Yankee Brew News Archive

Homebrewing Corner: HydroChiller Cools Wort Samples Fast

Originally Published: 12/96

By: Gregg Glaser

HydroChiller

Atwood Brew Products, 102 School Street, Manchester, CT 06040, 860-646-0259, [email protected], $19.95

Have you ever wanted to instantly know the specific gravity of your extract or wort, but the liquid is at or near boiling temperature? Well, the HydroChiller by Atwood Brew Products can do this for you. Instantly? Well, not instantly, but how about ninety seconds?

The HydroChiller is a hard plastic tube with one end capped, and the other end providing a drain port, a water inlet valve elbowed off the main shaft and a copper test cylinder inside the outer plastic tube. With the cap removed, 1/3 cup of hot extract or wort is poured into the test cylinder.

The cap is then replaced, and the HydroChiller's inlet valve is placed under cold water and run for ninety seconds (based on a water temperature of about 50 degrees F). The HydroChiller is inverted and again turned upright.

The sample should now be at a uniform 60 degrees F. With the cap again removed, a hydrometer is now placed in the interior cylinder, and a reading can be taken by looking straight across the top of the tube.

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