Author: Marshall Schott
As regular readers have likely gathered, I am a huge fan(boy) of JaDed Brewing’s ridiculously rad lineup of immersion chillers. I’ve been using their King Cobra for nearly 2 years and think it is the bee’s knees! I acquired The Hydra a few months back, a behemoth of an IC that can knock the temp of wort from boiling to a few degrees above groundwater in no time flat. The reasons I prefer immersion chillers over other options is simple: they’re easy to use, easy to clean, and they do their job in the same amount of time, sometimes less, as counterflow and plate chillers. In order to chill as quickly and efficiently as I do, it is imperative that the cool coils of the IC are constantly in contact with warm wort, which requires a fair amount of elbow grease. In the 5-12 minutes it takes me to chill a batch of wort, my arms remain active by either moving the IC around or vigorously stirring the wort, usually a combo of both. It’s not terribly uncommon for me to wake-up the following morning with a touch of soreness in my shoulders. I’m okay with this, but for those who aren’t interested in bulking up while making beer, there are options for wort agitation that don’t involve bodily movement and the risk of a torn rotator cuff.
I first heard about using a whirlpool arm attached to an IC a few years ago from Jamil Zainasheff’s website, Mr. Malty. At the time, I was using a 25′ x 3/8″ copper IC to chill my wort, it would take 45-60 minutes depending on the season– I wasn’t yet aware of the importance of flow rate and wort agitation. Rather than attempting to utilize this method, and due to my erroneous fear of hot-side aeration, I bought a pump and a plate chiller… then quickly realized this wasn’t the route for me. I hated the setup, I 
hated the cleanup, I hated the black shit that would get spit into my wort when I’d first turn the pump on, I hated dealing with all the tubing. I just hated it. This is when I learned how to use an IC efficiently and picked up my first JaDeD Brewing immersion chiller. After that first amazing use, I was sold! My pump and tubing were tucked away, gathering dust, until recently when the dudes at JaDeD Brewing asked if I might compare my tried-and-true elbow grease method to an automated method using their Whirly Bird whirlpool arm attached to my Hydra. As a beta tester for JaDeD who has also received numerous similar requests from others, I set my obstinance on the shelf and forged ahead with only a slight gritting of the teeth.
The day I decided to perform the comparison, I was brewing two 10 gallon batches that happened to be of a similar starting gravity. This was ideal, as I didn’t want to do a comparison with worts that were of totally different viscosity, as this could have an impact on chill times. On double-batch brew days, I intentionally stagger my start times to allow for chilling, on this day I utilized my usual method first. Here are the variables that remained constant:
Groundwater Temp: 66°F
Batch Size: 10 gallons
Source Water Flow Rate: 100%
Wort Temp at Start of Chilling: 212°F (immediately at flameout)
Stopping Temp: 5°F above groundwater temp
| ELBOW GREASE |
The Hydra was added to the wort with about 15 minutes left in the boil. Within seconds of flameout, my source water was turned on full blast, I use a garden hose attached to an outdoor spigot. I began by moving the IC up and down in the wort, then I moved to stirring, trading off every 1-2 minutes.
The results were similar to what I had achieved in prior uses of The Hydra, taking only 11 minutes 16 seconds to reach 71°F, at which point the wort was racked into carboys. Clean-up consisted of spraying the IC down with hose water for a minute or two then placing it under my workbench to dry.
| AUTOMATION |
Getting my pump and tubing all setup took about 5 minutes, not nearly as annoying as I’d anticipated. As with the prior batch, The Hydra was placed in the wort with 15 minutes left to go in the boil, at which time I also turned the pump on for sanitation purposes. It had obviously been awhile, as I’d left the valve on the out side of the pump fully open, which caused a bit of an eruption in the kettle. It wasn’t too bad, I guess. As soon as the boil was complete, I hit the flame and turned the source water on full blast. Then I just sat there. It was weird. I checked Reddit for a minute or two, messaged with a couple friends on Facebook, took some photos, watched my kettle thermometer slowly move in the cooling direction. I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t sort of nice. But still, I was certain my way would handily beat this automated way. At 10 minutes in, I plopped myself down in front of my kettle to observe the thermometer, it was at 80°F. I watched it intently until it reached my target temp of 71°F. The timer was stopped and I was right!!!! My way, the right way, was faster! It took this ridiculous automated method…
13 minutes 52 seconds. A not-so-drastic difference of 2 minutes 36 seconds. I was oddly pleased with how well this worked, despite realizing my way wasn’t really all that better than the other way. Once the wort was racked to carboys, I got to cleaning everything up. It took about 15 minutes for me to wipe up the little bit of wort that spilled on my garage floor, spray out all the tubing, and run hot water through the pump.
| The Verdict |
Both methods worked equally well, and both methods have their trade-offs. Us elbow greasers sacrifice a bit of physical discomfort and consumption of time in order to shave off a few minutes, while those who prefer automation exchange maybe 20 minutes to be able to sit and relax while their wort chills on its own. I’m glad I performed this experiment, I feel it allowed me to better understand at least some of the reasons a person might choose to use a pump for these purposes.
As for counterflow and plate chillers, well, I still require convincing.
If you have any questions about his xBmt or my experience with JaDeD Brewing immersion chillers, please don’t hesitate to ask in the comments section below. For inquiries about purchases, you can contact JaDeD directly via email: jadedbrewing@gmail.com
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23 thoughts on “exBEERiment | Wort Chiller Challenge: Elbow Grease vs. Automation”
I agree with you. Not a fan of pumps, plate chillers, black icky gunk, or longer cleanup times. I use a homemade immersion chiller. My groundwater is 80, so I have to recirculate through an ice bath to get to pitching temp. Although I wish there was an easier way, I’m not complaining.
Btw- just got an email today from Jaded saying my custom hydra is on it’s way!! Couldn’t be more excited.
I see you’re stirring your wort with a plastic spoon. I used to use a stainless spoon, but now I use my giant 24′ whisk (which I think I’ve seen you use to stir your mash). It works great and is much easier to stir.
I use the whisk too, its really more whatever I happen to grab first 🙂
I am planning to purchase the King Cobra as well. I thought I was going to move to a plate chiller, but I’m so glad you have convinced me otherwise. I currently have an immersion chiller I bought early on that is nowhere near as effective as the ones from Jaded. What I’m wondering is, when I get my King Cobra, would it work to put my old IC in line with my new one and sit it in a bucket of ice water, thereby lowering the temp of the water entering the King Cobra? I’m thinking this might be effective in the hot summer months when groundwater temps are higher. The downside would be reducing the flow rate into the King Cobra.
Thanks,
Ben
I’ve tried that a few times and haven’t found it to be terribly effective, plus I don’t like the extra cost of buying a bag of ice ($6/20lbs). I have the ability to do this, perhaps I’ll run a simple xBmt to see what the difference is. My typical process is to get the wort to within about 6˚F of groundwater temp, fill my carboys, then place those in my cold ferm chamber to finish chilling. Since I can usually get my wort down to about 74˚F, and given the results of my pitch temp xBmt, I usually just pitch then and call it good.
Your pump outlet should be facing up ????
Still need to splurge on a KC chiller. Perfect for my kettles
The bigger benefit to me would be the ability to whirlpool during a hopstand.
Talk about perfect timing for this xbmt; my King Cobra should be arriving Tuesday.
I was really debating purchasing the Whirly Bird as well, thinking I’d speed up the cooling process even more, but only after dropping another $200 on a pump and hardware. I’m glad I didn’t!
You’re going to love the KC, trust me! I use it more than the Hydra.
Great exBeeriment! I think you should at least mention that the automated whirlpool also adds the benefit of keeping more trub out of your fermentor. When using the elbow grease method I always allowed more time for the wort to settle out before racking. With the whirlpool I can start racking almost as soon as pitch temps are reached. You also don’t need to stand there doing nothing (or checking reddit) while you’re chilling. You could have used that time to start cleaning up 🙂
Hey, thanks! And to be honest, I’m not much concerned about kettle trub making it to the fermentor, especially after the results of my trub xBmt 🙂
Cheers!
Love the xBmts! Have you considered doing a no-chill xBmt? It might be a bit more difficult to do a side-by-side with the different hop exposure that no-chill gives, but it’d be nice to see if the all fears about DMS etc are warranted.
I definitely plan to do a no chill xBmt!
Hope still ok to post on this xbmt…
I see you put the chiller in the wort 15 min before chilling. Why not put it in at flameout? You should still be over 200F and seems like that would be plenty to sanitize the chiller surface…
Maybe, but I just put mine in around the same time as whirlfloc or Irish Moss. And I’d rather give it a short boil than just a quick dunk. Try it your way and report back – probably no issue.
You can probably get away with putting it in at flameout, I don’t just because I never have and I’m cool with my results.
Why use elbow grease when you can simply attach a stainless steel paint mixer to your cordless drill and let it to do the work. Got mine on Amazon: Bon Stainless Steel Mud & Resin Mixer
Works like a charm while using my Hydra WC with no splashing. Also takes the elbow grease out of doughing in and stirring during batch sparging. Finally, works great to whirlpool once the wort has been chilled and the IC has been removed.
Keep up the great work!
I have had one of these stainless mud mixers in my amazon wishlist for a year or so.
No need to buy the expensive stainless one, I use a 24″ plastic mash paddle like this. I just lopped the top off and it fits right in my drill. I use it to mix the mash and circulate the wort with my IC. I can’t believe it when people talk about how physically difficult it is to mash in and make sure there are no doughballs, for me its a piece of cake! Although you guys are convincing me that my 25′ 3/8″ stainless steel IC isn’t nearly as effective as I think it is… I’ll spend 20 minutes circulating the wort, even in the winter… sounds like its time to upgrade!
I was a manual stirrer for years, but I’ve finally moved over to the pump-driven whirlpool setup. To me the biggest advantage is that by creating a constant whirlpool and not moving the IC around, I keep most of my trub in the middle of the kettle and therefore very little of it gets into the fermenter. Plus I have that 15-20 minutes (my chiller is nowhere near as efficient as yours!) to do other things.
I used to do a whirlpool, both for the flame out hops and also for wort circulation while chilling. I found that my quick disconnects would constantly get jammed/clogged with hop particles and it was more of a headache than it was worth.
I even tried putting a mesh screen on the inside to keep particles out, but then that would just get clogged and no wort would get through and nothing would come out of the pump.
How are you guys getting around that?
Guess I should add that 3/4 brew sessions are IPAs and that is when I have the problem.
After reading this post and the subsequent comments, I decided it was time to start whirlpooling around my IC. I remembered that wife bought an immersion blender a few years ago to make soup…and then used it one time. I sanitized it and ran it in the middle of the IC and it works like a charm…and no sore arms. If you have an immersion blender in a kitchen drawer, try it out. Also, I pre-chill the water that runs through the IC. You don’t need to buy ice. Just fill a corny with water and stick it in the fridge/keezer the day before brewing. You’ll have 5 gallons of cold water. I place my 25′ IC in a cooler of cold water and then my 50′ IC goes into the wort.