DIY Interwoven "Rib-Cage" Immersion Chiller

My wort chiller

Sorry to resurrect this old thread but thanks to everyone for posting these ideas! I'm getting ready to do my first homebrew using some hand-me-down stuff (though including a nice keggle) from my brother in law. There wasn't an IC along with the gear so I started looking around and stumbled on to the photos here. My local hardware store only had 60' of 3/8" OD soft copper coil so I picked that up. We're brewing Sunday and it's been in the high 90's here in Grand Rapids. Since I had extra tubing, I figured I'd make a pre-chiller as well. The prechiller is 15' of tubing coiled around a paint can and will go in a cooler with ice, water and rock salt about 15 minutes before flame out to start getting cold.


The RCIC is the remaining 45' of tubing and fits the keggle nicely.



All in all the build went well. There are a few minor kinks but the system flows nicely and holds pressure. Has anyone used the prechiller with ice, water and salt? Since this will bring the prechiller down below 32 F I don't want to run the risk of the water freezing in there. Thanks!

I'll get times and temperatures on Sunday and will report back.

The RCIC worked great! I had 5 gallons at a rolling boil. After flameout I started the water, tipped the keg up on a bit of the angle and started to swirl the wort. Cooling times were as follows:

3 minutes - 110 F
5 minutes - 82 F
10 minutes - 69 F

Seems like a working design to me! For next time I'm going to replace the outflow hose with a high temp line. I'll also put in some sort of quick connects as the whole device is a bit unwieldy to clean and store and it would be great to be about to break it down a bit. Thanks again to everyone who suggested this design and posted pictures!

Thanks to the OP, this design is great.

I put mine together this weekend, and I'm happy with how it turned out. I used 50' or 3/8" copper, and kept the connections simple with silicone tubing and hose clamps.

I've never built the traditional style IC so I can't compare the difficulty to this, but this was really not that hard to do. I don't know why anyone wouldn't build their IC using this method.

Again thank you to RedIrocZ-28! Picked up 20' of 3/8" OD copper coil from the Depot. Used my CO2 tank as a coil/guide and it turned out great. I do have to admit that I was pretty nervous at first... Go ahead and give a whirl if you want to change your IC.

Here's my build, I did the 22' 3/8od copper like the op's. I got a bit of a score though, the guy at the hardware store didn't want to measure out the copper so he gave me what he thought was close enough I ended up with an extra 13' of copper and made a pre-chiller with it w00t .

The begining used tape to mark center and end that I cut.

Here is how I rolled it over the paint can.

This is the 2 pieces coiled up pre-interwoven.

Just pull apart and mush together.

Sizing it for my pot.


I got a standard fitting for my faucet that replaces the aerator with a garden hose adapter. Than picked up a female garden hose piece with a barbed end that I had to lube up with soap to get on the 3/8id hose. 6 small ss,and 1 medium clamp later here is the finished product.

I spent about $80 on everything including faucet adapter (go east coast of canada where everything is expensive). A basic 25ft Brewers best IC sells for $89.99 + 15% tax around here. So I saved a little over $20 made a more efficient IC and got a free Pre-Chiller.
Thank you op and everyone else in this thread couldn't have done it without your help, can't wait to give this a go.

Edit: Boiled up a little over 4 gal of water cooled it down to pitching temps in 10 min.

Just finished mine, worked brilliantly. I've been playing with the spacing after my first test so that the bottom is quite spaced out and the top coils are closer together.

This seems to give more surface area at the top of the kettle, and when I tested it again (very unscientifically) it reduced chill time by 3-4 minutes. Not bad for 5 mins extra work.

I'm done arguing against the "rib cage" designs all that but guys, please stop uncoiling the copper only to recoil it. The uncoiling process starts hardening the copper already and just makes it harder to coil. Drop the larger coil over your mandrel (the round thing you use to form the new coil) and simply tight the coil.

You have to uncoil to take measurements in some cases.

Replying to keep track of so I can build one this winter.

Bobby_M said:

I'm done arguing against the "rib cage" designs all that but guys, please stop uncoiling the copper only to recoil it. The uncoiling process starts hardening the copper already and just makes it harder to coil. Drop the larger coil over your mandrel (the round thing you use to form the new coil) and simply tight the coil.

Click to expand...

Bobby,

Why are you against the ribcage design? I dont want to argue with you about it, I just want to know your reasoning against it. Is it because a Jamil style whirlpool IC is more efficient than the ribcage design? Or are you a counterflow/plate chiller guy? I'm trying to figure out what to do for my new chiller as I need to make a new one since I went from a 3 gallon pot to a 15 gallon pot that is 18" diameter and about 18" tall. I don't have a pump since I do BIAB and I would rather not deal with one. I'm trying to figure out how much tubing I should buy to quickly cool 10 gallons of wort in my pot.

BadBeagleBrew said:

You have to uncoil to take measurements in some cases.

Click to expand...

OR, you can take a "length" of rope or speaker wire and wrap it around your mandrel first to determine and mark the start / end points. Then start your copper coil at the upper start point and wrap around down to the half point at the other mark.

Well here's my interwoven wort chiller! As a chemical engineer, I really like this design. You spread out the surface area of the copper while also maintaining the best driving force for heat transfer. I almost got into the thermodynamics of it all but I will refrain. This thread has seen enough!

EDIT: everything cost me about $50 at Lowe's. I got some extra vinyl tubing in case I needed the water to run through an ice bath before it enters the wort. The tap water can be very warm in Texas...

Well I was finally able to use my DIY wort chiller (picture in previous post) for my imperial whiskey stout this past weekend. It was WORLDS better than an ice bath, but still took about 30 mins to cool from boiling to 80F. I blame it on the 72F tap water...

Anyway, not as successful as some of you, but still a lot better than the alternatives and worth every penny!

RedIrocZ-28 said:

Guys, I have gotten some pretty good results with this new chiller design I made last week. I have done 2 brews with it thus far and the results are better than expected.

I used 22' of 3/8" Refrigeration tubing. I don't have pictures to show how I made it, so I will be as descript as possible.

I began by marking the center of the length of tubing. I then wrapped the tubing using a paint can to make the coils. I started at each end of the tubing and wrapped toward the marked center point. When I was done I had 2 opposing coils and 12" of straight tubing at the beginning end of each of the coils. Next I spread the coils apart a little and then meshed them together much in the same way you would do with your fingers like you are taught to pray when you are a little kid. After that I bent the straight ends so they went vertical and then bent the downturns so they would reach up, out of, and over the side of the pot.

Here is the finished product.

This will stand up high enough to reach out of a 7.5gal turkey fryer.

The results are kind of hard to believe but this was done with a timer last night so I have to just accept that I have created a fantastic chiller for next to nothing.

I chilled 5gal of wort from a boil to under 70* (67* to be exact) in just shy of13 minutes. I did immerse the pot in my sink, using the "spent" water to circulate a cold water bath around the pot. I also raised and lowered the cooler in the wort every few minutes to make sure that everything was stirred up nicely.

Click to expand...

I just spent my entire lunch break reading 18 pages about a ribcage wort chiller. Nice design! I plan to make mine tonight, I only brew 2.5-5 gallons at a time and don't foresee me going any more than that anytime soon. My coworker found 50' x 1/2" for $39 at Lowes this weekend and I think we're gonna split that and stick with 25' each. Originally we thought, why not use 50', but I think using all 50' for such small batches is a waste. But saving $20 helps me justify using compression fittings and making it a nice design that will last! If I need to add a pre-chiller coil, I can in the future, but for now our water in Colorado is pretty cold in the winter.

I'll post pics when I'm done. I am thinking of splitting it in 2 with a compression T fitting so it splits the cold water evenly among the coils. We'll see how it turns out.

Thanks for the great suggestions,
Lorne

So, I was too excited to get my RCIC done and made so I finished it tonight! Didn't think it'd be done tonight. However it did take some time to really figure out the amount of pipe I needed to leave straight and coil.

All in all, this is 25' of 1/2" copper tubing. I altered the design a bit and added a compression T fitting to split the incoming water into each coil to even disburse the cold water in the Wort. Then both come up and shoot out.

One issue I had was I didn't anticipate how large the 90 degree turn radiuses would be so my straight lengths ended up being too short. I kinked the first one I tried to bend, so I didn't want to risk breaking the tube by straightening and trying again. So I may just have to add a foot or so of clear tubing with a clamp for the exit tubes. Luckily I left PLENTY of tubing for the inlet to a hose bibb. That also came across the top to act as my handle to carry it. Since that's the inlet the tube won't burn my hand, the other two would.

I haven't tested this with any wort yet. I plan to test it on a water boil tomorrow while I clean it, then this weekend I'll make another batch and test it on the real stuff!

Thanks for an awesome design and great insight guys! Here's some pics of my progress and final product.

Lorne

I made a rib-cage wort-chiller about a month ago and have used it 3 times now. I used a 25' length of 3/8" copper, and also made a pre-chiller using another 25" of 3/8" copper. I put the prechiller in a 5-gallon bucket filled with icewater, but when I run this setup it is still taking almost an hour to get down to 60-65* pitching temps?

Obviously my tube would function better if it was bigger/longer (THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID), but I really was expecting the prechiller to make up for it. At this point I am wondering if I would be better off scavenging the pre-chiller and somehow sculpting it to fit in my brew kettle alongside the rib-cage, and just run directly from my sink. My water is usually in the 50-60* range, even in winter...so I wasn't sure if I would still have issues.

I suppose I could also buy a big plastic bucket and put the kettle in an ice bath at the same time I am chilling it with the IC...but I am really trying to avoid buying ice bags for every brew day, and the other alternative is to spend a week making ice in my freezer to stock up...

Also, I don't move the chiller around a lot, and I have read that helps, but would it really have that big an impact if it is taking an hour as-is?

VonAle said:

OR, you can take a "length" of rope or speaker wire and wrap it around your mandrel first to determine and mark the start / end points. Then start your copper coil at the upper start point and wrap around down to the half point at the other mark.

Click to expand...

Or measure the circumference of your paint can or mandrel and then calculate how many wraps you need to make around it to get half way.

Let's bring this back one more time...

I made one today. 50' of 3/8" OD tubing. Based on some of the talk about kinking tubing, refrigeration vs soft tubing, etc, I was hesitant at first. But it was easy!

Go slow and be gentle. I used a piece of string to measure 25' (the center) without unwinding the coil. I then coiled around a paint can once on each side of the center mark.
You will need to carefully manipulate the coils to wrap the tubing tight against the paint can; partial unwinding/increasing the coil diameters will be necessary. By the way, a paint can is 6.5" diameter, in case you're looking for something of similar diameter.
Step on the coil of Cu tubing at the mark, and pull the tube tight to the can. Also push the coils together/down so they are uniform. I thin I made 12 coils on each side of center.
Leave about 2' uncoiled at the ends for the flexible tubing.
When it's time to expand the coils to join them together, I rested them against each other by laying one coil on its side, which puts the other on top of it... and very gently the coils apart one at a time so that I didn't over spread them -- I wanted to keep the "cage" tight. Once the coils are meshed, push the outer edges in to push the coils into a manageable width (measure your kettle before you start).

Here's a picture of the tubing I used from Lowes. It was $47, the vinyl tubing was $7.50, and the adapters to get from faucet to garden hose to tubing barb were ~$9. So I'm in for ~$60, which is much cheaper than a 50' IC from a retail outfit.



I am currently brewing 2 gal batches in a 3 gal pot. The IC is a bit tall (and bulky), but I plan to upgrade to a 10 gal kettle for 5-7 gal batches soon.






I used it for the first batch today; an Imperial IPA. Using fairly cool tap water (this is Illinois), I was able to get from 212F to 135F for my hop stand in 1 minute, 22 sec. I thought that was pretty impressive. I didn't time the 135F to pitch, but it did take much longer. I can only imagine how fast it will be in the winter...

This forum :rockin:
Thanks for all of the great ideas!

Would it be ok to use 1/2 in od tubing? Local HD has 50ft on sale for 50$. Cheaper than the 3/8

Hey everyone,

I just got done building a rib cage immersion chiller i used 50ft of 3/8 copper tubing. I wanted to thank everyone on the thread, for all the helpful comments. My chiller turned out great.

Now that you called it rib cage I just can't un-see it! Good job!

Hi guys!
Today i bought 15 meters of 3/8" copper tubing which will be my future Rib Cage IC. The problem is that my tubing came with a black text on a side. How can i erase that text? I don't want ink in my beer (possible lead based ink?...)

Steel wool or fine sand paper should work.

Thanks to the OP for inspiring my build. Check it out, if you're into that sort of thing:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=434617

Also included a picture for your viewing pleasure.

Beautiful.

mtnagel said:

Beautiful.

Click to expand...

Thanks!

bionut said:

Hi guys!
Today i bought 15 meters of 3/8" copper tubing which will be my future Rib Cage IC. The problem is that my tubing came with a black text on a side. How can i erase that text? I don't want ink in my beer (possible lead based ink?...)

Click to expand...

Try some alcohol, (isopropyl),acetone, even nail polish remover, (re: scented acetone).

Should come off without abrasives.

I posted the same question on my original build post, but have yet to get any answers, so I thought I would ask here....


Has anyone used a similar shaped ribcage chiller in combination with a hop spider? I'm wondering if the chiller will interfere with hop movement and thus lower utilization? Obviously I add the chiller with about 15 minutes left in boil, so it should only effect my aroma hops

I can try to post pics to show what I'm talking about, but I am imagining using the hop spider "inside" of the ribcage. Or maybe I should just push the chiller to the side of the pot and see if I can get the spider more free?

Thoughts and input are greatly appreciated

Stealthcruiser said:

Try some alcohol, (isopropyl),acetone, even nail polish remover, (re: scented acetone).

Should come off without abrasives.

Click to expand...

Thanks! I will try some alcohol. Sory for the late response, but i was waiting for email notification, but i didn't got one.

After about 30 minutes of scrubing with isopropylic alcohol i managed to whipe the text off
Now, after another 60 minutes, i have a new (and my first) chiller, a rib cage chiller
15 meters (50' i think) of 9.52 mm (3/85") tubing.

Ha, I thought I came up with this idea, but it turns out you beat me by 4 years. I think my design is a bit of an "improvement." I used three 16 foot strands of 1/4 copper tubing, so it has an extremely high surface area to coolant volume ratio, so it should be more efficient. I posted a write up on my blog here: http://lifefermented.wordpress.com/2013/05/18/diy-immersion-chiller-the-hydra/

bionut said:

After about 30 minutes of scrubing with isopropylic alcohol i managed to whipe the text off
Now, after another 60 minutes, i have a new (and my first) chiller, a rib cage chiller
15 meters (50' i think) of 9.52 mm (3/85") tubing.

Click to expand...

Very clean build, well done bionut.

Thanks vinylrooster!
I can't wait to test it out.

That design is awesome!!! It's like a double wort chiller!

I'm thinking about building a wort chiller and using a fountain pump to cycle the water. But my idea is getting a submersible pump and recirculating the water from a cooler with ice water and back into to the cooler to bring it back down. That way I'm not waisting a lot of water. My question is this.....does this sound okay or more like a hair ball idea. Any info or ideas?

Lots of people do it. Should work fine.

Thanks for the quick reply. I was thinking about doing this for the different temps. This way I can control the flow and temp good and hopefully have really cold water circulating to bring the wort temp down quickly.

Sounds good, but you need to keep the first litres of water because it is too hot and will melt the ice very quickly.

hairless_mac said:

I'm thinking about building a wort chiller and using a fountain pump to cycle the water. But my idea is getting a submersible pump and recirculating the water from a cooler with ice water and back into to the cooler to bring it back down. That way I'm not waisting a lot of water. My question is this.....does this sound okay or more like a hair ball idea. Any info or ideas?

Click to expand...

Sweet idea man! I never liked the idea of wasting water like that either that's why I've never used a wort chiller but if I use a fountain pump like you that would be totally doable!
Thanks for sharing!!