Farley23

Recipes 

New brewer here. Probably a lot of threads on this that I couldn't find - but - if you were to build a chiller, what makes most sense - immersion or counter flow?

Golddiggie

Recipes 

IMO, IC would be easier to build than the CFC... For one thing, you don't need to do any soldering on the IC, where you will with the CFC. I've made two IC units so far, one 20' and a newer 50' out of 3/8" copper... The 20' cools ~4 gallons of work in under 10 minutes (to under 65F)... The 50' cools ~5 gallons of wort even faster.

Only advice I have for building either type is to make sure you have a solid way to bend the tubing. That's going to impact how easy/difficult it will be to create the chiller. If you do decide to go with more than about 20' (or 25') of copper, get some help in bending it. I was able to do a solid job on the 20' IC, but the 50' proved to be more difficult.

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Hopping Tango Brewery

"Do you wanna get hiiiigh?" - Towelie

On Tap: MO SMaSH, English Brown Ale, Dark Cream Ale
Waiting/Carbonating: MO SMaSH
Primaries
K1: Caramel Cream Ale
K2: Mocha Porter
K3:
K4:
K5:
Aging: Wee Honey MkII, mead and maple wine, mocha madness II, Old Ale (on medium toast cherry wood)
On Deck: mocha porter
Mead [bottled]:Oaked Wildflower Traditional, Mocha Madness, Wildflower Traditional, Blackberry Melomel

shelly_belly

Recipes 

My boil kettle is just a turkey fryer pot and has no drain valve so an immersion chiller made the most sense for me.

lumpher

Recipes 

go for an immersion chiller. much easier to build, and requires no maintenance. hose off when finished, put it away, hose off and sanitize to use again

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on tap - Prestidigitation Porter, Centennial Blonde, Blueberry Hefe
Kegged - Sangria, Cherry Wit, Hard Lemonade, AIIPA
Primary - APA
Lagering -
Casked -
On Deck - Hefeweizen, Jamil's Dark Mild, Cream of 3 Crops Cream Ale

o4_srt

Recipes 

Counterflow, all the way. You dont need to solder, there are plans for a solderless version in the DIY section.

5 gallons of wort from boiling to pitching in under 10 minutes. With my previous immersion, it would take 30-60 minutes.

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Facebite Brewing

Conditioning: Muddy Paw Nut Brown Ale, Jump The Fence Independence Cream Ale

Golddiggie

Recipes 

I have to wonder what the OD of your IC was to have it take THAT long to cool 5 gallons of wort. I also have to wonder if you're talking about during the hottest part of summer, and with tap water that's really warm... IME, I've only had ~15 minute cooling times when I did nothing to get the wort to move around the IC more (either whirlpool, or just move the IC inside the wort a little, not talking about any more effort than it takes to drink a pint, or two)... With the IC I built with 50' of 3/8" OD copper, I was able to cool my wort to almost 60F real fast. This is with water from a hose faucet, at ground floor...

Keep in mind, using a 1/4" OD IC is pretty horrible for cooling times. Having the water flow slowly inside the IC will also have it take longer to chill the wort.

Personally, I would rather use a chiller where I don't need to worry about anything being inside it messing up my wort. That's the biggest reason why I'm not looking at (or seriously looking at) either a CFC or plate chiller... If anything, I'll probably end up (eventually) setting up to whirlpool the wort around the IC. Not sure if, or when, I'll do that though...

Ask a dozen home brewers, and you'll find more than a few methods being used to chill the wort post boil...

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Hopping Tango Brewery

"Do you wanna get hiiiigh?" - Towelie

On Tap: MO SMaSH, English Brown Ale, Dark Cream Ale
Waiting/Carbonating: MO SMaSH
Primaries
K1: Caramel Cream Ale
K2: Mocha Porter
K3:
K4:
K5:
Aging: Wee Honey MkII, mead and maple wine, mocha madness II, Old Ale (on medium toast cherry wood)
On Deck: mocha porter
Mead [bottled]:Oaked Wildflower Traditional, Mocha Madness, Wildflower Traditional, Blackberry Melomel

lumpher

Recipes 

i have a 1/2" od ic, and it chills 12 gallons in about 20-25 minutes.

__________________
-

on tap - Prestidigitation Porter, Centennial Blonde, Blueberry Hefe
Kegged - Sangria, Cherry Wit, Hard Lemonade, AIIPA
Primary - APA
Lagering -
Casked -
On Deck - Hefeweizen, Jamil's Dark Mild, Cream of 3 Crops Cream Ale

o4_srt

Recipes 

3/8 id IC. Counterflow cleaning is simple, recalculate wort for 5 minutes, drain into fermenter. After brewing, flush with pbw, star San rinse, tap water rinse (I do this to my whole system), blow out excess with air compressor.

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Facebite Brewing

Conditioning: Muddy Paw Nut Brown Ale, Jump The Fence Independence Cream Ale

Farley23

Recipes 

Thanks for the feedback!

wowzers

Recipes 

I finally built an immersion chiller. Used it yesterday and cooled four gallons in around five minutes. That is with an addition of a gallon of cool water. Total cost was under thirty bucks.