Can anyone recommend an immersion chiller for smaller batches boiled in a 10 gallon kettle? My current SS chiller doesn’t do much with anything below 4 gallons.
Pour the boiled wort into a sanitized kettle or bucket. Place the vessel into a tub. Fill the tub with cold water. Wait about a half an hour. Your small batch will be chilled significantly. If the immersion water becomes too warm and the wort will not chill further, replace the immersion water with more cold water and wait another 20 minutes. Done. I’ve done this for more than 100 batches and it works great.
I got a 20’ chiller from my LHBS (Bader brewing in Vancouver, WA) that fits my three gallon batches. The coils could be squeezed closer together for smaller batches.
+1. Actually, I’ve used thin gauge wire to wrap the coils closer together for small batches. Pretty low tech and works. As long as the coils are at or under the wort level, they can do their job.