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homemade wort chiller

gwapogorilla

Master Brewer
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Jan 13, 2013
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Near Dubuque, Iowa
Hi all. I'm still doing my homework, and don't brew yet....trying to feed kids and all. Looking at wort chillers, I am thinking of making my own using 1/2" clear flexible tubing from the hardware store. I can get 25 feet of it cheap and just put the faucet connectors on the end. Since it is flexible, it would be easy to clean and store. It's light so all I would have to do is dip it in sanitation solution a few minutes before putting it in the wort.
Anyone try this yet? Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Mark
 
No go. Clear vinyl tubing is not made for boiling wort temperature.  Second, it conductsheat very ppoorly.  Chillers need to be made of metal, copper, stainless steel, or (though I've never seen one)  aluminum. 

For copper,  you can't diy it for much less than you can buy... You might save $10 max. I built my own and it costme more tthan buying one from more beer.
 
I built mine from a copper coil and fittings from the hardware store about fifteen years ago. 1/4in x 25ft if I remember correctly. Does the job. Barely. Since then the cost of copper has gone nuts. If you're going to make one it should be out of copper. Rather than risk crimping an expensive coil, if I were in need of one today I'd just buy the dang thing. They've experimented and played around with different diameters and fittings and such. It's worth paying them a little extra for their trouble.
 
Yep. I built one using the same size and amount of copper.  As you say, it's barely better than the bathtub ice bath. 

I built my new one into my keggle out of 50' of 1/2 copper. I spent about $100.  I think the b3 version is about $80.

 
Okay, I understand I need a metal chiller. Here's the dilemma...I purchased a huge 44 quart brew pot from Amazon while they were on sale. It's HUGE! 18" deep by 15" diameter....I read somewhere that a larger brew pot as an initial investment saves money down the road if I want to switch to all grain or 10 gallon brews(Brad...it's your fault!)
Anyway, most of the wort chillers I am seeing at Midwest brew supply are short...they would be waaaaay down inside the kettle, except for the really expensive ones...$115. That's why I was asking.

Thanks again guys.
Mark
 
gwapogorilla said:
Okay, I understand I need a metal chiller. Here's the dilemma...I purchased a huge 44 quart brew pot from Amazon while they were on sale. It's HUGE! 18" deep by 15" diameter....I read somewhere that a larger brew pot as an initial investment saves money down the road if I want to switch to all grain or 10 gallon brews(Brad...it's your fault!)
Anyway, most of the wort chillers I am seeing at Midwest brew supply are short...they would be waaaaay down inside the kettle, except for the really expensive ones...$115. That's why I was asking.

Thanks again guys.
Mark

44qt. may be a bit shy for 10 gal. batches but w/ BS you can customize any size batch. I use to brew in a 7.5 gal. SS turkey fryer pot. I now use a converted keg. My immersion chiller is too tall now for the large diamerter pot. PM me if you are interested in buying mine so I can get a shorter one.

Thanks,

Mike
 
I've given the advice to get the biggest pot you can before.

I use an old keg for 5 gallon batches. It holds 60 quarts. They have built these chillers withyour wort ddepth in mind. Your wort will be waaaaay down in the bottom of that pot too.

Yeah they are expensive.
The copper for these things is expensive.  I think the coil itself will run you $80 at home Depot these days. That doesn't get you any fittings or tools to solder it up.

Before you spent hundreds on equipment, can you borrow from anotherbrewer ? Make sureyou like this crazy hhobby before going whole hog?  I've loaned out some of my stuff, and I've given away my starter equipment. 

 
tom_hampton said:
I've given the advice to get the biggest pot you can before.


Before you spent hundreds on equipment, can you borrow from anotherbrewer ? Make sureyou like this crazy hhobby before going whole hog?  I've loaned out some of my stuff, and I've given away my starter equipment.

I don't regret getting the pot. It's really a nice looking unit, and for $77 delivered to my door...it couldn't  be beat! :) As far as a chiller goes, I think I will just go ahead and make one to fit my brew pot.  If I make one out of 50" x 3/8" copper tubing, I should be able to get it complete for around $65 complete.

I wish I could borrow equipment, but no one I know does this sort thing. So, I must forewarn everyone I'll be asking more dumb questions in the future.
 
I MADE MINE FROM 50' OF 3/8 TUBING.I dont know why I was yelling about it but it works great.plus you can customize it for your pot.
 
As far as a chiller goes, I think I will just go ahead and make one to fit my brew pot.

I don't know about the hardware store you go to, but my guys are always exceptionally helpful when I tell them it is beer related. Especially since I brought them a couple samples.  ;)
 
Maine Homebrewer said:
As far as a chiller goes, I think I will just go ahead and make one to fit my brew pot.

I don't know about the hardware store you go to, but my guys are always exceptionally helpful when I tell them it is beer related. Especially since I brought them a couple samples.  ;)
Man...that's too funny!
 
gwapogorilla said:
tom_hampton said:
I've given the advice to get the biggest pot you can before.


Before you spent hundreds on equipment, can you borrow from anotherbrewer ? Make sureyou like this crazy hhobby before going whole hog?  I've loaned out some of my stuff, and I've given away my starter equipment.

I don't regret getting the pot. It's really a nice looking unit, and for $77 delivered to my door...it couldn't  be beat! :) As far as a chiller goes, I think I will just go ahead and make one to fit my brew pot.  If I make one out of 50" x 3/8" copper tubing, I should be able to get it complete for around $65 complete.

I wish I could borrow equipment, but no one I know does this sort thing. So, I must forewarn everyone I'll be asking more dumb questions in the future.

There are probably better ways to form your chiller but what I did was go to the home improvement store and bought one of those thick cardboard concrete footing forms. They usually have a few sizes to choose from. Then wrap the tubing around it.

Mike
 
That will work just fine.  I formed mine around a corny keg. The trick is to NOT unroll the copper from the store.  Instead you simply tighten the coil around the concrete form.  You end up with a very nicely smooth coil of copper.

 
The best advice I can give is to buy a chill plate instead of a wort chiller. It takes a bit of engineering and a March pump, but the speed in getting boiling wort below 70 degrees is remarkable. I wish I would have made the move earlier in my brewing career.
 
MikeinRH said:
The best advice I can give is to buy a chill plate instead of a wort chiller. It takes a bit of engineering and a March pump, but the speed in getting boiling wort below 70 degrees is remarkable. I wish I would have made the move earlier in my brewing career.

Until they can be disassembled, cleaned and inspected its just too much risk of infection for my taste.
 
tom_hampton said:
MikeinRH said:
The best advice I can give is to buy a chill plate instead of a wort chiller. It takes a bit of engineering and a March pump, but the speed in getting boiling wort below 70 degrees is remarkable. I wish I would have made the move earlier in my brewing career.

Until they can be disassembled, cleaned and inspected its just too much risk of infection for my taste.

This plate chiller is one piece of equipment I have seen so many conflicting comments. Either people love them or hate them.

Mike
 
mbg-bs said:
This plate chiller is one piece of equipment I have seen so many conflicting comments. Either people love them or hate them.

I find that many folks just don't use them correctly.  I myself was one.  Biggest mistake is not enough volume of cold water is being pushed through.  Once maxed that, the chiller knocks down the wort temp as expected.  Well, cleaning is extra work too.
 
Recently made the jump to all grain, and before that my last batch of partial extract took me over 2 hours to chill from boiling to 72 in an ice bath in sink....yeah that went over well with the Mrs....bad enough I had wort on the stove, on the counter, on the wall, on the ceiling........I was in the kitchen WAY too long for her liking.
So, I figure If I'm going full tilt, I better get a chiller. After doing all the research.... apparently the perfect match of size/length/time is a 50 foot length of 3/8" copper. The copper at HD is $47, the fittings to hook to garden hose (be it outside faucet or sink faucet) were about $8. I already had the spring type tubing benders (they come in a 4 pack for different sizes for about $13, and are a tool, therefore a whole house investment)....so I had about $60 bucks or so in it. I made it a double coil.....one inside the other.... the inside coil of +/- 23 feet was wrapped around a paint can, the outside +/- 23 feet was wrapped around a little larger container, like a drywall mud bucket, but not quite that big around.
Used it last weekend for first time to cool my wort.....i'm kinda anal about numbers (as if you couldn't tell)....went from full rolling boil to about 75 degrees in 12 minutes...... I'm thinkin' it'll work.  ;D
 
Couldn't agree more about the extra time it takes to clean out a chill plate. That's why I gave my first one away. Then my brew supply guy showed me two tricks. The first was hooking up quick disconnects to both the garden hose and chill plate. Now I can flush the plate both ways until I'm confident all the debris has been removed. The other trick is to dump the entire chill plate into the liquor kettle while heating H20 to mash temp. 160-170 degrees will kill off any remaining bugs.
 
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