Better way to use a Wort Chiller
So I picked up a wort chiller from the local brew shop, and I tried it out for the first time last weekend.
It works great, and it’s a lot easier to deal with than an ice bath. But I didn’t feel like it went any quicker than an ice bath. (I’m still boiling about 3 gallons at a time, at this point.) Plus there was a lot of runoff water, wasted.
Thinking back, it’d be nice to have the water colder. I simply hooked the wort chiller up to the garden hose, and though the water’s cool, it’s not really cold. I’d like it it be icy and cold.
So I started thinking about ways this could be done, and I came up with an idea of using a large cooler to store ice water. The water can be pumped or siphoned into the worth chiller hose, run through the chiller, and then drained right back into the ice water. This will make the initial water colder, plus the water will then be recycled, re-cooled, and rerun through the chiller. Good idea. But how to make it work?
A quick google search led me to this post at Starkville Homebrew. I think this guy’s employed exactly what I was thinking of. He’s able to get his wort cooled in about 25 minutes. But he does require a submersible pump to push water out of the chiller. I figured I’d need a pump.
