The oh Hop Head !

The chilling process.

Shoney here is a poor quality pic of what i did here. This is a curculation pump, water in and water out. I hooked one line to the chiller in line and a small piece of hose from the out side of the chiller. I have another small piece hooked to the inlet on the pump not shown here  put down in the water troff for the pick up side. I filled the troff with ice water and tuned the pump on. I let the water run out on the ground till it cools down enough to run it back in the troff and let it cuculate. It took 5 bags of ice and about 15 minutes vs water hose and and about an hour till chil down to 75. worked great. 

I haven't thought about using Pex. I guess the main reason is that copper is what all the home brew stores sell for thier chillers. I have only been brewing for about 4 months now and like most I have just done basiclly what I have been shown. I will say we are making some big strides as well as some awesome beers right now. Probably one of the main reasons why they we don't use Pex is no one has tried it or from the sanitaton side, not sure but will certainly will ask the question ?....  No the water bath does not come incontact at all with your wort and or t shouldn't anyway. You have to take all the precautionary measures not to allow that to happen. As far as using rock salt, I suppose you could. I think it would speed the process up  even more for sure, understanding how that process works. Cost could be a factor for some folks.  I will try it this weekend, I will brewing a summer ale and I will let you know how it works out.The down side of using rock salt is adding one more variable to the process that could contaminate you product. It's like anything else tho, take your time and do things right and you shouldn't have alot to worry about. Thanks for the questions and input.    

Ah Yes,  Good information. BDawg thanks for the info. Its the little things that make the difference.  here's to ya bud.