Should i change my wort chiller?

Hi,i bought a some copper tube and made a wort chiller but it takes a bit long to cool down the wort,approx it takes 40 min to completely the wort gets cool.i already made 2 batches of beer without any problem.was it luckily and should i change the chiller to a longer one ?

Of course, the more surface area that is in contact with your wort the better. Consider your water temp, is it cold coming out of your source? My suggestion is that your chiller is fine you may want to mix your wort as it chills, as well as move the chiller around and rotate your wort, it gives it a better time to make contact. Your temp should not take more than 15-20 mins to drop to 68/70F. I use a stainless steel immersion chiller with a fairly small diameter but it cools everything within 15 mins.

Some info on the chiller would be helpful as well. What size tubing, how long, what is your batch size etc. 40 mins is a long time for using a chiller unless your water is really warm.

I've got a 50' 1/2" and do 5 gallon batches. I go from boiling to 70 in about 12 minutes. Being as it is winter, my tap water is around 52 right now.

Give us some more details and we may be able to help more.

to optimize your chiller, make sure most of the coils are right below the surface of your wort, spaced apart with just enough space so slip a finger between them. heat rises, so thats where you want most of the coils.

i made one for $30. it takes 20 or 30 minutes to cool to 75 degrees depending on whether i use an ice bath too. it is made of two nylon tubes, a barbed/garden hose attachment, and a 20 foot coil of 3/8" copper tube. it is fast enough.

the copper tube came in a box and was already conveniently coiled to the right size for my 12" diameter boil pot.

What they said. Space the coils. Most at the top and stir the wort. Mostly stir the wort

I was having an issue in the summer because my tap water was 72. Since we have a double sink to work with we made an icebath in one side and coiled the tubing running to the chiller through it. Also, put the wort in an ice bath in a large plastic container. These things and stirring drastically reduced chill time.

Wow, I have a 25' SS immersion chiller and it takes 6-8 minutes to cool my wort for a 5 gallon batch. Granted my tap water is cold, but I dont think that much colder than 50F.

thank for the tips,i will use them.
sorry for using metrics; i have a 12 meter's long and 4 millimeters (internal diameter) copper tube and my boiling pot is around 40 liters but i only use a bit more than half of it.the diameter of the pot is around 120 centimeters.(the diameter is more than height)
making another chiller with better specifics (suitable for cooling down at 15 minutes and less) costs me $48,I'm now thinking about if changing the chiller is vital or not!?

Hard to tell if you need to increase without knowing your size. I have only ever used an immersion chiller, and I have never had problems with my beer. I live in the south, so my tap water temps are often high. The bottom line is that you can't cool it colder than the source water temperature. You typically do about 80% of your cooling in 20% of the total time, and the last 20% of your cooling takes place in about 80% of the time.

Having your beer sit for longer is some risk, but a lot of people do it successfully. You could consider getting a small pond pump and pumping cold water (iced water) from a cooler into your coil. That would really help get your temps down more quickly. I am thinking about doing that for the summer brew sessions. There are threads out there that shed some light on ways to accomplish that.

I've wondered about this myself. I've got one of the Midwest 25' stainless chillers and never got anything close to the chill times others claim. Doing partial boils it worked ok, but my last batch (first full boil) I was chilling and stirring for an hour in a struggle to get down to pitchable temps. I do need to fashion some sort of device to keep the chiller closer to the top of the wort, as I imagine its not quite as effective near the bottom of the pot.

ChrisS68 said:

I've wondered about this myself. I've got one of the Midwest 25' stainless chillers and never got anything close to the chill times others claim. Doing partial boils it worked ok, but my last batch (first full boil) I was chilling and stirring for an hour in a struggle to get down to pitchable temps. I do need to fashion some sort of device to keep the chiller closer to the top of the wort, as I imagine its not quite as effective near the bottom of the pot.

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I have the exact same one and I do full boils all the time. I use a 9 gallon SS brewpot and have the chiller hooked up to the tapwater. I have stretched the coils a bit, but just this weekend, I used it to cool off a batch and it took me no more than 8 minutes max to go from 212F to 75F

4MM is a very small pipe, comparable to our 1/4 inch pipe. Most people here are using a larger diameter tube. Probably want 12-15mm tubing. 12 meter is ok but a little short.
Here in the states use is closer to 16 meters.

on the pot? 120 centimeters is close to 48 inches , that's big pot ,you may not have enough tubing.

torbanac said:

4MM is a very small pipe, comparable to our 1/4 inch pipe. Most people here are using a larger diameter tube. Probably want 12-15mm tubing. 12 meter is ok but a little short.
Here in the states use is closer to 16 meters.

on the pot? 120 centimeters is close to 48 inches , that's big pot ,you may not have enough tubing.

Click to expand...

I think the problem is that the pipe is too small in diameter. 12m is 40 feet, and lots of folks stateside use 25' chillers so I don't think that is the problem.

With a 4mm pipe, the flow is going to be very low. I'd be willing to bet that is the problem.

If you can get some larger pipe that would be the way to go. 3/8" is the smallest I would try. That is .4" I.D. (about 11mm).

how many gallons or liters in one of your batches? that extra wide pot is making me wonder.

you definitely want a bigger diameter tube for your chiller. something equivalent to 1/2" or 3/8" pipe will be better.

I had this same problem, though I had a normal size 7 gallon pot and my diameter is larger on the chiller. BUT, now I come out after five minutes and lift the chiller up and down to mix up the wort and then again five minutes later and its done in 15 to 20 minutes.