Tried the Mr. Beer-like kit for the wife's sake (sweet thing bought it after I mentioned I'd like to try home brewing). Realized the crap taste was due to old/inferior ingredients, tools and process.
Bought the proper fermenting equipment, buckets, better bottle, and quality extract kit and brewed my first batch using 16 qt pot I had.
I went out yesterday and bought a 30qt stainless pot to do 5 gal boil next batch and then realized that I can't use the 2 gallons of ice/cold water addition to cool the wort anymore.
Enter the immersion chiller. It's a good thing I like gadgets and DIY . I found that the most cost effective copper tubing is actually 1/4 OD at only $.60 a foot. I bought two 20 foot lengths and got to building. I made an outer coil at 10" diameter and an inner coil of 5" in diameter. The cold water will actually split before hitting each coil. I think the advantage to running two coils of smaller diameter tubing is that it subjects more surface area to more wort, spread out in the overall column of the pot. That is, I shouldn't have to stir the pot to expose isolated hot spots to the coil. Pics and cooling results to follow.
I don't even want to think about all grain brewing yet because it looks like a whole new level of equipment obsession. Ok, maybe I'll hold off for two more batches. I'm just glad I have an understanding wife.
Bobby
Bought the proper fermenting equipment, buckets, better bottle, and quality extract kit and brewed my first batch using 16 qt pot I had.
I went out yesterday and bought a 30qt stainless pot to do 5 gal boil next batch and then realized that I can't use the 2 gallons of ice/cold water addition to cool the wort anymore.
Enter the immersion chiller. It's a good thing I like gadgets and DIY . I found that the most cost effective copper tubing is actually 1/4 OD at only $.60 a foot. I bought two 20 foot lengths and got to building. I made an outer coil at 10" diameter and an inner coil of 5" in diameter. The cold water will actually split before hitting each coil. I think the advantage to running two coils of smaller diameter tubing is that it subjects more surface area to more wort, spread out in the overall column of the pot. That is, I shouldn't have to stir the pot to expose isolated hot spots to the coil. Pics and cooling results to follow.
I don't even want to think about all grain brewing yet because it looks like a whole new level of equipment obsession. Ok, maybe I'll hold off for two more batches. I'm just glad I have an understanding wife.
Bobby