ak47clown
Well-Known Member
Before I brewed my first batch of beer, I already knew that I wanted a chiller. After seeing that my LHBS sold them for 99 bucks i knew there had to be a better way. I read up on a few tutorials I saw and quickly realized this thing would be easy to make. A trip to the home depot and I scored 20 feet of 3/8" copper tubing for around 20 or 30 bucks if i recall. I also picked up pvc tubing and a helpful employee gave me a hand fitting together a few pieces to make a faucet adaptor. He actually mentioned that someone was in here not too long ago doing something similar for his home brew setup. I already had a bending spring at home so didn't need that.
To coil it, I first used a pretzel tub but the diameter ended up being too big for my liking (I wanted it to be narrower and taller so it would fill up the majority of the wort.) Low and behold, when i tried to make it a smaller diameter i ended up kinking the tubing and had to start over with a new 20' coil (so much for saving money by DIY but isn't that always the case?). Anyways the next one i made was perfect, the last coil comes just above the top of my wort and it works like a champ. On my first boil, I was able to cool my wort to 80 degrees in about 10 minutes! Despite the minor setback, it was defintely a worthwhile project and a valuable tool!
To coil it, I first used a pretzel tub but the diameter ended up being too big for my liking (I wanted it to be narrower and taller so it would fill up the majority of the wort.) Low and behold, when i tried to make it a smaller diameter i ended up kinking the tubing and had to start over with a new 20' coil (so much for saving money by DIY but isn't that always the case?). Anyways the next one i made was perfect, the last coil comes just above the top of my wort and it works like a champ. On my first boil, I was able to cool my wort to 80 degrees in about 10 minutes! Despite the minor setback, it was defintely a worthwhile project and a valuable tool!
