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My new hobby..... Homebrewing!
DrewKaree:
--- Quote from: KenToad on May 11, 2007, 01:08:51 pm ---
That chiller looks very complicated compared to the one I have. Mine is a simple copper coil that I dip in the hot wort and connect to any faucet and just turn on the cold water. Basically the cold water just runs through the copper tubing that is immersed in the wort. The water from the faucet comes into the copper tubing cold and exits into the sink boiling hot for the first few seconds, then it quickly goes from hot to warm. It's best to stir the wort at the same time and it takes between 5 and 7 minutes to bring the wort down to a temperature that will not further cook the flavor out of the hops, which is the real danger in not cooling down your wort fast enough, in addition to the very slim possibility that your wort will get infected with wild yeast and that that strain will be able to overwhelm the yeast that you throw in there.
--- End quote ---
That chiller is and isn't complicated - that guy just seems able to turn simple multiplication into quantum physics :dizzy:
He quite obviously seems to be a tinkerer, and I can see he's thrown some stuff in there that seems unnecessary. Basically, all that glorified contraption breaks down to is this: A regular old immersion chiller and a brewpot with a spigot on it. Add a hose to the spigot, a pump to draw the wort out, and a kludgy piece of copper tubing to circulate the wort.
When you said to stir the wort, that's all that guy is really doing, only he's doing it with "toys", and somewhat standardizing the process by letting the pump "stir" the wort at a constant pace, and doing so at a pace that allows a faster drop in temperature.
Many setups I've come across seem like they're built by guys who like the tinkering aspect just as much (if not more) than the actual making of the beer! That's one of 'em. The plus for his setup (to him) seems to be the ability to settle out more crap and to drop to fermentation temps in 1-3 minutes. I dunno if the ice buckets are vital, but at the very least I can see the value in adding the circulation the pump provides.
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