Guess why (not sure yet whether it helps b/c I have a new Braumeister and I f*ed up my first two batches).
I know in the past reading your comments, that you try to avoid HSA. They recommend that you move the chiller around the kettle. Did you stir or did you not stir?
I recently got a hydra as well. I like immersion chillers because all I have to do it dunk them in my cleanup bucket a few times and hand it on the railing to drip dry
Dunno. Next is more kegs, the pH meter (even though I vowed to never buy one), then a digital refractometer, then maybe more kegs, then a hydra. With my current process I can get 5 gallons to 90° in 15 minutes and 70° in another 15.
You will not be disappointed with a solid pH meter. It has really taken the guesswork out of my water adjustments and given me just a little bit more control over the final product. Well worth it. And who doesn’t need more kegs? I am upwards of 20 right now and treat each one like a tiny baby.
Gotta admit I’m interested in the Hydra, today it took 10 minutes to get down to 80, half an hour to 68, and 30 minutes later I was still at 68, that’s with a 50’ chiller in the wort and a 25’ pre-chiller in ice water. Maybe soon the teeth of the hydra will be upon me [that one was for the other old rockers].
As for refractometers, I violated my one cardinal rule of tool buying and bought one of the $60 ones, it aint worth the powder and lead it’d take to blow it straight to hell! Total waste of beer money. Ya always gotta pay for what ya get, but ya don’t always get what all that ya paid for, maybe I’ll try a higher dollar one after I get over being miffed, and can scrabble up enough beer money to afford one.
My set up is not quite right fir the hydra, lots of 5 gallon batches in a 15 gallon kettle, so I bought Jaded’s King Cobra which is a similar set up just a lower profile. My older 25’ chiller has been relegated to smaller batches in my 8.5 gallon kettle. The Jaded product chills my wort so fast, I had a hard time doing a whirlpool at 170 for my IPA in January, had to turn the burner back on. When I have paid attention, and likely caused some HSA, it has cooled my batches to under 100 in less than 10 minutes from boiling. Jaded highly recommended by me!
To continue, the hydra would have coils above the wort for most of my batches in the 15G, but the king cobra is too wide for the smaller kettle. I opted for the better chiller in my larger kettle (but big enough for a full boil with no concerns), but ymmv.