{"id":4369,"date":"2020-12-30T08:36:41","date_gmt":"2020-12-30T13:36:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brewtogether.com\/?p=4369"},"modified":"2022-03-23T13:22:45","modified_gmt":"2022-03-23T18:22:45","slug":"best-wort-chillers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brewtogether.com\/2020\/12\/30\/best-wort-chillers\/","title":{"rendered":"The 7 Best Wort Chillers for Homebrewing [2022]"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

One of the first equipment upgrades homebrewers often make when transitioning from 1-gallon extract batches to 5-gallon batches is a wort chiller. Filling the sink with ice water and carefully placing the kettle into the sink for an hour or two works fine when you\u2019re trying to cool a gallon of wort, but it is a lot more dangerous and time consuming with a large kettle and five gallons of wort. Luckily, wort chillers can be inexpensive and are easy to use. Here is a list of some of the best wort chillers for homebrewing!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Benefits of Wort Chillers<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Wort chillers have several benefits. First, they reduce the amount of time spent waiting for your wort to chill substantially. Five gallons of wort in an ice bath can take hours to cool to a yeast-pitching temperature, but only 15 minutes or so with an inexpensive immersion chiller and a hose. Because of the reduced time between boiling and pitching the yeast, there is a lower risk of infection. Just one or two lost batches to infection covers the cost of an entry-level wort chiller, which makes it a solid investment. Finally, chilling the wort faster will result in a clearer, less hazy beer by improving the cold break and dropping more proteins out of the beer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Types of Wort Chillers<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There are three main types of wort chillers. They differ in the way they move the wort or the water, but all work by using cold water to pull heat away from the hot wort. Each has its own pros and cons, including price, time to cool, need for a pump, amount of water used, and ease of use. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Immersion Chillers<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The simplest and least expensive chillers are immersion chillers. They are typically 25 or 50 feet of coiled copper or stainless steel tubing that is placed into the brew kettle. The wort is cooled by running cold water from a garden hose or faucet through the coils, which pulls the heat from the wort. Immersion chillers are the least expensive chillers, and don\u2019t require any other equipment like a pump to use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Immersion chillers are also the easiest to use, and can simply be placed into the boiling wort for the last 15 minutes or so of the boil to sanitize it. Because the wort doesn\u2019t go through the coil, they are the easiest to clean and maintain and have the lowest risk of causing infection due to insufficient cleaning. If you\u2019re only brewing 5-gallon batches, new to brewing, or working with a tight budget, an immersion chiller is likely the best decision. Immersion chillers can be made from copper or stainless steel<\/a>, and each option has pros and con<\/a>s. Check out our guide to the pros and cons of copper vs stainless steel immersion chillers<\/a> for more information to help you decide which is right for you. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Counterflow Chillers<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Counterflow chillers are a bit more complicated than immersion chillers and are a little more work to sanitize and use, but generally cool faster and more efficiently than immersion chillers. Unlike immersion chillers, counterflow chillers are composed of an outer tube, often a hose made of rubber, PEX, or vinyl, and an inner tube made of either copper or stainless steel. The hot wort is pushed through the inner tube either by gravity or a pump from the kettle to the fermenter. At the same time, cold water is pumped through the outer tube in the opposite direction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Counterflow chillers use less water and allow for faster cooling, but cost more and require careful cleaning before each use. You don\u2019t technically have <\/strong>to sanitize counterflow chillers before use if you cycle some boiling wort through it before cooling, but make absolutely sure it\u2019s clean before and after each use. You can\u2019t see the inside of the tube and need to make sure it doesn\u2019t have any leftover hop matter or wort left in it as that can be a breeding ground for the kind of bacteria that can ruin your beer. If you are planning on brewing larger batches, have a little extra budget, or want to cool faster than you can with an immersion chiller, a counterflow chiller might be your best option.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plate Chillers<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Plate chillers work on a similar principle to counterflow chillers, but instead push the cold water and hot wort through a series of plates with very thin gaps between them. This allows for the most efficient and fastest chilling, but they can be a lot of work to keep clean and sanitary because hop and grain matter can easily get stuck between the plates. While you don\u2019t necessarily have <\/strong>to sanitize plate chillers in advance because the wort enters it extremely hot, I personally struggle with the idea of not sanitizing counterflow or plate chillers (but I do admit, I tend to be overly paranoid about sanitizing at times). As long as the chiller is flushed completely clean after each use, circulating boiling wort for the last few minutes of the boil will sanitize the chiller.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite their higher price and difficulty of use, plate chillers are often the best choice for larger batches due to their efficiency and speed. If you are planning on brewing large batches, have a bigger equipment budget, or want to cool faster than you can with an immersion or counterflow chiller, a plate chiller is likely your best option.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Best Wort Chillers for Homebrewing<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Affiliate Disclosure<\/strong>: <\/strong>BrewTogether is a participant in various affiliate programs, including the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. Some of the links in this article are affiliate links, which means that if you choose to make a purchase after clicking the link, I will earn a  small commission at no additional cost to you<\/strong>, which helps offset the cost of running BrewTogether. Please feel free to reach out with questions. Thank you so much for your support!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Best Immersion Chillers<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

JaDeD Hydra\u2122<\/strong><\/strong> and<\/strong><\/a> Scylla\u2122<\/a><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Our overall favorite wort chillers of any type are the JaDeD Hydra\u2122<\/a> and Scylla\u2122<\/a> immersion chillers. The Hydra\u2122<\/a> is the fastest immersion chiller available on the market. It advertises a cooling rate of boiling to 68 degrees in 3 minutes for a 5-gallon batch, which is faster than a plate chiller with none of the cleaning headaches. The Hydra\u2122<\/a> contains three independent 25\u2019 copper coils that all chill simultaneously, tripling the amount of contact. The combination of the ease of cleaning and sanitizing the Hydra\u2122<\/a> immersion chiller combined with the superfast chill times and efficiency makes it the best immersion chiller, and one of the overall best chillers available now. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Hydra\u2122<\/a> is 11.5\u201d in diameter, which makes it too wide to fit into most all-in-one electric brewing systems<\/a>, but luckily JaDeD Brewing also sells the Scylla\u2122<\/a>, an immersion chiller almost exactly like the Hydra\u2122<\/a> except with dimensions designed to fit into an all-in-one electric brewing system<\/a> like The Grainfather<\/a>, Mash and Boil<\/a>, Robobrew\/BrewZilla<\/a>, or Anvil Foundry<\/a>. Like the Hydra\u2122<\/a>, the Scylla\u2122<\/a> has three independent 25\u2019 copper coils that all chill simultaneously, tripling the amount of contact with the wort, producing insanely fast cooling times. The Scylla\u2122<\/a> can cool 5 gallons of wort in an all-in-one electric brewing system from boiling to a couple of degrees above your water supply in 3\u00bd minutes, which is several times faster than completing immersion chillers and just as fast as a counterflow or plate chiller with a lot less headache.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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