Wort chiller

So I am looking at pots and wort chillers. The wort chiller is a 25 foot and says it is 15 inches in height. The pot I was looking at is a ten gallon that is a bit over 14 inches high. Would going with an 8 gallon pot that is a little over 12 inches high make it more effective. I was hoping to put a little bend in the in and out tubes on the chiller so in case of a leak which I see many complain about the water would not go into the wort. This doesn't seem as possible with the 10 gallon pot unless I don't sit the wort chiller all the way to the bottom, which I am thinking may change its effectiveness. Any tips or ideas would help. I was thinking maybe wrapping the chiller connections to the hoses with a towel or something to that effect so any leakage would be contained. Lastly, do I need to sanitize the wort chiller, and could I use products like starsan or pbw to do this? Thank you in advance for the advice.

IMO, the ten gallon pot will be better, you'll have a better life when it comes to boiling. More head space equals less boil overs! I'd go with the 10 gallon. I made my own wort chiller, it only cost about $25 to make it from Home Depot. Id encourage you to look it up on YouTube, and consider making your own. It will save you a ton of money! Then you can make sure the connections are tight and leak free.
As for sanitizing, i just put mine in my pot during the last 10-15 minutes of the boil. Sitting in the boiling wort will sanitize it. But otherwise, yes, starsan will work!

First find the boil kettle you want then find the wort chiller to fit. If the 10" is at 14" and the chiller is at 15" you will be fine. The hose will be on the outside of the pot. For sanitizing you only need 1 min at 180deg.

Don't base your pot size on the chiller, get the largest pot you can afford, the chiller will work fine in any size pot.

I put my chiller in starsan before it goes in the wort. Probably not necessary but it makes me feel better. With the price of copper right now I'm not sure you could build one much cheaper than you can buy it, but I could be wrong. I bought this one and love it:

http://www.grapegrainandbeanstore.com/cgi/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=16183

wilsojos said:

I put my chiller in starsan before it goes in the wort. Probably not necessary but it makes me feel better. With the price of copper right now I'm not sure you could build one much cheaper than you can buy it, but I could be wrong. I bought this one and love it:

http://www.grapegrainandbeanstore.com/cgi/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=16183

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That's a beast of a chiller but spendy. I got my 25 ft with welded fittings for 45.00 I believe.

Commercial grade wort chillers are made from hard copper, when you get copper from HD it is soft copper.

brewit2it said:

That's a beast of a chiller but spendy. I got my 25 ft with welded fittings for 45.00 I believe.

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I didn't think I paid that much so I checked. I bought it from the same people but through eBay and it was $95 shipped.

I made a chiller myself with copper from lowes. It's about 44' of 3/8" and set me back about $50 with fittings. Works great. I put it in the kettle with about 15 mins left in the boil and let that take care of sterilizing.

Huh...how much are you guys paying for the copper tubing? I've been researching this for a while and I definitely can't make my own chiller for the prices you're saying.

Both Lowes and HD near me are selling the 20' for like $21, and with the other fittings and tubing, I'm calculating something like $35 to make a 20' chiller (not counting another $5 for the tube bender.

Oh dang, I just checked and the price went up to $29! AT my small hardware store they have it for $1.49 a foot.

onipar said:

Huh...how much are you guys paying for the copper tubing? I've been researching this for a while and I definitely can't make my own chiller for the prices you're saying.

Both Lowes and HD near me are selling the 20' for like $21, and with the other fittings and tubing, I'm calculating something like $35 to make a 20' chiller (not counting another $5 for the tube bender.

Oh dang, I just checked and the price went up to $29! AT my small hardware store they have it for $1.49 a foot.

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You don't need a tube bender. Don't waste your money. I didn't need or use one to make mine. The copper is very soft and bends easily.

Get the largest pot you can find.

Wort chillers are overrated. I don't believe you really need them at all.

See here --> https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f128/cold-break-question-321337/

Temperature is all that matters. Not time. So take it off the burner, letting it cool for an hour or two (until the yeast would have a chance to survive inside the wort).... then toss in the fermenter and pitch the yeast. All good. The wort chiller will displace at least half a 6-pack, possibly more!!

That's a crazy statement. First off, the longer it takes to cool your wort, the longer your hops are isomerizing. If you pitch your yeast at a temp where it won't kill it, you're likely pitching at way too high a temp, IMO. I like to pitch at or 2 degrees under fermenting temp. Also, if you're boiling a 10gallon batch, it can take. Very long time to let ambient temps cool it to even under 90F. The longer you wait, the greater the chance of a contamination. I just 100% disagree with the "chillers are unnecessary" statement.

As for making your own, I highly recommend making your own. I just finished my new one this past week. 50' 1/2" diameter. The coil cost me $52. The garden hose fitting and tubig cost me around 5-6$. Let's say a grand total of $60. Can't wait to break it in.

barrooze, where did you get the tubing?

onipar said:

barrooze, where did you get the tubing?

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Home Depot, or any hardware store carries several sizes.

onipar said:

barrooze, where did you get the tubing?

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https://coppertubingsales.com/store...ucts_id=755&osCsid=fa0k2m5dot43s9d45vblatdh65

Bobby_M recommended it in my Copper Tubing Bender thread.

Sweet, thanks! You just some me some major green.

onipar said:

Huh...how much are you guys paying for the copper tubing? I've been researching this for a while and I definitely can't make my own chiller for the prices you're saying.

Both Lowes and HD near me are selling the 20' for like $21, and with the other fittings and tubing, I'm calculating something like $35 to make a 20' chiller (not counting another $5 for the tube bender.

Oh dang, I just checked and the price went up to $29! AT my small hardware store they have it for $1.49 a foot.

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I just built my own a couple weekends ago and it cost me about $50 including the tube bender, vinyl tubing, and sink adapter. Return the tube bender after you're done and save another 7 bucks.

It might not look nice and pretty like the commercial ones, but who cares. I made mine out of 25', 3/8" od copper and it works like a charm! I got 3 gallons of wort from boiling down to 80 deg F in about 10 minutes! I might take a soldering iron or zip ties to it to make it less springy

You can buy a 25' with 2 6' vinyl tubes for $53 with free shipping. Or you can get the 50' so you're ready for big batches for $95 shipped.

Wait...but I can buy a premade 25 foot 3/8 one for $52 shipped, and a 50 footer for $78 shipped...

Go on eBay and search 25 wort chiller then search 50 wort chiller and you will find them

wilsojos said:

Go on eBay and search 25 wort chiller then search 50 wort chiller and you will find them

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The equivalent IC is about double what I paid to build mine.

barrooze said:

The equivalent IC user is double what I paid to build mine.

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Good job man, that is incredible.
:mug

I just got a 25 ft stainless chiller for under $50. I was in the same boat as onipar, considered building my own, but realized it was just as cheap to buy one and save me the hassle after looking at the price of tubing at lowes and my local hardware store.

Bamsdealer said:

I just got a 25 ft stainless chiller for under $50. I was in the same boat as onipar, considered building my own, but realized it was just as cheap to buy one and save me the hassle after looking at the price of tubing at lowes and my local hardware store.

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Speaking of which, what's the deal with the stainless steel ones? I've only recently started seeing them around; are they better than the copper? (Sorry, hope this isn't too off topic).

grndslm said:

Get the largest pot you can find.

Wort chillers are overrated. I don't believe you really need them at all.

See here --> https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f128/cold-break-question-321337/

Temperature is all that matters. Not time. So take it off the burner, letting it cool for an hour or two (until the yeast would have a chance to survive inside the wort).... then toss in the fermenter and pitch the yeast. Allq tgood. The wort chiller will displace at least half a 6-pack, possibly more!!

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Wow, thats crazy advice. Do you normally ferment beer at temps "where the yeast would have a chance to survive"? Yeast can survive at temps above 100 degrees, so your suuggestion is to take the wort off the heat and let it naturally cool to about 100 , then pitch the yeast and let it fermentt the wort into beeer? If you do that successfully, i'd be interested to know what you consider drinkkable beer. Besides saisons, anyything i've fermented above 80 degrees was full of off flavors, to the point it was barely drinkable. But thats just my experience,


My,first wort chiller was built from 3/8" x 50' coppper and worked great till I left it outside in the shed in freezing temps. I turned that into a pre chiller abd bought this
http://www.nybrewsupply.com/wort-chillers/copper-wort-chiller-garden-hose-fittings-12-x-50.html

It works great. Sure, a bit costly, but I do 10 galllon and more batches, so it worrks great for me. If you wanna no chill, thats another story, buut if you wanna chill, get the fattest, longest chiller youre willling to spend money on. Whatever you do, don't pitcch yeast into wort thats at a temp low eenough ffor the yeast to just survive.

onipar said:

Wait...but I can buy a premade 25 foot 3/8 one for $52 shipped, and a 50 footer for $78 shipped...

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Those are very good deals, I made my own 3/8" X 25 foot for about $40. If I had seen $52 shipped I'd have ordered it. The ones I was looking at were $69. plus shipping, which is why I made my own. Unless you really enjoy DYI, order the ones your looking at.

onipar said:

Speaking of which, what's the deal with the stainless steel ones? I've only recently started seeing them around; are they better than the copper? (Sorry, hope this isn't too off topic).

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Stainless isn't as good of a conductor as copper, but doesn't make much of a difference in chilling time, if at all according to reviews. For one thing, they're more durable and apparently much easier to clean. Haven't used mine yet as I'll be moving to a new house soon, but plan on brewing early next month.

Right on, CBXBob. Yeah, I like DIY, but I had a feeling if I made my own chiller, it'd come out like Frankenstein's monster.

Bamsdealer, thanks for the info. I'll keep that in mind while I'm looking.

Bamsdealer said:

Stainless isn't as good of a conductor as copper, but doesn't make much of a difference in chilling time, if at all according to reviews. For one thing, they're more durable and apparently much easier to clean. Haven't used mine yet as I'll be moving to a new house soon, but plan on brewing early next month.

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That's what I've read too. Stainless isn't as good a conductor, but since it's stronger, the steel used in an IC is thinner than the copper which helps to make the difference between the two smaller. Also heard their easier to clean, when I buy mine I plan to go stainless.

You know what's sort of interesting, I was looking on ebay and the one seller sells the stainless steel chiller for a few bucks cheaper than the copper. I thought it'd be the other way around.

If at all possible, make your own so you can build it to best fit your pot. You can then bring the two ends out over the side of your pot and bend it slightly down so if it ever leaks at the connections it will drip outside the pot.
And use 5/8" od tubing. Lowes and HD both sell the soft stuff already in a coiled shape. This is real easy to form it a little bigger or smaller according to your pot size. Here is mine.


I used straight pieces and elbows just to make it neater but you don't have to do it this way. It cost me $48 and it is only a 20' chiller and it works fine.

Also, if you have or can get a hold of the Jan. issue of Zymurgy magazine, there is a get article on the thermodynamics of wort chillers and in summary it tells you threes things to do:
1) maximize the flow rate, meaning keep the water wide open
2) Minimize the water temp
3) Maximize the chiller surface area, meaning use the largest dia. and longest amount that will fit under the surface of the wort.

And you will chill almost 3x faster if you constantly stir while the water is flowing.

onipar said:

Wait...but I can buy a premade 25 foot 3/8 one for $52 shipped, and a 50 footer for $78 shipped...

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where are you seeing this? Everywhere I looked had them starting at $60.

Oh well, I have no regrets. It gets the job done so that's all that matters to me, plus it was a nice weekend project to work on.

Something to consider when choosing SS vs copper: some say that when using a copper chiller, trace amounts of copper are introduced to the wort. This minuscule amount of copper actually is very good for yeast and helps make a better environment for the yeastto thrive, thus aiding in completing fermentation. I don't believe SS has any affect on the yeast.

I bought a 25' 1/4 chiller and it was able to cool 3 gallons from boiling to 75 in about 15 minutes. Cost $34 from NYbrewing and came with tubing and hose adapters.

capulinflicker, the cheapest chillers I could find were mostly from http://www.nybrewsupply.com/

The one interesting thing was that the 25 foot chiller being sold by nybrewsupply was cheaper on ebay ($53 shipped) then it would be on their own website ($54 shipped).

But their 50 foot SS chiller was cheaper on their site ($76 shipped). Mine actually cost $80 because I added on the faucet adapter and opted for the faster shipping for an extra buck.

I actually finally pulled the trigger and bought the 50 foot SS chiller. It's way bigger than I need right now, but I figured it'd be good to have for when I finally get into All AG brewing (hopefully this summer).


barrooze, you are correct. That's one of the things I read too. But I figured I'd rather go for an easy to clean model, plus the SS are a bit cheaper. Also, I use yeast nutrient in my brews, so I figured that takes care of it well enough.

Just ordered a 25 foot copper chiller from NY Brew Supply through amazon for $52 and change delivered. Thanks again for all the advice.

I've got a wort chiller made by Polar Ware that sells for $69.99 plus shipping (new). Its 3/8 hard copper with about 10 feet of hose on each end and a garden hose adapter.

Whoa, NY Brew Supply ships *fast.* howbrewyoudo, I say that was a good buy.

If anyone is interested, I got a little overly excited and made

(The video quality on that one is sub-par because lighting was bad.)

Tell me about it, they shipped out within an hour and a half of ordering. Should get to me in a few days.