Cold water in Lawrence!

[Jensen]

Lawrence tap water is finally cold!!!!

[DJ in KC]

Lawrence tap water is finally cold!!!!

Best thing about brewing this time of year - not screwing around with ice.

[Matt]

OH yeah. I chilled 10 gallons of boiling wort ridiculously quick the last time I brewed. I really love my 70' immersion chiller! Especially this time of year.

The only down-side is that I'm using external hose faucets to get at that chilly water, so I have to remind myself to disconnect the hose when I'm done so the exterior hose outlet won't freeze up at night. Forgetting to disconnect the hoses when I'm done during freezing temps could burst some pipes!

Better yet, if possible, use an indoor valve to shut off and drain water from pipes leading to outside faucets. This reduces the chance of freezing in the short span of pipe just inside the house.

Matt

[DJ in KC]

One of the KC guys had a 1/4" chiller I saw the other day. Must have had 70+ feet and looked like a birdnest. I asked why - he's a plumber so Cu cost was nothing - and it chills super fast

[Jensen]

We need to make a wide one than fits near the outer inside diameter of a 26gal MoreBeer pot. We would like to pump-recirculate whirlpool while chilling, without having the copper in the middle pot. Never thought of 1/4 inch... Surface area of the dia, compared to 1/2 inch... Hmm, choices...

[DJ in KC]

My IC fits around the wall on my 20 gal kettle. I've recirculated but settled on a stirrer instead.
Picked up a small gearmotor from sciplus.com and made the stirrer out of 1/2" Cu pipe. It hangs in the kettle at about 20 min to sanitize it.

[Rob Martin]

That stirrer is awesome Dan. We use a whirlpool arm and really like it. Our immersion chiller is only 45' long (we brew 9-12 gal batches) but with the recirculating whirlpool arm (for the wort), it helps a lot. When it is time to transfer to our fermenter, the pump and hoses are already heat sanitized. We set up the pump and arm and having it flowing for the last 5 minutes of the boil. The equipment has previously been used earlier in the brew day to transfer sparge water, etc.

When the boil is done, we just pause the flow with one of the valves, and then pump it into the fermenter using the whirlpool arm/wand. The tip of it is pinched, so it causes a pretty serious spray like the end of a garden hose. Besides using our O2 injection, we also get a good mixture of air while transferring from the spray. Of course this is after it has been cooled, so there is no hot side aeration. It works pretty well for us.

[Matt]

Yeah Dan, that is nice. Would love some more info on the motor you used.

I can only imagine how much faster it would chill with either that or a whirlpool arm, which I'm also seriously considering.

Matt

[DJ in KC]

Yeah Dan, that is nice. Would love some more info on the motor you used.

I can only imagine how much faster it would chill with either that or a whirlpool arm, which I'm also seriously considering.

Matt

It's been a few years since I made the stirrer. I don't remember which motor I bought from sciplus but the RPM is around 60 give or take. I don't think it needs much agitation to be effective. I never had much luck with recirculating and an IC. Never got a good cone in the kettle although the electric element probably doesn't help.