Show us your DIY wort chillers

I am looking to build a chiller, either a CFC or an IC to handle cooling wort in my newly built 15.5 gallon keggle. I am leaning toward something like Jamil's with the whirlpool return, which gets the wort circulating against the IC, but I wanted to see what everyone else built and make a final decision. I have read a ton of posts and there are so many different ways to build one, I wanted to get a thread going with them all in one place for other folks like myself looking to DIY. I know that there are a million different ways to build one so show 'em off!

Here's a couple shots of mine. Nothing fancy, except for the step in the bottom to straddle the filter in my boil kettle. Generally reduces a 5 gallon boil to under 70 in about 15 minutes.

Nice idea to make it sit straight in the brew pot. Is that steel wire you used to make it more rigid?

BadgerBrewer said:

Nice idea to make it sit straight in the brew pot. Is that steel wire you used to make it more rigid?

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Stainless tie wire...

I use a regular old wort chiller, but my whirlpool is a little more interesting.
http://morebeer.ning.com/profiles/blogs/geekbrew-20-the-whirlpool-of

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/7rWj3hWL886LvecR2c7lcg?feat=directlink

Like the Whirlpool of Doom to put my March pump to use. Also like Nitrousbob's inner/outer ring w/ recirc set up. Lot of copper tubing there!

50' 1/2" Bobby_M style. No connector on the outlet as the 1 I bought must have been aluminum alloy instead of brass and wouldn't solder. I just slide a 10 gallon cooler next to the pot to catch the discharge. Total cost was right at $55 (I had solder and torch already).

50 ft coil uprights are 1/2 solid I soldered the coil to the upright to make it rigid.



reason for such high uprights is to fit the 120 qt pot




The IC's are pretty much all the same some more elaborate than others . I use a Shirron plate chiller now .

Here you go. It's a Bobby M special. 50' of 1/2" tubing.

50' copper $donated by plumber brother-in-law
Cheapest garden hose at Ace HW, $7.5
4 clamps $0.60

Total investment about $8

Chiller


close up of connections (sorry for bad pic, memory card in camera was failing)

Love the name of your brewery and slogan camiller!

BadgerBrewer said:

Love the name of your brewery and slogan camiller!

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Thanks Badger!

mine 30ft 1/2 copper silver soldered used 6 gauge copper for reinforcement




13 gals to 60 in 25min whirl-pooling with pump

http://steelnthings.com/beer/P3190130.JPG

Made with about 15' of 3/8" copper I had left over. It isn't the fastest, but it works very well.

tonkota said:

http://steelnthings.com/beer/P3190130.JPG

Made with about 15' of 3/8" copper I had left over. It isn't the fastest, but it works very well.

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My only concern with the way you have yours is you'll contaminate your wort if/when the hose pipe connection springs a leak because it will drip directly into the wort

My Wort Chiller, it is made out of 50' of 1/2" copper tube.

50' - 1/2" x 0.032" Wall copper tube (refrigeration tubing)
2 - 1/2" comp. (F) x 1/2" NPT (M)
1 - 3/4" NH (M) x 1/2" NPT (F)
1 - 3/4" NH (F) x 1/2" NPT (F) swivel

I built the chiller by first unraveling the copper tube so it was straight. I then put in a "J" bend in one end with a spring type tubing bender and stuck that inside a corny keg, then carefully I started wrapping the tube around the keg, once it is wrapped enough, slide it off of the keg and work the ends with a spring tube bender to get them to look like the picture. Once it looks good use some silver solder to tack it together at several places...DON'T buy the cheap general purpose copper tube, it has a thin wall and will kink.

Here is my CFC build, sorry it lacks some pics there are a couple but not many of the build. Any questions just ask though...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/got-my-counter-flow-finished-80940/

You all are not going to like it 'cause I'm showin off. But I've built a few different units:




3/8" copper in copper CFC
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And the build to produce a few for my LHBS:






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And then the 1/2" copper in copper CFC


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HLT heat exchanger


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Whirlpool immersion chiller


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Then the built in heat exchanger for a keg HLT:

12 gallon batch, full pump flow single pass, 40 lbs of ice, 45F into fermenters.

erik said:

My only concern with the way you have yours is you'll contaminate your wort if/when the hose pipe connection springs a leak because it will drip directly into the wort

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I dont have any photos, but my IC is very similar to this. I have had a few leak issues pop up. I simply sealed the hoses with silicone and used slightly lower pressures from the faucet and Im fine. The lower pressures dont effect my cooling rate at all, which was a shock to me.

I really want to build a CFC though

My coil is 3/8" OD and will be used for a HERMS heat exchanger as well as a chiller. For chilling, I pump wort through the coil which is sitting in ice water.

I wanted to lower the flow restriction of the 3/8" coil, so I cut it in half and made two coils out of it. 1/2" copper pipe feeds to a T fitting, which then feeds both of the shorter coils, back into another T fitting and up another 1/2" pipe. I made a chamber out of 3/4" copper for my temp probe to screw into:



The coils are packed together tightly because I need it to stay as submerged as possible when there is only a few inches of liquid available.

Is that high temp silicone tubing on there?

That's correct. high temp silicone hoses and brass garden hose connectors (poorman's 'quick connects').

I love seeing all of the unique approaches to this brewing business. What a great hobby!

Here is a link to my Double Pipe Counter Flow Chiller that I built.

http://www.capandhare.com/forums/album.php?albumid=32

hojuwestlake said:

Here is a link to my Double Pipe Counter Flow Chiller that I built.
http://www.capandhare.com/forums/album.php?albumid=32

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Wow that is really well designed and built!

mariojr said:

Wow that is really well designed and built!

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Thanks! It was a 6 month build from design to completion.

How much wort loss do you get with that or do you push the last of it out with sanitizer?

dstar26t said:

How much wort loss do you get with that or do you push the last of it out with sanitizer?

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It hold about 63oz of wort but I push it out with Oxygen.

About 63oz? I was hoping you could round to the nearest mL, haha.

Oxygen is a good idea, no worries of getting a bunch of sanitizer in your wort and it's sanitary. I wonder if steam would be as effective and sanitary since I use it for step mashing anyhow?

dstar26t said:

About 63oz? I was hoping you could round to the nearest mL, haha.

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dstar26t said:

Oxygen is a good idea, no worries of getting a bunch of sanitizer in your wort and it's sanitary. I wonder if steam would be as effective and sanitary since I use it for step mashing anyhow?

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Steam could work but I would be worried about it heating the wort back up when the steam exits into the fermenter.

I like the oxygen because not only does it push out the wort but also oxygenates my wort before pitching.

:rockin: YOU WIN!

I think we now know why the price of copper has skyrocketed! It is simple supply and demand! Hojuwestlake bought it all up for that AWESOME build! Very cool

Thanks Guys!

Yeah, not the cheapest DIY project but it sure was a fun learning experience.
This was my first venture in to the land of copper sweating and I think it might be my last for a while.

Here's my ribcage chiller. 50ft of 1/2"OD. 5 gallon batch from boiling to 100 in 4 minutes!





Here it is in action. I used a stainless hose clamp to hold the chiller together for rigidity. I also added an elbow at the bottom of the output so the water shoots outward. I thought about having it shoot back at the pot but after I tested it and got an under 10 minute chill time, I opted for the less messy route.

Very cool rib cage design! Did you basically build a regular IC and then pull apart every other coil to form the rib cage design? Do you whirlpool the wort when chilling or does this ribcage design work this well by just leaving it sit still?

BadgerBrewer said:

Very cool rib cage design! Did you basically build a regular IC and then pull apart every other coil to form the rib cage design? Do you whirlpool the wort when chilling or does this ribcage design work this well by just leaving it sit still?

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I had to find the center of the pipe, and then I wound two separate coils on either side of the center... So it looked like this....


(Gotta love MS Paint)
Then I just ... squished the two coils together... for lack of a better term... and made sure they interlaced.

The cooling times I got were with NO STIRRING. I was stoked to see how well it worked! I should mention that from 100-80°F took 4.5 minutes... so it was a 8.5 minute chill time total.

Anyone have any good pictures of their rig using a whirlpooling feature? I have seen some using pumps to circulate/whirlpool the wort as it cools as well as several who use a drill and attachment to spin the wort as it cools. Love to see some pics!