Author: Matt Del Fiacco

There are a few purported benefits to chilling wort quickly including the promise of clearer beer, the reduced risk of certain off-flavors, and perhaps most importantly, the hastening of the overall brew day. When I first started homebrewing, I employed the cumbersome and inefficient method of setting my kettle full of barely-not-boiling wort in a bathtub filled with ice water then letting it sit until it dropped to an adequate pitching temperature. It was simple enough but resulted in an annoyingly ice-free house, plus it took too long, so I upgraded to a 25′ stainless steel immersion chiller that hooked up to my sink. This move certainly reduced my chilling time, taking it from over 45 minutes to roughly 20 minutes, but it still required me to lug a kettle of hot wort to my sink, which was a problem.

With my move to the Unibräu eBIAB system, which comes with a pump, my options for wort chillers opened up. Looking to try something that would reduce both chilling times and my involvement in the process, I settled on going the counterflow route, which was right around the same time the ExChilerator folks reached out seeking an honest review.





Similar to other convoluted counterflow chillers (CFC), the ExChilerator Maxx has at its heart 25 ft. of copper tubing, which due to its high thermal conductivity assists in quicker chilling. Where ExChilerator breaks from the pack is in their use of a proprietary co-helical wrap on the internal copper tubing, which they claim “causes your cooling water to tumble, providing the maximum surface contact possible against the heated copper coil as your wort flows through it.”

Furthermore, rather than encasing the internal copper tubing with more copper or a flimsy garden hose, ExChilerator relies on a PEX plastic shell that’s purportedly longer than other CFCs and thus “gives your wort more contact time with the cooling surface.“

The product reviewed for this article was provided by the manufacturer in exchange for an honest review; no other compensation was provided. The opinions expressed in the article are solely those of the author and a concerted effort was made to approach the review from an unbiased perspective.

The ExChilerator Maxx works like any other CFC– cold water is run through the outer PEX shell in one direction while hot wort is run through the internal copper tubing in the opposite direction. While gravity can be used with the ExChilerator Maxx, the use of a pump makes for a faster and more efficient process.

SETUP & USE

I unboxed the ExChilerator Maxx when it arrived at my house to find an attractive and sturdy unit that was very well packed. After tossing a camlock fitting onto the 1/2″ ball valve, the unit was pretty much ready for use.

I’ve used the ExChilerator Maxx a few times since receiving it and the first thing I have to say is how incredibly easy it is to prepare for use. All it requires is 4 simple connections:

Garden hose from spigot to water input. Tubing from water output to drain or collection vessel. Tubing from pump output (or kettle valve) to wort input on chiller. Tubing from wort output on chiller to fermentor.

Piece of cake!

The wort enters the top of the unit at the same place the used warm water is expelled, chilling as it makes its way through the 25′ of copper tubing. A thermometer attached to the ball valve provides the temperature of the wort as it exits the exChilerator Maxx.

I could go on about how solidly built the chiller is, how all of the fittings are securely attached, or how the red PEX made my brewery pop, but I know that’s not what most people are here for.

SPEED TEST RESULTS

The groundwater temperature where I live in Illinois was a bit warm during testing, as it was summer, and since I wanted to test the chiller on its own (sans pre-chiller), I wasn’t able to chill the wort to typical pitching temperatures. This is pretty normal for me, as I usually allow the wort to finish chilling in my fermentation chamber, so I wasn’t too concerned.

One of the nice things about a quality CFC is that wort runs from the kettle through the chiller and directly into the fermentation vessel, requiring only a single pass to achieve the proper temperature. However, with my process and brewery setup, I’ve found it’s occasionally more convenient to leave the wort recirculating in the kettle (from the sanitation step) when I turn the water on then transfer the chilled wort to a fermentor afterwards. For this reason, I tested out both methods so as to avoid leaving any rocks unturned.

Method 1: Kettle to Fermentation Vessel

For these trials, I measured the time it took to chill a couple different volumes since this particular method made doing so easy. Without fail, and as expected, the time it took to chill 1 gallon of wort was consistently 1/5 the time it took to chill 5 gallons. With a groundwater temperature range of 69-70˚F/20.5-21.1˚C, the average time to chill 5 gallons of wort to 5°F/3°C warmer than groundwater was only 3 minutes 23 seconds.

Method 2: Batch Recirculation In Kettle

In 3 timed trials utilizing the batch recirculation chilling method with groundwater temperatures of 70-74˚F/21-23˚C and 5 gallons of wort chilled immediately after flameout, the average time to chill to 5°F/3°C warmer than groundwater was 4 minutes 39 seconds.

I’ll be honest, I completely expected the batch recirculation chilling method to take about double the amount of time as the more standard kettle to fermentor method. The fact I was consistently able to chill 5 gallons in under 5 minutes completely validates my laziness, now I won’t worry a bit when I forget to sanitize a fermentor until I start chilling! I was also impressed by the fact these chilling speeds were achieved with such warm water and look forward to seeing how this beast works with my icy winter water!

| THE VERDICT |

Needless to say, I thought the results of the ExChilerator Maxx speed test trials were pretty astonishing, not only was this the quickest I’d never chilled wort before, but it was done with warm groundwater. While such hasty chilling times are likely the best feature of the ExChilerator Maxx, it has some other rad things going for it as well. I particularly appreciated how the unit arrived well packaged and essentially ready for use, though I did run some hot PBW through the copper tubing beforehand to ensure it was free of any remnant dirt and oil from the manufacturing process. I was also seriously impressed with the build quality of the chiller, all fittings were securely in place, the coiled tubes were held together tightly, and not a single leak was sprung despite the chilling water being cranked to full blast. I had no issues with the more hop forward beers I ran through the ExChilerator Maxx, and according to the website, it can be used for even heavily hopped beers without the risk of a clog due to the smooth coils and diameter of the copper tubing. Finally, cleaning this unit requires little in the way of time or effort, in fact I found running hot water through the copper immediately after use does the trick just fine, though I do plan to give it a proper cleaning between every 3-4 batches.

Of course, no good review is proper without pointing out a few negatives, so I did some thinking and came up with a few things. First, when researching PEX, I discovered one of the more common complaints is that it degrades when exposed to UV light and is used primarily for indoor purposes. I’m doubtful this is an issue for most brewers, especially given how quickly the chiller works, but it’s something to consider. To counter such concerns, ExChilerator offers a full 5 year warranty on their chillers to provide customers with piece of mind, simply contact them with issues and they’ll repair or replace the unit for free. Another aspect of the ExChilerator Maxx some may take issue with is the fact the part of the unit that comes into contact with the wort cannot be seen, though this is the case for nearly all counterflow style chillers. Either way, immersion chillers have an edge when it comes to ensuring cleanliness. The last potential negative I can think of is that I used a pump to get the speedy chilling times I did, it’s likely brewers with gravity fed systems will have a different experience.

Overall, I couldn’t be more happy with the ExChilerator Maxx and would definitely recommend those who prefer or require counterflow chillers to give it a good look. Competitively priced, easy of use, incredibly effective, and quite nice to look at… what else could you ask for in a quality wort chiller?

ExChilerator counterflow wort chillers can be purchased directly from ExChilerator.com. If you have any experience using an ExChilerator Maxx CFC or questions about the unit, please share in the comments section below!

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