This wort chiller with an additional ice pre-chiller allows you to cool your wort much faster than just using a wort chiller by itself. It will also let you get down to lower temperatures than your water supply, which is crucial in warmer climates when you need to get to an ideal fermenting temperature. Cooling your wort down faster prevents infections and other issues associate with leaving wort unprotected. It also speeds up your brew day!
The default configuration is exactly like we use in our own system to cool wort. We have used this system for a large number of 15 gallon batches and it has worked very well! If you are doing 5 gallon batches you can downgrade the wort chiller to a 25’ coil and save some money. If can also upgrade the chiller side to 50’ to reduce your cooling time even more. When we researched wort chillers to develop this one, we found that some have a pre-welded water hose fitting on both ends. The issue we had with this was that it was difficult to attach a water hose in the kettle and it would sometimes leak water in the kettle after wort had chilled to a point that infection could be introduced. We decided instead to have tubing going from chiller to water hose connection to eliminate this potential problem. This also allows for more flexibility in inlet and outlet choices.
We recommend putting the pre-chiller in a bucket and not putting ice in the bucket in the beginning. This will keep your ice consumption to a minimum. How low the wort temperature gets before adding ice will depends on two factors. 1) how cold your tap water is. 2) How long you want to wait. For example, in our office the tap water can be 60 degrees in the winter, so we might get the wort down to as low as 80 before adding ice. During the summer the water is sometimes 90 degrees, so we have to add ice at around 100 degrees. You can add ice anytime, but adding too early will raise your ice bill.
This kit features the following:
- WE DO NOT ASSEMBLE THESE - IF YOU WANT US TO ASSEMBLE IT FOR YOU, PLEASE CONTACT US IMMEDIATELY AFTER PLACING YOUR ORDER BY EMAILING HELP@KEGCONNECTION.COM WITH AN ORDER #
- One 25 foot stainless steel coil for pre-chilling and one 50’ stainless steel coil for wort chilling. These are constructed of 304 stainless steel and are 3/8”
- A water hose connector for inlet (with option to remove if you need other inlet source) This connector has a removeable (1/4” MFL to ¼” FFL) barbed end for easy disassembly.
- 5 adjustable stainless-steel worm clamps for easy disassembly when you need to clean or reconfigure.
- Choice of standard hoses or premium E.J. Beverage high temperature hose, which will withstand extreme heat and is PVC and Silicone free!
- Optional water hose connector for outlet. Some people (including us) prefer to drain with standard hose (we have the luxury of a floor drain!) while others prefer to attach a hose to drain further away from brewing area….the choice is yours!
