Home made IC Question

Just made an IC from 50 feet of 3/8 copper tubing.

For fittings, I went the easy route and just slid some 5/16 vinyl tubing over the copper and ring clamped it tight.

I just did a big test session to measure time to boil, boil off, and then time to pitch temp using the IC.

Well I must say, the IC works better than I expected. It took my water from 212 down to 90 in under 6 minutes. I almost couldn't belied my eyes. Tap water was at 80.

In order to increase water flow between the coils, I plaited some welding wire on two sides. This helped make the chiller more rigid and also opened up little gaps between each coil. The wire I presume is coated in copper (as most welding wire is I think), and the core I'm not so sure about.

Anyway, after chilling I poured the water back into a fermenter so that I could measure volume, and the water had taken on a slight yellowish tinge. Is this normal? Is this welding wire safe enough to throw into boiling wort?

You mean the water that went through the chiller? If so, I've never noticed that as I collect all my water and dump it in the washing machine.

mtnagel said:

You mean the water that went through the chiller? If so, I've never noticed that as I collect all my water and dump it in the washing machine.

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Sorry, I wasn't clear.

I just boiled water for my tests (not wort). The water left in the kettle after cooling was yellow, so I'm worried that when I'm brewing, this yellow stain will be in my wort and might make me sick in some way.

Ah. Well I never did that and went straight to dropping it in boiling beer.

Get rid of the welding wire. replace it with plain copper electrical wire. It's the same copper used in the coil.

Where do you get electrical wire without a plastic sheath?

Safa said:

Where do you get electrical wire without a plastic sheath?

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strip the plastic sheath off the wire

S_M

But wait, when people build keggles etc and add thermometers and sight glasses, aren't those pieces welded into place? So then surely this welding wire is fine?

Not so?

No one knows?

Depends. There are many many different "welding wires" be specific about what you used and we might can answer.

I had no idea there were different wires, apologies. No way to find out either as I was given the wire.

Threw in the towel and ordered some solid core 16 gauge copper wire from amazon for cheap and will strip it. I found a bunch of 'hobby' wire, but a lot of it said that it was treated to not tarnish, which made me weary about putting the chemicals into my wort.

Thanks for the help guys!

Yeah, I'd worry about flux core wire, if it were solid like maybe SS Tig wire, you'd have been fine.

There's as many different kinds of welding wire as there are types of beers!

Solid copper is a good bet. You'll be safe with that no doubt.

This is exactly what I did. 50 ft copper pipe, used copper (electrical) wire that I had peeled and tacked it in place with a safe (lead-free) solder. It's worked well for me so far; chills great and I'm not dead yet.

Glad you aren't dead yet!

I don't have the set up to solder, so I'm just going to twist to tie off. One day when I have my own garage I'll be able to do some cool stuff. As it is, the SWMBO isn't super happy about all my homebrew projects happening in the dining room!

You can find bare copper wire at any electrical supply house; cheaper too because there's no covering. Plus you don't have to do the stripping.