How To Cool Your Wort Quick: Immersion Chillers vs Counter Flow Chiller - Which Is The BEST?

[@TonyBranchPelaa]

Just starting homebrewing. Cheers from Finland!🍻

[@graintoglass]

Welcome to the hobby, cheers!

[@videotherapy5052]

I use the grainfather counterflow chiller that was included with grainfather. Pretty good over the past 2 years. I love counterflow chillers because you can pretty much transfer your boiling wort to the fermenter and it cools along the way. Cheers and love your shop.

[@graintoglass]

The GF counter flow chiller was the first really good chiller I ever owned. Cheers

[@RichardDePas]

Great video. I'm thinking about that counterflow chiller. That last 20 degrees of cooling takes forever with an immersion chiller.

[@graintoglass]

Ya the counter flow really helps getting down to pitching temps once you get around 30C (85f). Cheers

[@grahamlawlorshomebrewrevie8227]

great video mate the counterflow seems to be way to go .cheers from Ireland 🍻

[@graintoglass]

Cheers!

[@PatrickBuckles]

I just got an Exchillerator for my brewzilla. Would have gone with the kegland one if I knew it was out there. It cools down very quick. I'm in the San Francisco, CA area. I love the content you guys push out. Thank you!

[@graintoglass]

I've heard very good things about the Exchillerator, that thing should last you a life time. Cheers

[@kengill2703]

I use an immersion chiller, but only about half of the coils are submerged. I have a small Anvil setup and would like to get a faster chiller. Currently it takes around twenty five minutes to cool 2.5 gallons of wort to 68.

[@graintoglass]

Is there a way to bend the in and out of your chiller so more wqort has contact with the coils?

[@kengill2703]

Tried adding a photo but I guess you block them. It is a stainless steel chiller with ten hoops. Only the bottom five hoops are submerged in the wort. I don't think there is a way to bend it.

[@graintoglass]

@@kengill2703 the chiller was probably manufactured for cooling 5+ gallons of wort. Definitely don't bend it if you think it would damage the chiller. Cheers

[@icemanknobby]

I live in Asia, the water temp is always around 85c for cooling I use the the chiller that comes with the brewzilla using any form of counter flow chiller would not solve the problem as I always have to refrigerate down 10degs or so, so in the fridge it goes for a few hours. Great video though as always:-)

[@graintoglass]

Your ground water is definitely to hot for these chillers. You would need to use a bucket filled with ice water and a pump instead of your tap water for it to work. Cheers

[@icemanknobby]

@@graintoglass that temperature was a mistake, it’s 30c don’t know what happened there?? But I still have a temperature problem. Done a stout today, had to chill in the fridge for 8hrs for pitching. Thanks for your advice though:-)

[@user-cr9ym6cq7i]

same problem here water temp is always round 35 in summer, 27 in winter ...

[@amrith10]

Super video. Just what I was looking for since I was wondering if I should go for a counterflow chiller. I currently use the standard one that comes with the brewzilla. Thank you for the super practical and useful content!

[@graintoglass]

Cheers. I love doing videos like this because I'm genuinely curious.

[@scottfallis-l7u]

I made I own counter flow using 2 3/8” tubes in a 1 1/4 plastic tube. I can cool down to 50 degrees if I want to. With that it is gravity, fed right into my Fermentation container by controlling the water temperature and the flow of the beer reaching 68° ready to pitch right away.

[@graintoglass]

That's awesome, I didn't think gravity fed counter flower chillers would be that effective. Cheers

[@claudioferreira5678]

I'm using the chiller that comes with the BZ gen4. Last time I used a low-medium stream of water from the hose, in order to waste a little less water. The pump is on 100% but even when using a full stream the performance isn't great. The manual also "kind of" suggests trying the Ice Bath method: pumping the wort through the chiller on an ice bucket. Haven't tried it yet but it SEEMS like it can be faster / waste less water. Of course you need ice but that's mostly planning. I'm not really sure about how much wort will be left inside the chiller tho. Anyway, will try this on my next brew.

[@graintoglass]

I've heard of this method as well. Going to put it on the idea board for future videos. Cheers

[@shanehardingham2153]

I use the counter flow chiller that came with my Grainfather and am very happy with it. However, something that is never spoken about is the difference for the wort in terms of cold break. The immersion chiller cools the wort in the kettle to pitching temperature, so presumably encourages cold break to form and hopefully stay in the kettle. However counterflow chillers take the wort from say 80C to 20C in-line and deliver it into the fermenter. As a result plenty of cold break ends up in the fermenter. Discuss.

[@graintoglass]

I always transfer pretty much everything into the fermenter regardless. Would be interesting to do a side by side brew with %100 trub into fermenter vs as little as possible. I know that people have tried this and found that beer with more cold break trub produced a more clear and better tasting beer than one with as little trub as possible. From what I've read you want at least some trub in there for yeast health since the trub is packed full of nutrients.

[@heindaddel7074]

I think cleaning time should be added in the comparison. This can really add up with a counterflow chiller if you want to be thorough.

[@graintoglass]

I usually recirculate pbw and water through the Brewzilla for 30min or so after each brew so I would just put the counterflow chiller inline and clean it it at the same time.

[@Nefariousrouge]

I’m in south Florida, our ground water is 80F. It takes more than 30 to chill a batch with a immersion chiller here. I might buy a second one and use some ice as a pre chill. But then again I can have most of my equipment cleaned in that 30 minutes. And I usually stick with warmer fermenting yeast during the heat scorching summers here since I don’t have temp control (yet).

[@djfdel]

In Western Australia I couldn’t get my wort lower than 30C. I think I tried chilling for over 2hrs and gave up in the end. Just put it in the fridge over night. I’m gonna try ice as well.

[@Nefariousrouge]

@@djfdel maybe try a second cooler coil in a container of ice to get the water colder. That is what I see others do, and I will be implementing in the near future.

[@djfdel]

@@Nefariousrouge I used a cheap pond pump and an esky (cooler) of iced water pumped through the immersion chiller recirculating (I did use the first 30 litres of boiling water for cleaning as I knew it would melt all the ice in a seperate bucket). Stirred the wart the opposite direction of the chiller. And we had it down to pitching temp in less than 15 minutes. And only really used maybe 80 litres of water and 3 bags of ice.

[@ricksigurdson2016]

Counter flow wins for me, and its already ordered. Every time I put the immersion cooler in the boil my temp drops way down and I have to wait for boil to start again. counter flow wins because its not hooked up until boil is over. No removing hop spider until cooled. No fing around.

[@graintoglass]

Awesome, let us know how you like it!

[@loganzachary8328]

Shoot my Texas ground water can’t get my wort under 85 after an hour immersion 😂 a counter flow placed in a tub of ice water sounds fantastic

[@graintoglass]

With ground water that hot using a bucket of ice water and a pond pump of some sort might be the best choice. Cheers

[@paulywill]

Thanks Paul! Would copper(*) have made a difference (i know this was geared for Brewzillas)? And what’s the build dimensions for that handy workbench we always see next to the wall? *edit: typo on copper…not cooper

[@graintoglass]

Hello, with coopers you don't have to boil anything so you wouldn't need a chiller. I'll have to measure the brew bench but I think it's around 6 feet wide and 2 feet deep on top and 4 feet deep on the bottom.

[@paulywill]

@@graintoglass Sorry I meant copper….compared to stainless steel

[@graintoglass]

@@paulywill Copper in theory would be a bit faster since it is a much better thermal conductor. I didn't have one handy but it's worth revisiting in a future video. Cheers!

[@ricksigurdson2016]

The only problem I have with the included immersion cooler is the diameter. My hop spider won't fit in it. Will a hop spider (mammoth brand) fit inside either of immersion types or would counterflow be better when using a hop spider? Just measured our cold water up here. 35.5f or 2c.

[@graintoglass]

I just checked and the mammoth hop spider fits in the brewzilla immersion chiller. Counterflow is faster but is a bit more of a pain to setup.

[@ricksigurdson2016]

​@@graintoglass when thermal expansion is added in it doesn't fit. Tried it last night in boiling water. It can be forced in, but I don't like splashing boiling wort. It sucks to get splashed. So I will be buying a new immersion cooler. The good part is this chiller fits my kegland 8l pet kegs perfectly. One small fountain pump and a cooler full of ice and water, one of my mini 360 regulators and a faucet or picnic tap and I have a portable system that doesn't need the cleaning after use that a jockey box does.

[@graintoglass]

@@ricksigurdson2016 good to know, thanks for sharing. Cheers

[@ZhuJo99]

How you can filter counter flow? All unfiltered cold break trud comes to it. So more trud in beer which is meh. Cleaning it is also probably problematic. I'm newbie, pretty geek guy so learning everything but this one somewhat makes me think about it. Obviously one can put some pressure filter before the intake but that would clog up pretty quickly I guess.

[@graintoglass]

Never had an issue with trub being transferred into the fermenter. It will all just settle to the bottom. Cheers

[@ZhuJo99]

@@graintoglass that's great, thanks!

[@josebasutto]

How long does it take to pass the entire volume of the wort through the counter flow chiller?

[@graintoglass]

@@josebasutto depends on your ground water temperature. If it's cold enough 5 min or so.

[@radcliffedockery1206]

What is the best for small batches. I normally make 3 to 3.5 Gal and find that the chiller that comes with the Brewzilla takes too long to cool

[@graintoglass]

Hi, the way Kegland made the included chiller it sits higher up in the Brewzilla. If you are able to safely bend the arms up you could get it lower which would give you more contact area. Alternatively if you buy a different chiller they are usually design so that the chiller pipe goes straight up and then curves at the end which allows the chiller to sit at the very bottom of the Brewzilla. Cheers

[@kengill2703]

Magic spoon?

[@stevewise75]

Where does the water go after chilling?

[@graintoglass]

I have the water just going down the drain. Some people will use pails to capture the water and use it for cleaning or other purposes. Cheers

[@Inigo_The_Son]

There is a much simpler way to chill your wort that costs nothing and requires no equipment. I typically end up with about 3 gallons of wort in my brew kettle, which I transfer to my 6.5-gallon bucket fermenter. Meanwhile, I have two 1-gallon jugs of water in the freezer, where they are frozen solid. After rinsing these jugs off with sanitizer, I let them bob around in the wort, which quickly cools it down, just like ice cubes in a cocktail. When the water in the jugs is melted, I simply pour that cool water into the wort, which brings me up to my target volume of 5 gallons. This simple process consistently cools my wort down to 75-77 degrees in less than 10 minutes. I live at high elevation, where water boils at just 198 degrees. At lower elevations, you might want to keep a third jug of water in the freezer. Also, do not use jugs shaped like standard plastic milk jugs, which are basically square, because you cannot fit two of these in a bucket fermenter. Instead, use the taller narrower jugs that are used to package many brands of spring water. I like the ones with a plastic handle around the neck, so I can bob them around in the wort, and easily pull them out when it is time to empty them.

[@graintoglass]

@@Inigo_The_Son I have done that with extract brews but not all grain. How does the concentrated boil affect the color and ibu?

[@Inigo_The_Son]

@@graintoglass I'm a newbie to brewing, so you're speaking Greek to me. I have probably brewed 10 batches in the last 2-3 years. My bottles are brown/amber, so I usually don't even see the color of my beer. Even if it were in clear glass, I would not be judgmental. In my secondary fermenter (Big Mouth Bubbler), the beer is always dark brown and clear. Between the primary and secondary fermenter, I always strain it through a very fine cheesecloth. As for IBU, I don't even know what that means, even after googling it! 😆 I simply follow the recipe from my clone extract kits, and it comes out perfect EVERY TIME. I don't see why it would be any different for an all grain brew. As I understand it, the goal is to reduce the wort temperature as quickly as possible, and my technique accomplishes that with no equipment and at no cost. Frankly, I am not even a beer drinker, I simply enjoy brewing beer for my friends and neighbors. When I do occasionally have a beer, my favorite has always been Chimay Blue, though I have recently brewed a couple batches of Stone Ruination IPA, and they have been fantastic. I buy clone kits from Austin Homebrew Supply, and the two recipes I have tried are consistently spot on.

[@graintoglass]

@@Inigo_The_Son that makes sense, with extract kits you don't do full volume boil. I have done the same thing in the past. Instead of topping up with water I would use I've. With all grain brewing you need a full volume boil and you don't top up in the fermenter.

[@Inigo_The_Son]

@@graintoglass I have never done an all grain brew. I think I would still use the frozen jugs for cooling, but not empty them after they are melted.