Grape and Granary offers several ways for homebrewers to cool the beer wort (unfermented beer) once the boil is finished. The simplest way to cool a batch of beer wort is to submerse your stock pot in a bath (think sink) of cold water and wait. Ice can be added to the bath to speed up the process. This is also the slowest method and best used for new brewers who are just getting in to the homebrewing hobby.
The next best way (and arguably) the best way is to use in immersion wort chiller. Immersion wort chillers can be made of coppor or stainless steel are are a coil that is submursed in the brew kettle after the boil has finished. The wort chiller is frequently added to the boil kettler during the last 15 minutes of the boiling process to sanitize it. Then, once the heat is removed, cold water is run through the coil. The cold water running through the coil picks up the heat from the boiling liquid and cools it (usually in about 20 mintues). The beer wort is cooled to fermentation temperature for ales and close to fermentation temperature for lagers. Immersion chillers are usually found in a 25' Wort Chiller version (good for 5-10 gallon batch sizes) and a 50' wort chiller version which is good for 10 gallon batch sizes and larger. The disadvantage of the immersion chiller is that it does use a bit of water. However, it is fast, easy to clean and sanititize and inexpensive to buy or make.
The most expensive but quickest way to chill a batch of beer is a counter-flow wort chiller such as the Blichmann Therminator. The advantage of a counterflow chiller is it can chill the beer faster, use less water and chill to a colder temperature (but not always). The disadvantages of an counterflow chiller are that they are more expensive, take more work to set-up and are harder to maintain sanitation.
In our opinion, we at the Grape and Granary are a big fan of the 25' immersion chiller for homebrewing.
Contact us if you have any questions regarding which wort chilling system is best for your homebrewing process.
