I've been thinking about how i'll set myself up for all-grain brewing.
Being on metered water i was thinking about this to some extent, so how many gallons of water do you think you guys use to cool your wort? cos i was thinking that i could have the water that's used to chill the wort flow into the boiler for the next brew. I guess leaving the water in there for a few weeks would be no problem aslong as it's covered and fully boiled before use.
what are your thoughts?
how many gallons of water does it take to chill your wort?
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guildofevil
You can cut down on the amount of water used and the time it takes to chill your beer, by pre-chilling your water.
You do this by using two immersion chillers in series (or one immersion chiller and one counterflow), with the first one sitting in a bucket of ice.
The water from the tap runs through the first immersion chiller, gets cooled by the ice, then flows through the second chiller to chill the beer.
You do this by using two immersion chillers in series (or one immersion chiller and one counterflow), with the first one sitting in a bucket of ice.
The water from the tap runs through the first immersion chiller, gets cooled by the ice, then flows through the second chiller to chill the beer.
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bandit
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BrewStew
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Ianb
It all depends on chiller efficiency and flow rates.
With a fairly efficient plate heat exchanger or counterflow chiller dependant on flow rates I think you should be able to achieve wort to the high side of pitching temperature using twice the volume of cooling water. (i.e 50 litres for a 25 litre brew length).
There are so many variables though that there can be no hard and fast rule. I use a large 65 litre water / ice bath product cooler, and it's inbuilt python pump to pump around a PHE. The wort is pumped through by a small mag drive pump. Ok, so this transfers the cost from water to electricity.
Assuming that you are connected for surface drainage and sewerage, you could be paying 0.2p per litre, which in the above case could mean 10p per brew for cooling. The chiller requires turning on at the start of brewing to get down to temperature for when the cooling is required, so assume it runs for 4 hours. We're paying 9.79p/kWhr flat rate, and I estimate the chiller consumption to be about 0.75kW, so that costs about 30p.
Hmmm. Think I might hook the PHE up to the tap for the next brew!!!
With a fairly efficient plate heat exchanger or counterflow chiller dependant on flow rates I think you should be able to achieve wort to the high side of pitching temperature using twice the volume of cooling water. (i.e 50 litres for a 25 litre brew length).
There are so many variables though that there can be no hard and fast rule. I use a large 65 litre water / ice bath product cooler, and it's inbuilt python pump to pump around a PHE. The wort is pumped through by a small mag drive pump. Ok, so this transfers the cost from water to electricity.
Assuming that you are connected for surface drainage and sewerage, you could be paying 0.2p per litre, which in the above case could mean 10p per brew for cooling. The chiller requires turning on at the start of brewing to get down to temperature for when the cooling is required, so assume it runs for 4 hours. We're paying 9.79p/kWhr flat rate, and I estimate the chiller consumption to be about 0.75kW, so that costs about 30p.
Hmmm. Think I might hook the PHE up to the tap for the next brew!!!
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BrewStew
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J_P
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BrewStew
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BrewStew
well i guess if the water from the chiller comes out hot, then it would take less energy, and time to heat it again for a consecutive brew
EDIT:- OR have two buckets for the CFC water and gravity feed it from one bucket to the other, then put the hot water back in the bucket at high level and leave it with a lid on for the next brew that needs chilling yep that's the solution i reckon
EDIT EDIT:- OR i should stop daydreaming stupid things and get on with my work before someone thinks i'm crazy *hides behind his computer screen*
EDIT:- OR have two buckets for the CFC water and gravity feed it from one bucket to the other, then put the hot water back in the bucket at high level and leave it with a lid on for the next brew that needs chilling
yep that's the solution i reckon EDIT EDIT:- OR i should stop daydreaming stupid things and get on with my work before someone thinks i'm crazy *hides behind his computer screen*
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J_P
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Ianb
Why bother? just tap away at the keyboard so that anyone walking past your office thinks you're busy, and occasionally shout at people down the telephoneBrewStew wrote:EDIT EDIT:- OR i should stop daydreaming stupid things and get on with my work before someone thinks i'm crazy *hides behind his computer screen*
Works for me!!! 
As for holding water at elevated temperatures - I wouldn't. When I last undertook a course in water hygiene, I remember something about the best water borne bug breading temperature is in the high high thirties to low forties. I was going to quote the actual temperatures, but some pilfering toe rag has stolen the literature out of my filing cabinet
On balance, I'd chill your beer, then give the bucket of hot water to SWMBO to wash the cars as you're "too busy"
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BrewStew
although a damned good idea, i think i'd lose my beer brewing privaledges if i tried to pull that trick with my SWMBOIanb wrote:On balance, I'd chill your beer, then give the bucket of hot water to SWMBO to wash the cars as you're "too busy"
, but i could use it to help fill her bath quicker to stop her nagging about hogging the kitchen 
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bandit
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Rook