Wart Chiller Cooler

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jcavaliere

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Hi guys,

I've been doing home brew for about a year now, and I'm starting to get very much into it. I've made an IPA, a Heff, and a Pumpkin Ale last fall.

I was yesterday at the home brew store in town, and I saw an interesting idea and I wanted to get someone else's opinion before I set down that road.

They had an ice chest with two holes drilled on either side of it, and a hookup for a keg on each hole. Inside, connecting the holes were two wort chillers. Beer goes in the chiller, cooled off by the ice in the ice chest and out the other side.

What do you think about this idea? Is this a good one? i was actually thinking of taking it one step further and putting chillers inside a fridge, rather then in an ice chest. Why or why not would I want to do this? My hope was that I could use a single fridge to chill 6-7 kegs, having the kegs on the outside of the fridge. This way I don’t have to put the entire keg in the fridge.

What do you all think?

-Jason
 
It's called a jockey box. An alternative design is a cold-plate which is available in numerous "in and out" ports or "passes". E.g. a 6 pass has six isolated liquid paths. You'll need to immerse the coils or plate into a water bath and run the fridge/freezer at about 33F for it to work. The water creates more thermal mass. Having the coils just exposed to cold air isn't enough because it's not able to pull heat away fast enough.
 
That is a new term to me - I'll look it up.

Is it more or less efficient then putting the kegs in the fridge from an electricity usage perspective?

Thanks!
 
I think the doctor can freeze dry them and they fall off, . . . . Oh wait you're talking about WORT. Sorry, couldn't help myself.
 
cheap method ive seen, is to use a submersable pump from habor freight.

cool wort down with hose water to below 140* F, take a cooler and fill it with water and ice, once your wort is below 140* hook your submersable pump to your chiller, hook up intake to pump and put the exhaust in the cooler, then plug in the pump and drop in the ice water and cycle the cold water threw the chiller.

Pump only costs about 15$ to!
 
cheap method ive seen, is to use a submersable pump from habor freight.

cool wort down with hose water to below 140* F, take a cooler and fill it with water and ice, once your wort is below 140* hook your submersable pump to your chiller, hook up intake to pump and put the exhaust in the cooler, then plug in the pump and drop in the ice water and cycle the cold water threw the chiller.

Pump only costs about 15$ to!

The OP was regarding a jockey box for cooling the beer before serving, whereas you are talking about a wort chiller after boiling.

I'm not sure how to answer the difference in electricity costs, although you would need to use stainless steel coils. The more often you are pouring a pint, the longer the coils will need to be. If you are using 50' coils x 6-7 kegs, that's 300-350 of stainless coil. I suspect it may be cheaper to buy a large fridge/freezer. :)
 
The OP was regarding a jockey box for cooling the beer before serving, whereas you are talking about a wort chiller after boiling.

I'm not sure how to answer the difference in electricity costs, although you would need to use stainless steel coils. The more often you are pouring a pint, the longer the coils will need to be. If you are using 50' coils x 6-7 kegs, that's 300-350 of stainless coil. I suspect it may be cheaper to buy a large fridge/freezer. :)

oops you are right!

for the orignal post lol I wouldnt use a Jockey box for a dedicated home brew keg set up due to having to have ice in it all the time cooling the chill plate. I would bet money that a fridge could not keep a chill plate cold enough fast enough to make your beer cold. If you are going to go threw the trouble might as well just drill the holes and set up a tap.

The ice makes direct contact with the coils or chill plate so you have a direct transfer of cold metal to hot beer so it cools it alot faster than just cold air cooling the metal which would cool the beer. And if you put it in the freezer you would have to worry about the beer freezing in the coils between use.

Jockey Boxes are nice if you are going to a picknick, meet up or tailgating:D
 
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