You are my new best friend
I just ordered 50' of 3/8" copper from
coppertubingsales.com for $50 shipped to make a counterflow chiller like the one shown
here.
I'm hoping this will be adequate to cool large batches fairly quickly. If it doesn't flow fast enough, I think I'll scale it up to 3/4" tubing. I've thought about a plate chiller, but I've heard they are difficult to clean.
I've researched the best way to boil mass volumes of water. Currently, I feel that electric heating elements installed directly to the brewpot would be the simplest solution, but requires some serious power (probably like a dedicated 50a 240v circuit). I've also thought about installing a flue through the brewpot like on
this thread.
I'm sure that a SS conical fermenter would be ideal, but MDPE plastic tanks are a LOT cheaper. If I was ordering a tank online I'd get a plastic conical fermenter from
Plastic Mart
I'm going to be starting with rectangular shaped PE tanks (RV fresh water tanks) because I can get them for cheap.
I'm told that large fermenters create a lot of excess heat, so I think I'm going to design a homemade "glycol chiller", but that'll be another thread...
