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As far as I know, DMS is only created above 60°C, so fast cooling after boil is important. My times for 26 liters boil, with homemade immersion chiller (8mm copper pipe) are:

  • 7 minutes to 55°C (20 liters of cold water used)
  • 20 minutes to 35°C (60 liters of cold water used total)

I can't find any data to compare my results with. Is this good? Bad? What it should be?

reference photo

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  • On fast cooling being important... many people just let the wort sit overnight in a sealed bucket. – Robert Mar 9 '16 at 16:42
  • @Robert been there, done that, can do better. – Mołot Mar 9 '16 at 16:43
  • I achieve among 2:30 to 3 minutes to cool from boil temperature to below 40C with recirculation. I use an immersion coil chiller (copper) of 15 meters (2 coils like yours) and 1/2" diameter tube to cool 20Liters. Usually, when I reach below 45C, I stop recirculation. When I reach below 40C, I switch the hose from tap water to start recirculate water with ice. This take about 20 to 30 minutes to reach 18C or below. My total time oscillates from 30 to 40 minutes. I occasionally reached 12C (forgot the pump on). – Luciano Mar 11 '16 at 18:09
  • @Luciano i have 10m, and about half the diameter I think (8mm), so, I guess I'm pretty OK with this hardware. – Mołot Mar 11 '16 at 19:02
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I've heard most people shooting for ten minutes of chill time to get below that 60C mark. You're doing it better than that so that's cool (no pun intended). If you can agitate the wort around the coils you'll go that much faster. When I used an immersion chiller I used to pass my wort through a pump back into the kettle while chilling (recirculation immersion chiller set up, pretty popular). I could get down to pitching temps in 20-30 minutes like you.

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  • +1 for agitation. The first time I used my chiller I just ran water through it and it took almost 30 minutes to get to pitching temp. The next time I "bounced" the coil up and down while chilling and I was in range in under ten minutes. – TMN Mar 11 '16 at 16:27
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There are more advantages to a fast chill than just to stop DMS production. Cold break for chill haze reduction, immediate pitching, lower risk of infection to name a couple.

As far as your times. Faster is always better. Best I've done is about 30 minutes to 20°c/68°f pitching temp. But that's using whirlpool and iced water.

Boil to 100°F happens in the first 10min for me. Last bit is the hardest.

Here's a Couple Tips

  • Chill from top down (cold water into top coils)
  • Ice You can't chill below cooling water temp and ambient temps. Ice chill water helps a lot.
  • Slow flow Ideally your exit water out of the chiller should be 'close' to the temp of the wort any faster is just wasting water. How much flow you can achieve and be within 10-20% of wort temp, gauges your chiller effeciency.
  • Seal it When you start to chill, cover your pot with lid and foil to prevent infection.
  • Movement Whirlpool & pump is best. Alternatively you can move the chiller, up down side to side without breaching your foil seal to get more chiller contact with hot wort.
  • Inline Chiller plate chiller or counterflow chillers are game changers. And can be used in conjunction with immersion chillers. When done right you get pitch temp wort out the end instantly.

Ice chiller example from Zymurgy Magazine. enter image description here

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  • 1
    Nice summary, but I still don't know if my times are decent now, for the equipment I have. I can achieve cooling water temperature few degrees below wort temperature all right, so I don't waste water. Also, I don't quite have top and bottom coils, as my cooler is double - I feet top outer loops, and take water from top inner loops. – Mołot Mar 7 '16 at 15:45
  • @Mołot I think you're doing fine with what you have. With room for improvement when you get more gear. :-) On your coil your inlet kinda doesn't matter much. – Evil Zymurgist Mar 7 '16 at 15:51
  • Thanks. I may consider adding second coil and iced water, for now it's greatly improved anyway. I try to wait few batches between improvements, to know what changed what. – Mołot Mar 7 '16 at 15:54
  • @Mołot no need for second coil. Use a pump and pull water from an ice bath, or elevated gravity flow from an ice bath. Last issue of zymurgy has a ice chiller simular to what I use. Jan/Feb issue page 33. – Evil Zymurgist Mar 7 '16 at 15:57
  • Boil to 100 F? Should that be 100C? – Robert Mar 9 '16 at 16:43

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