Chilling on the Cheap

[cornhole]

How about a plastic tub like rubbermaid loaded with ice to set the pot into?

[spiderwrangler]

In my opinion, ice isn't a long term solution for 'cheap' chilling... most people I know don't plan well enough ahead (if you do, great!) to make their own (still costs electricity), and end up buying ice... a wort chiller will pay for itself within 20 batches based on ice costs...

[SoCal Surfer]

I was sort of in the same situation. I had a sink with a hand faucet that would leak when I connected my chiller to the faucet spout. My plumber buddy told me that my faucet "water director thingy" ..DIVERTER!....wasn't able to process that kind of nonsense too long. Sooo when I finally got tired of that crap I went to home depot and bought a cheap faucet. I pull am constantly unscrewing the end of the spout and I have never had any problems in over 2 years. You can actually rig it so have a quick disconnect if you think it through. That could be my weekend project. thanks for planting the seed.

[Ozwald]

I was sort of in the same situation. I had a sink with a hand faucet that would leak when I connected my chiller to the faucet spout. My plumber buddy told me that my faucet "water director thingy" ..DIVERTER!....wasn't able to process that kind of nonsense too long. Sooo when I finally got tired of that crap I went to home depot and bought a cheap faucet. I pull am constantly unscrewing the end of the spout and I have never had any problems in over 2 years. You can actually rig it so have a quick disconnect if you think it through. That could be my weekend project. thanks for planting the seed.

Instead of swapping mine out all the time I just have a 3' white hose that stays on mine. Makes it much easier to wash the dishes (for my big ass kettles & for rinsing out kegs, I just put them on a chair. The short hose is just long enough to wash them next to the sink) & I just hook up a longer hose to the end of that one. The only time I pull off the short hose is when I put my water filter on, but I'm about to turn my old canister filter into a water filter that's attached to the brew stand. After that, the next time I pull off the short hose will be when I move out.

Here I'm just pushing rinse water out, but you can see the hose chilling out in the sink. I thought I had one while cleaning but I couldn't find it.

[Ozwald]

Here's the one I was thinking of. Doing a 3 gallon starter wort in my first brew kettle. I still do ice-pack baths for small starter wort batches cause it's easy. I plug the drain with a dishcloth so it can still drain off, but slowly. I lay a fork or spoon down over that to keep the bottom of the kettle exposed & use the hose to whirlpool the water around. When it gets below 140ish I start adding small ice packs (blue gel type) in the corners & especially one right in front of the hose output. My starter wort recipes are for 1, 2 & 3 gallons so it's not being used for anything bigger than that.

[GilesTH]

I finally went out and got an immersion chiller. The ice bath worked great, but I wasted a lot of effort and time chilling. Yes, I could drop my temp from boiling down to 68f in 30 minutes with the ice bath, but it required a LOT of stirring, refilling the sink with new water, and leaving the lid off.

My next question is, what's the best way to store it? Obviously, I need to clean off the exterior before putting it away, but do I need to blow out the inside? Should I store it with water inside? Maybe let it hang upside down? I want to make sure I'm not ruining this expensive piece of equipment .

[spiderwrangler]

Get the inside as dry as is reasonable. I hang it upside down for a bit, rotating it occasionally so water can follow its way out.

[barls]

no chill, its easier.