WHY do people spend so much money on these?

Ok, I just need to gush a little bit. Finally built myself a wort chiller and when I got all excited and showed it to the lady, all I got was the obligatory "that's wonderful, love."

Seriously though, 5 minutes of assembly and 25 bucks worth of copper and hose from Lowes. I'm sure it's not the best wort chiller in the world but....dude! Still better than ice baths or dropping 80 bucks at the homebrew shop. If anyone has been "thinking" about making one of these but hasn't gotten around to it, STOP BEING LAZY! I can't freakin wait to use this thing

Nice ...this was one of my first diy's years ago . I do hvac so mine was built pretty much for free its a must have on full wort boils!

I did the exact same thing. It's such a simple thing to make idk why people pay 50 to 100 bucks for someone to put the band clamps on the tubing for them lol

How long does the chill take?
Mine is maybe 10 minutes tops from steep to yeast.
Using a sink for an ice bath for the wort pot, then pour the wort over chilled water, and then put the bucket into the ice bath.
Don't know what the start temp was but it must have been over 130 degrees.
Down to 75 in 10 minutes seems fine to me.

?

If you ever go full boil or all grain you'll want one.

They aren't better than ice baths, they're faster. And ice is free.

Built mine a while back...best DIY thing I've done...cheap and easy. Boiling to 70* in about 15 min.

I made one of these too, but I added a $20 fountain pump and do a combined ice bath while recirculating the ice water through the chiller.

LibertyBrewing said:

I made one of these too, but I added a $20 fountain pump and do a combined ice bath while recirculating the ice water through the chiller.

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Me too...but my pump was cheaper...

http://www.harborfreight.com/264-gph-submersible-fountain-pump-68395.html

chumpsteak said:

If you ever go full boil or all grain you'll want one.

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True, that makes sense.
Am I OK on my chill time of 10 to 20 minutes?

aiptasia said:

They aren't better than ice baths, they're faster. And ice is free.

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I agree in fact I put ice IN the fermenter and pour the hot wort over it and there is NO WAY anything else works as fast.

aiptasia said:

They aren't better than ice baths, they're faster. And ice is free.

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We pay a flat fee each quarter for water, so it doesn't matter how much we use. On the other hand, it cost electricity to make ice.

cooldood said:

I agree in fact I put ice IN the fermenter and pour the hot wort over it and there is NO WAY anything else works as fast.

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Really don't like that idea...my wort is too precious to be pouring it over ice.

cooldood said:

I agree in fact I put ice IN the fermenter and pour the hot wort over it and there is NO WAY anything else works as fast.

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How do you know if the ice is sanitary?
I don't think you can. I love my homemade immersion chiller. Throw it into the pot during the boil and I know it is sanitized when my wort gets cool enough to let bugs live.

Or spray down with starsan! Yeah I'm crazy excited to use mine. I used the ice pour-over method for my first couple brews and they turned out fine. I think generally I was lucky though. Like eric90210 pointed out, pretty risky in terms of infections. I was actually filling my icecream maker jar with ice and dunking that for a while. All of these were huge pains in the rear and my sink isn't really big enough for the ice bath method. But hey, more than one way to skin an eskimo, right?

By the time you futz with buying the pieces, a pipe bender (since most people don't have one) and factor in time and gas @ $3.49/gallon, paying $50 to have one made and brought to the house isn't a bad deal at all.

But it's the "I built it myself" factor that makes things like this fun.

I made mine CFC when still doing extract, it was nice DIY practice before converting coolers to MT, putting burners and stands togather then cutting kegs , i think i learn a lot by making my brewing equipment

eric19312 said:

How do you know if the ice is sanitary?
I don't think you can. I love my homemade immersion chiller. Throw it into the pot during the boil and I know it is sanitized when my wort gets cool enough to let bugs live.

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Not sure about AG guys but I know a lot of extract brewers use "make up" water to get the water to the correct amount. I use that same water to make ice cubes and have never had a batch go bad


(knock on wood)

if you are curious about whether this ice cube practice is actually contaminating your beer you could do a wort stability test. To do that take a sample of your ready to pitch wort and put it in a sterilized jar. Put on a lid loosely and put the jar in a warm place. If it will go 48 hours at 80F without anything growing in it you are fine, 3 days even better.

cooldood said:

Not sure about AG guys but I know a lot of extract brewers use "make up" water to get the water to the correct amount. I use that same water to make ice cubes and have never had a batch go bad


(knock on wood)

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Yes, some do. And that's fine.

But for a full boil, where you start with 6+ gallons of wort and boil down to five, then there isn't any water (or ice) to add. That's when a wort chiller becomes much more convenient.

Lifting 5+ gallons of boiling hot wort into an ice bath is doable, but it's neither quick nor easy. A wort chiller means making the job much more convenient and effective.

Copper is cheaper and much more easy to bend imo. I built my immersion chiller out of 50ft of 1/2" copper tubing. Added a Garden hose fitting to the inlet so i can just hook up my garden hose to it. Added it after i first built it.


Takes less then 10 minutes to bring a full volume boil for a 5 gallon batch to 70ºF. In the winter got it done in 3 minutes.

B33R said:

Copper is cheaper and much more easy to bend imo. I built my immersion chiller out of 50ft of 1/2" copper tubing. Added a Garden hose fitting to the inlet so i can just hook up my garden hose to it. Added it after i first built it.

Takes less then 10 minutes to bring a full volume boil for a 5 gallon batch to 70ºF. In the winter got it done in 3 minutes.

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I see that you used elbows instead of bending the tubing 90*. Nice.

I wasn't going to DIY this like I do most stuff, but after seeing yours, I just might. Thanks.

Awesome build...liking the elbows!

I think you've identified the philosophical tipping point of ability vs time/money. Not everyone has the same set of skills and not everyone has the same amount of cash for their brewing operation.

You did a good job on your chiller! I was not confident in my ability to bend 50' of 3/8" copper so I did not mind to spend ~$85 to have one shipped to me. I was using sanitized ice to chill from boil to pitching temps. It was very effective and I never encountered an infection. However, it is much nicer to have the ability to do full-boils and put my 7.5 gallon pot to good use with my chiller.

I found one for 50 shipped on ebay..came in two days. Copper would be 25 to 30 plus hoses/clamps. I like to to tinker with stuff but only so much time in my day you know. Just a personal preference really.

NivekD said:

Me too...but my pump was cheaper...

http://www.harborfreight.com/264-gph-submersible-fountain-pump-68395.html

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I got the same pump.


25' of 3/8 in copper tubing $15
10' of 3/8 in hose $5
2 hose clamps $1.50
Fountain Pump $10


5 minutes of time


And I have an ugly, yet functional chiller:





It got just over 5 gallons of wort down to 80 degrees in under 20 minutes. I kept it going to get the temp below 70, and it was at the 23 minute mark when I did.


I didn't have a nice, cylindrical object to use as a guide, so I bent it by hand. The only thing I could have used is my stock pot itself, and that wouldn't have worked too well.

Finally a pic! LOL! Everyone knows that you can't brag on something that you made without posting a pic of the darned thing! Great job!

Now it's your turn to post a pic halfwit!

iBrewR said:

We pay a flat fee each quarter for water, so it doesn't matter how much we use. On the other hand, it cost electricity to make ice.

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And the time to make the ice, etc..

highgravitybacon said:

By the time you futz with buying the pieces, a pipe bender (since most people don't have one) and factor in time and gas @ $3.49/gallon, paying $50 to have one made and brought to the house isn't a bad deal at all.

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Right.

Even having a tubing cutter, torch, etc. it isn't necessarily that much cheaper to build depending on what you do.

I think the industral grade hose connections I used increased total cost by about 1/4, maybe more.

Took my last batch from flame out to 60F in 15, give or take. Didn't time all that carefully.

Oh, yeah, I built an anti-gravity machine too.

dcarter said:

Now it's your turn to post a pic halfwit!

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Ha! Dam n, ya caught me. I was avoiding that one after seeing some of those pictures. I really like the elbow idea. Your builds look great, guys!

Like I said, $$$ was the goal here. 20 bucks of copper, wrapped around a tall thin pot from my ice cream maker, bent by hand. It started to crimp a little in one spot, but I ran water through it and it seems to flow really nicely. After adding the rubber hose, clamps, and an awesome adapter that screws directly to my kitchen sink (our water gets super cold....and also super hot. I measured 140 when I was washing my thermometer the other day), I came in at about 26 bucks. And Lowe's is right down the street! It ain't purdy... but I'm making a Mock-bock on Friday, so I'll let ya know how well it actually works

Need to bend the ends down so the connections will not be over the kettle and if the do leak a few drops the drops would have to climb uphill to get into the kettle...

Build one... Cooper tubing is fairly easy to bend. I see the point of buying one when this is a simple DIY project.

Do not see the point! Little to much homebrew haha

I built one also, but can't hook the garden hose end to my water faucet inside at the kitchen sink. Is their an adapter to go from garden hose to kitchen sink?

Yes 55/64"!to 3/4 for garden hose. Remove your aerator and see if you need female or a male to connect. Hope this helps. You can also remove your aerator and take to to the hardware store to insure you get the right fitting.

sapo59 said:

Yes 55/64"!to 3/4 for garden hose. Remove your aerator and see if you need female or a male to connect. Hope this helps. You can also remove your aerator and take to to the hardware store to insure you get the right fitting.

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Thanks man. I will get that this weekend before brew day.

eric19312 said:

Need to bend the ends down so the connections will not be over the kettle and if the do leak a few drops the drops would have to climb uphill to get into the kettle...

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Oh man I didn't think of that. Thanks dude