I'm starting a batch of beer here pretty soon and was wondering what were the effective alternatives to immersion chillers. I'm especially curious to know the less expensive options since a chiller is not really in my "beer brewing budget" at this time. Is it risky to simply chill the wort by letting it sit, or letting it sit in cold water?

If I was to invest in a chiller, would you recommend an immersion chiller or counterflow or what?



Tags: water chillers table top immersion

if you are brewing all grain i would say you need to cool your wort as quickly as possible and the immersion chiller is probably the best and cheapest way you can find. for partial boils, freezing a couple gal. of filtered water and pouring the boil over them is what i used to do when i first got started. either way you need to cool it as fast as you can to get the cold break and limit the chance of contamination.
gary

One thing I do is get an 8 or 10 lb bag of RO ice and dump it in as soon as the boil is done. I will also put some in a funnel and pour the wort over the ice as it goes in the carboy.

An immersion chiller is easy to use & clean. A counterflow is a must for larger batches(10 gallon or more).
I sell an immersion chiller on my site for $45 plus shipping. The counterflow is $75.
If you use an immersion chiller & whirlpool(stir gently) you will have great results & save a ton of time.

http://www.flatfenderbrewing.com/beer.html