My $2.00 Wort Chiller

My dilemma: want to go all grain......wort chiller/weld-less spigot/false bottom for keggle not in the budget, making boiling the volume involved require 2 pots (already had the pots).

The solution: Piece of scrap PVC, and a $2.00 hardware store sink stopper.

Now I can split my boil into two pots on the stove, and then cool the both at once in the kitchen sink. Basically just a simple stand pipe like I have in my bait tank on the boat. I just cut out a hole in the middle of the rubber stopper with a razor knife, and stick the PCV in the hole. I just filled the sink up and marked the water level with a marker, and cut with a hack saw.

Not to sound mean (not intending it to) but then what? I don't see how that works.

It's an over flow pipe, he can dunk his pans into the sink and keep the tap flowing providing a continual supply of cold water.

it keeps the sink from over flowing?? I think..

correct, it allows both sinks to be completely full, with water constantly flowing, without running into the floor.

buzzkill said:

it keeps the sink from over flowing?? I think..

Click to expand...

Ahh. D'oh. Thanks.

Clever, I would not of thought of it, because in my sink the drains are centered in the middle of each basin so it wouldn't work for me. Well done sir.

Its also the hugest waste of water imagineable.

I did the same thing, but i put the brew pot into one side and run the water next to the pot. it just over flows to the other side and drains. if you put the water on the far side of the pot i can cool wort in 20 min.

It's not any bigger waste of water than a chiller in the pot.

So does it overflow when you put the BK in? Or do you have to put the BK in first?

clemson55 said:

Its also the hugest waste of water imagineable.

Click to expand...

Maybe not. Water comes out of your sink a lot slower than it comes out of your hose. This process would likely use more water, but depending on how well the water and wort are circulated, not too much more.

could you just let the one sink fill and over flow into the other and drain? I don't see the point of the stopper and tube in the second sink.

IrregularPulse said:

could you just let the one sink fill and over flow into the other and drain? I don't see the point of the stopper and tube in the second sink.

Click to expand...

So that he can cool both pots at the same time?

I don't understand all this "waste of water" business. I understand if you live in a desert or something, but I'm on a well, I can pump as much water as I'll ever need. The only thing I'd be wasting would be the electricity of the pump. Water is the most abundant resource on the planet, who cares if it takes him 100 gallons to make 5 gallons of beer? I don't.

Good design, brew beer with what you got.

That's a great idea. As for wasting water: what others have said, you probably waste an equal amount when using an IC.

klyph said:

I don't understand all this "waste of water" business. I understand if you live in a desert or something, but I'm on a well, I can pump as much water as I'll ever need. The only thing I'd be wasting would be the electricity of the pump. Water is the most abundant resource on the planet, who cares if it takes him 100 gallons to make 5 gallons of beer? I don't.

Good design, brew beer with what you got.

Click to expand...

I don't know about Alaska, but I'm guessing the fact that the population density is so low and you're surrounded by ice - you don't have to worry about it. However, in California (and many other parts of the country/world) we've been in off/on drought for as long as I can remember. Most of the water on the planet is in the ocean, and it takes alot of energy to de-salinate.

I'm pretty sure this would waste more than an IC, but an IC is also very inefficient - I just bought a plate chiller for partially this reason (and the time savings). I plan to route the hot water coming from the plate chiller into my HLT for use in cleaning.

creative. Thanks for sharing.

Water may be the most abundant resource (or 2nd next to air), but that does not mean we shouldnt be looking at ways to conserve it. Only 2.5% of the water in the world is fresh, and about 2/3 of that is locked up in glaciers and ice caps (dont say that global warming will fix this). That leaves us with less than 1 percent of drinkable water. The current human population uses nearly half of that water. At a consistent population rate increase, it is not unimaginable that our grand-children or great-grandchildren could be one day fighting wars over water. (in fact it has already happened many times in less developed countries)

Sorry for the mini rant, every once in a while I have to pretend like I learned something back in school as a Water Resources Engineer.

People in developed countries adjust their usage to what's available. He has plenty available, so he uses it. If the supply diminishes, we adjust our usage. It's not going to come down to killing your neighbor over a bottle of water, that's ridiculous. Consumption will reach an equilibrium with availability like it always does.

I'm not concerned about wasting water in Alaska, but how long does it take to get the temp down?? I think a copper coil immersion chiller is well worth the money to build.

I don't want to knock your design, I think it's brilliant in it's simplicity. I think think that an immersion chiller, even at $40 to build, is a better option.

IrregularPulse said:

could you just let the one sink fill and over flow into the other and drain? I don't see the point of the stopper and tube in the second sink.

Click to expand...

I am doing this so that I can split an all grain batch into 2 pots to do a full boil on my stove. Don't have the $ currently for the immersion cooler or to finish building my keggle, so splitting it into two pots is the only way to do the full boil at this time.

Some of you make good points but this guy is using what works for him and is to be applauded for thinking out of the box. I, for one, like his idea very much. Maybe not as good as an IC, but he noted he's not got the $$$ and using his idea, lot's of mass around the brew kettle means quicker cooling and for two kettles at a time.

He also noted he is on well water which comes from under his property. If he's got well water, I'm also willing to bet he also has a septic system and thus, any liquids are essentially cleaned up by bacteria and then futher cleaned by draining through the soil, probably right back to where it came from in the first place. One nice tidy loop.

It is not like he's simply flushing clean fresh water down a municipal system that washes out in the ocean or the great unknown.

We are all from different parts of the country and even different countries. Some areas are developed, some are not. Some have trouble getting good water, some do not. Use your heads and stop bashing others when you really don't understand or don't first take their situations into perspective.

One humble opinion.

I agree, Nice idea. If this is working for you, go for it. Very creative.

Looks like it would also be easy to add ice directly to the water baths to quicken the cooling process (especially after the wort gets down to a reasonable temperature--for those last few degrees), whereas when I want to add ice (to my IC system) I need to do a prechiller setup, which is a PITA and never seems to work for me anyway.

I tried this with 3Gal of wort before, in an ice bath, letting it overflow into the next sink. Even with the ice, it still took 3 hours running cold water (in the middle of a frigid Canadian night) constantly for it to cool to under 80°. It's really nowhere near as efficient as an IC (FAR less surface area), and it definitely beats no-chill, but considering I was able to cool the same in roughly an hour with just a STILL ice bath, running outside 3 times to grab a bunch of snow to add it to the bath, I'm convinced that the constant motion/replenishing of cool water is a pretty negligible improvement over just draining and refilling a few times (actually, for a few reasons I think it might even be worse), and is without a doubt very inferior to simply keeping an ice bath supplied with ice.

I understand the guy can't afford an IC at the moment, and it's not really a criticism... I'm just sharing my own experience to maybe help out people on the fence about this idea.

emjay said:

I tried this with 3Gal of wort before, in an ice bath, letting it overflow into the next sink. Even with the ice, it still took 3 hours running cold water (in the middle of a frigid Canadian night) constantly for it to cool to under 80°. It's really nowhere near as efficient as an IC (FAR less surface area), and it definitely beats no-chill, but considering I was able to cool the same in roughly an hour with just a STILL ice bath, running outside 3 times to grab a bunch of snow to add it to the bath, I'm convinced that the constant motion/replenishing of cool water is a pretty negligible improvement over just draining and refilling a few times (actually, for a few reasons I think it might even be worse), and is without a doubt very inferior to simply keeping an ice bath supplied with ice.

I understand the guy can't afford an IC at the moment, and it's not really a criticism... I'm just sharing my own experience to maybe help out people on the fence about this idea.

Click to expand...

using this method and adding ice on ocation, I am only seeing around 30 minutes if I stir my wort ever few minutes. I am curious what would cause your extremely long cooling times. Well insulated pot perhaps?

Stirring the wort continuously makes all the difference.

autobaun70 said:

I am doing this so that I can split an all grain batch into 2 pots to do a full boil on my stove. Don't have the $ currently for the immersion cooler or to finish building my keggle, so splitting it into two pots is the only way to do the full boil at this time.

Click to expand...

makes sense. I didn't realize the 2 pots portion. Makes sense.

klyph said:

People in developed countries adjust their usage to what's available. He has plenty available, so he uses it. If the supply diminishes, we adjust our usage. It's not going to come down to killing your neighbor over a bottle of water, that's ridiculous. Consumption will reach an equilibrium with availability like it always does.

Click to expand...

i think this guy's serious.

fresh water will be the next oil.