The effectiveness of the chiller does depend a lot on your tap water temperature, but in general, you will get better performance with ice. I usually recirc tap temperature water until the wort hits ~100 and then dump in a bunch of ice. If you go this route, make sure to get the most powerful pond pump that you can justify. Read this discussion:

home brew talk

Thanks guys! Good to hear I really don't need extra copper... I am interested in the jamil style chiller and to me the more gadgety the better.., pumps, hoses, clamps, valves all that cool stuff... I hope to start this build Saturday... I gotta make a trip to the Casa Depo!


Josh

You could use the 25-30 ft. of tubing to make a pre-chiller. And but a 50 ft coil for immersion.

Pre-chiller? Educate me brotha

I thought about doing this too, when I start doing 10 gal batches. Taking my 30 foot IC I'm using now, and sinking it in ice water bucket, then feeding a 50' IC the in keggle.

So the pre chiller is the chiller that chills the water for the chiller... Humm..

Well she's built... She's not pretty... But she did get my wort down to 67F in 20 mins or so, which way better than the hour or it took with the ice bath... Thanks for the help


Josh