My New Wort Chilling Station

At the rate I'm going, I'm quickly going to run out of DIY projects around the brewery... heh. Today's project was a proper wort chilling station. I bought a Thermenator and a second March pump from Austin Homebrew during their last sale. I wanted everything compact, portable, and low to the ground - so I decided to mount them both inside a toolbox I picked up at Lowes.

Here is the result.


And a photo from the back where the tap water comes in and out. I used a quick disconnect for the tap water out since the drain plug I have installed in the wall is already rigged with the same.


About to go test it after I eat some lunch. Pretty slick, eh?

That looks sweet! Awesome job!

That is too cool.

Super-slick setup! It will be easy to backflush as well. Are you going to recirculate that beast?

Way too cool!!! One of these days, your brewery is going to decide it's too cool for beer, and it'll band together and start a new race of highly-refined machinery!

Compared to you and BierMuncher, my junk is real, real ugly. :fro:

Lots of brew love,
The guy who can't even operate a hammer.

Wow. Very slick! I assume you have low tap water temps?

Wow!! Very impressive and professional looking. I like your idea on portability in the tool box and it keeps neat and cleaner.

Thanks. I'm pleased with how it turned out.

Boerderij Kabouter said:

Super-slick setup! It will be easy to backflush as well. Are you going to recirculate that beast?

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Stinkonamonkey said:

Wow. Very slick! I assume you have low tap water temps?

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I'm not sure what our average water temperatures are but its probably in the 70's? Gonna check that out next. Not sure if recirculation will be necessary but it is an option if it doesn't properly cool it on the first pass. Worst case, I can fill my HLT with ice, and run the tap water through the HERMS coil before it goes through the therminator. That is how I was previously chilling my wort.

Brilliant idea to put it in the box, I love the portability of it. I plumbed mine in and mounted it on the wall, which I love, but it does leave me with only one place to brew. It's really the only way to use the therminator, before I did that I hated running hoses in and hooking everything up. Of course with all those fancy quick disconnects you got that isn't a big deal. Very nicely done.

That is some cool DIY skills you have there John Beere
Just wondering if the therminator could be swapped out for a filter / hop back?

Cheers
BeerCanuck

Slight modification to the design... I realized that when I uplugged the hose from the wort chiller it was going to leak inside the box - so I extended it with a short hose. For now, I had to use brass fittings between the pump and chiller but it's been pickled - I don't think it will give me any trouble. Just a shame as that is the only brass in my entire setup.

Really nice project!

The only downside I see is that the pump is completely dedicated to chilling where I find myself using it for everything. I suppose you don't have a brew sculpture to mound this stuff to, in which case it's a great idea.

Bobby_M said:

The only downside I see is that the pump is completely dedicated to chilling where I find myself using it for everything. I suppose you don't have a brew sculpture to mound this stuff to, in which case it's a great idea.

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Yeah, I've dedicated this pump just for this purpose - overkill, I know - but I have another mounted to my rig which handles everything else. You can see it, and the chiller in action, here.

You should mount a Blichmann Thrumometer on the outside of the chiller so you can see the temp of you wort.

Tonedef131 said:

You should mount a Blichmann Thrumometer on the outside of the chiller so you can see the temp of you wort.

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You read my mind... ordered one this AM. heh

John Beere said:

You read my mind... ordered one this AM. heh

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Right on, I use one with my therminator and it is great to be able to sit there and adjust the throttle of the water and see its effect on my wort in real time. You will love it.

Tonedef131 said:

Right on, I use one with my therminator and it is great to be able to sit there and adjust the throttle of the water and see its effect on my wort in real time. You will love it.

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You throttle the water? I always throttled the wort. Even at full flow of water right from the hose, there are times were I can't have the wort at full flow (if the groundwater temp isn't cold enough).

Nicely implemented. I have toyed with this idea too, only keeping the pump connects separate from the chiller. I currently have everything mounted to an old stool.

I definitely couldn't use the silicone hosing for the chill water throughput. My water pressures would have it blown up like a balloon.

Jester369 said:

You throttle the water? I always throttled the wort. Even at full flow of water right from the hose, there are times were I can't have the wort at full flow (if the groundwater temp isn't cold enough).

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Yeah, my well water is VERY cold. If I don't throttle the water down below half way the wort will end up in the 50s. It is very nice when doing lagers and because I don't have to throttle the wort so I spend less time chilling. When I plumbed it in I just put a ball valve right before it and I use a Thrumometer on the out end of the wort on its way into the fermenter.

Very nice setup all the way 'round. Congrats! Some folks (including myself) have found it useful to orient the pump outflow facing straight up for priming considerations. If you end up having any issues, you could consider a purge (bleeder) valve with a spigot coming out of your box.

That is neat. I rigged up something similar:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=37557

My only fear with your design would be the fixed (electric) pump in such a close and closed proximity to the chiller. If there were a leaking issue, you would have a situation on your hands. I assume (actually, looking at your rig I know) you are hooking into GFI, but it is a little to close for me. I am sure you know your abilities and tested this, so should work good for you.

Ryan_PA said:

That is neat. I rigged up something similar:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=37557

My only fear with your design would be the fixed (electric) pump in such a close and closed proximity to the chiller. If there were a leaking issue, you would have a situation on your hands. I assume (actually, looking at your rig I know) you are hooking into GFI, but it is a little to close for me. I am sure you know your abilities and tested this, so should work good for you.

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So that's where the idea came from! I couldn't remember but I knew I saw someone else had a pump encased inside a toolbox.

Yeah, its actually being plugged into a GFI socket. I'll be monitoring closely for any leakage. Used it for the first time on Sunday - worked great!

GilaMinumBeer said:

Nicely implemented. I have toyed with this idea too, only keeping the pump connects separate from the chiller. I currently have everything mounted to an old stool. I definitely couldn't use the silicone hosing for the chill water throughput. My water pressures would have it blown up like a balloon.

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I hear you about the water pressure, Ada has some serious pressure and my silicone hose always bulges. Very scary!!!

Bobby_M said:

The only downside I see is that the pump is completely dedicated to chilling where I find myself using it for everything. I suppose you don't have a brew sculpture to mound this stuff to, in which case it's a great idea.

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I'm definitely doing this, and I will be separating the pump and chiller connections. I think I will simply use more male QD connections outside the box and connect to the chiller once I need it. I only have one pump and use it for everything also. Man I love the ideas this forum gives you. I also think I want the back-end of the pump with the electric and coil opening outside of the box where it can cool itself off. I can only imagine using that with the lid closed and how hot it might get. Still a very nice setup for you, and I am dang envious, lol. I must have one!!!

Thanks again! I've run two batches through it already, with the lid closed, and noticed no heat build up inside the box at all. Oh, and I guess I don't have that good of water pressure or my silicon hoses are thicker that others as there has been no buldging at all...

Hmm, good to know on the heat.

Tonedef131 said:

You should mount a Blichmann Thrumometer on the outside of the chiller so you can see the temp of you wort.

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Any updated pics with the Thrumometer installed John? I only ask because I'm waiting to see them before I completely steal your idea and build one, LOL! I already bought the same tool box and a piece of MDF from Lowes.

johnsma22 said:

Any updated pics with the Thrumometer installed John? I only ask because I'm waiting to see them before I completely steal your idea and build one, LOL! I already bought the same tool box and a piece of MDF from Lowes.

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Well, I have the thrumometer but it has 3/8" barbs and all my hoses are 1/2" - so I haven't done anything with it. I can tell you though that the external temp probe on my fermenters didn't rise above 73 degrees the last time I used it...

John Beere said:

Well, I have the thrumometer but it has 3/8" barbs and all my hoses are 1/2" - so I haven't done anything with it. I can tell you though that the external temp probe on my fermenters didn't rise above 73 degrees the last time I used it...

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I had the same issue with the Thrumometer John. I also use 1/2" ID silicon tubing and when I did use the Trumometer I just cranked down on the hose clamps to seal the 1/2" tubing to the 3/8" barbs. It looked like crap, but it did seal. I was curious how you were going to deal with that.

You're very adept at solving problems like this John so please figure something out so that I can copy you and not have to think about it any more, LOL!

A line splicer fitting would be one very practical way of dealing with it. You just need a short bit of 3/8th ID tubing on either side of the Thrumometer, and two of these 3/8 to 1/2 inch splicers.

Man that is cool. I have two small radiators that I think about using for some sort of project like this. If I ran approximately 65f water around these and siphoned my wort through them at a slow rate my wort would be as cold as the water around them. Adding some sort of aeration device to the mix would make me being there nearly pointless. Which isn't terrible because the part that I love the most is the boil (with the aroma and tasting and such).

I am another guy that uses the Thrumometer and didn't realize until I bought everything for my hoses and quick disconnects that it was 3/8". I was pissed, and from the advertisement on Austin Home Brew Supply, it doesn't say any size. Guess I should have ask, but I am sure they would like to know about the description to fix this problem on their end. I think I will send them a PM real quick.

I like the design a lot, I brew all grain in a very small kitchen in my condo. Space is really tight and this setup would be perfect for me. I do have a serious concern though. You need to back flush the chiller after you use it. How are you accomplishing this? Are you back flushing and pushing water through the chiller and pump assembly? Do you use your second pump for this?

To clean up I would fill my HLT with 15 gallons of water and mix starsan in, then let it gravity feed backwards through the chiler and pump..