Can't get my wort chilled! New to San Diego

[Thuglas]

I hope this is the right place to ask.

So I just moved to SD two weeks ago from NYC and have done two batches so far. Everything has gone great on my brews until I have to chill them down. In NYC I was brewing on my stove top so when it came to chilling my wort I could hook up my wort chiller to the faucet and get great cold water. I usually got my wort (6gal post-boil) down to 67-68 in, at most, 30 minutes. On my first brew out here, I hooked up the wort chiller to the hose outside and it took something like 1.5 hours to get it down to 74, which really frustrated me. So for my next brew, I got another wort chiller to use as a pre-chiller submerged in a bucket of ice. Well, that still didn't work. I got it down to about 74 again, but this time it only took 1 hour.

My problem is that the hose water comes out at ambient temperature (SD, late-afternoon, about 72ish), so the pre-chiller actually melts tons of ice and for some reason doesn't drop in temp like I thought it would. I have no clue where to go from here. I've been able to throw the carboys (at 74ish deg) in my fermentation chamber to get them cooled down to 67-68 in about an hour to pitch, but I would love some help on how to solve this problem.

Just for reference. I'm using a 10gal mega pot and I have 6gal vol of post-boil wort.

Thanks in advance.

Thuglas

[Henning1966]

Try using hose water only to under a hundred. Then go to the ice and pre chiller to go the rest of the way not melting that ice so fast .

[Bugeater]

I have run into this problem a few times when brewing away from my usual water source. I run the chiller as normal until I get the wort down under 100° F. I then hook the chiller up to a cheap pump and pump salted ice water through the chiller to get the temp the rest of the way down. This works much quicker than trying to use a prechiller in a bucket of ice water.

I use a large picnic cooler completely full of ice (I get the ice for free from work) and add just enough water to get the pump to work. Adding a couple cups of salt will drop the temperature of the water down to nearly the same temperature as the ice. I then recirculate the chiller water back into the cooler. I sometimes have to add another 5 gallon bucket of ice if the ice in the cooler melts too fast.

Be sure to flush the chiller with tap water again to make sure you get all the salt out when you are done.

Wayne

[andy77]

Lots of different approaches. I put ice water into my now empty mash tun and recirc it through my chiller using a submersible pump. Gets it from 90 down to mid 60s way before the ice melts. It helps if you use an insulated mash tun to keep the icewater on hot days. The pump also does double duty as a recirculating keg cleaner.

[SoCalBrewer]

I use to do the same thing Bugg did chiller down to 100 and ice water throw the chiller, but now I use a plate chiller and use that to drop it way down than if i have to pump ice water through it. My last batch I just did the water out of the spigot was good enough and it was in the mid 90's. Just living in SoCal makes it a little more challenge to brew in the 100+'s temps. (I miss NorCal for that reason, suck being out there on a 108 day)

[Fritz Eye]

I hope this is the right place to ask.

So I just moved to SD two weeks ago from NYC and have done two batches so far. Everything has gone great on my brews until I have to chill them down.

See what happens when you leave NYC you rat bastard!
Never liked you anyways
Hoping your well and brew strong Brotha!
Also, I head your nutters where a hit at NHC

[Mylo]

Alright, nutter-boy....

Your problem is that you are not efficiently using your immersion chiller. Immersion chillers SUCK, unless the wort is moving around the coils. Low tech method is to stir, high tech method is to add another copper tube and do a JZ whirlpool thing with a pump. The problem with stirring, is that you will have to have the lid off the whole time - which scares the shit out of me.

My tap water is in the 90s out here in the summer. As Henning and others have mentioned - it's best to use regular hose water to get it down as close as possible to your source water - then switch to icewater. The assumption here is that you are using your immersion chiller the most efficient way - and keeping that wort moving the whole time.


Mylo

[Dirk McLargeHuge]

I have an idea to use my counterflow and my immersion chiller in tandem to cool the wort. I want to put the immersion chiller in an ice bath, run the hose water through it and into the counterflow. I have some tinkering to do in the "cool, cool, cool of the evening."