Building a wort chiller

Does anyone have any suggestions on making an copper wort chiller. Sure I could buy one, but it's so much more fun to build things yourself

grichar2 said:

Does anyone have any suggestions on making an copper wort chiller. Sure I could buy one, but it's so much more fun to build things yourself

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Well, you could just buy some copper tubing and wind your own coil to fit your boiling pot. I built one using 1/2" copper tubing and it works just fine but the way copper prices are these days, you really don't save that much money when it's all said and done. If had to do it again, I would probably just buy one.

I agree that it is fun to make things yourself, but for an immersion chiller I would just bite the bullet and buy one. You'll likely be much happier with the results.

You’re prolly looking for a simple immersion chiller to start with.

It’s easier than you think. Go hit Lowe’s or HD.

That sure is a PURTY pot ya got thar BierMuncher. How much does it hold?

Xiren said:

That sure is a PURTY pot ya got thar BierMuncher. How much does it hold?

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That thar is my old turkey fryer. It holds 7.5 gallons and I used that fer my 5-gallon batches back when.

Now I use it as my lauter tun.

I just made one out of 3/8th copper tubing, just like the one in the picture above. I havn't tried it out yet, but I'm sure it beats the crap out of an ice bath. All said and done I think I paid around 35 bucks at Home Depot.

I'm about to make an immersion chiller myself. It will be my first so I can't give you any previous experience but after researching on the web for a while the info and advice I've collected is:

-Use 3/8" copper tubing to give the best cooling properties
-Use a 25' length for a 5 gallon batch
-Keep a 2" gap between the coil and the kettle
-Cold water goes in the top
-Bend it so most of the coil is near the top of the wort held off the bottom by a "foot" shaped from a coil or two
-Use a bender for 90* bends or you'll squash the pipe
-The water that comes out in the first minute or two will be really hot
-Test and clean in a mixture of vinegar and water

Thanks guys, I went with the basic immersion chiller set up. Simple enough. Copper tubing is expensive, but it works much better than the old fashion ice bath.

Xiren said:

That sure is a PURTY pot ya got thar BierMuncher. How much does it hold?

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It goes nicely with his Carnivorous Keggle!

eviljafar said:

-Cold water goes in the top-

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Why do you say that, jafar? I had thought about flow direction, but came to the conclusion that the total energy extracted from the brew would be the same regardless of whether I went in one direction or another. Water goes in cold, water comes out hot. As long as you keep stirring the wort there won't be any thermal layers or cold spots around the coils.

I built one with the aformentioned 3/8" copper tubing.

bought the 'end' of a 50' roll of from the local hardware store and got a good deal on it.

wrapped it around a 8" Sonotube (leftover from home improvement project). Works great, though it doesn't look as nice as a purchased one.

I also picked up a couple of compression fittings and step-up adapters to connect to the garden hose (also purchased at the local hardware store).

On the hottest summer days, I got the best efficiency by taking the output and running it into the lawn sprinkler, though that isn't always practical.

I've never recorded any difference from pumping into the top vs bottom of the chiller. Of course I have well water which hasn't ever gotten above 70F, so it may not make a difference in my case. YMMMV

I built mine out of 50' of 3/8" copper, having MAJOR leak problems now... Will fix before next brew!

Works great, can get down to pitching temps in 15min. I have well water so, its pretty chilly (61*f last I checked, and that was when it was warm out). I run cold into top, but I dont whirlpool.

Fingers said:

Why do you say that, jafar?

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It's just what I read somewhere on the web while researching to build one for myself. From memory there was no explanation. I guess if you weren't stirring then it would deliver the greater cold to the hotter part of the wort.

eviljafar said:

It's just what I read somewhere on the web while researching to build one for myself. From memory there was no explanation. I guess if you weren't stirring then it would deliver the greater cold to the hotter part of the wort.

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That's exactly right. If you always whirlpool during the entire chilling process, then it won't matter much, but, if there is any stratification , then you want the coldest water to come in contact with the hottest wort.

Also, 1/2" copper chills faster than 3/8" of the same length, since there is more surface area in contact with the wort/chilling fluid. It just costs a lot more.

went out and bought the bom from cheyco's design last night, should build tomorrow night and use it saturday when i brew my irish red. i'll let you guys know how it turns out.

total cost, mainly due to copper , $78 + tax, not too bad, and cheaper than northern brewers $150 for their, albeit all metal, cfc.

I'm still searching for convoluted copper tubing. I'm hoping to use some for my HLT (HERMS) and more for an IC. Anyone know where it is available?

Wild

This is the next project for me starting probably tomorrow.....need to finish my stirplate in the cigarbox, not ghetto box.

So I did look at copper last night at the Home Depot while getting parts for my MLT, and I don't think that $60 for a 30' IC from AHB is a bad deal at all....no muss no fuss. Anyone buy really nice IC's?

My only forseeable problem is needing to do 1 90 degree bend, and I don't have a pipe bender (he he, I said pipe bender )

98EXL said:

This is the next project for me starting probably tomorrow.....need to finish my stirplate in the cigarbox, not ghetto box.

So I did look at copper last night at the Home Depot while getting parts for my MLT, and I don't think that $60 for a 30' IC from AHB is a bad deal at all....no muss no fuss. Anyone buy really nice IC's?

My only forseeable problem is needing to do 1 90 degree bend, and I don't have a pipe bender (he he, I said pipe bender )

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I bought a 20'x3/8" IC from my LHBS for $45 ready to go. Just drop it in and hook the hose to it. No messing around and no $70 something to build it myself.
It even drops a 10 gal batch to piching in just under 30 minutes. No to bad I'd say.

FSR402 said:

... and no $70 something to build it myself.

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but that's half the fun of homebrewing, doing it yourself.

i understand where you're coming from, i was close to going with a store bought ic myself but when i looked at the cost of building a cfc, it wasn't that much more and since cfc is better at cooling than ic, i decided why not.

building stuff is fun...I've come to realize it's my happy world...wrenching or tinkering in the garage.

To DIY a IC...how big of a diameter should the coils be? I can wrap the tubing around a quarter keg, but it's really close to the side of my pot

wild said:

I'm still searching for convoluted copper tubing. I'm hoping to use some for my HLT (HERMS) and more for an IC. Anyone know where it is available?

Wild

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Morebeer has it.

http://morebeer.com/search?PHPSESSID=703b50c05f71f986e2efa367d4be6cb4&search=convoluted+copper+tubing&=Search

Brewer#19 said:

but that's half the fun of homebrewing, doing it yourself.

i understand where you're coming from, i was close to going with a store bought ic myself but when i looked at the cost of building a cfc, it wasn't that much more and since cfc is better at cooling than ic, i decided why not.

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I know what you mean, I do all my own work on my cars and home but at some point your time has to be worth something.
I am building a new cfc (the one I have sucks) but that's a little more work then the IC. To me the time it would take to get the copper, bend it, put the ends on it was not worth it to me. An IC is a really easy thing to make, to easy to be worth messing with.

Built it up saturday morning. Two observations, first, it is a simple build up, second, forcing the copper tubing throught the garden house seems nice and easy for the first 18 feet, then you get to the last 2 feet and its a bear, you really have to work those last 6 inches to get the copper through.

I incorperated the ball valve like cheyco suggested as it is nice to have right at the point of the operation. I made one change to the way cheyco has his set up, which I don't understand. His picture shows the female end of the hose attached at the top t where the wort inlet is. I'm not sure how he hooks up his hoses, but I am hooking up to my wash basin (which has a hose spicket thread equivalent) so Ii am flowing my water inlet into the female end. So in order to make it a cfc, if the wort goes in the top t and out the bottom t, then the water must go in the bottom t and out the top t, hence my female threads are hooked up to the bottom t. Also, my inlet piece of tubing was 27 feet long so I could simply run the hose right to the wash basin located in the basement directly below the kitchen (stairs are right there too) and not bother with any additional hook ups.

Went on and brewed my irish red later that night and after finishing the wort, I threw the kettle in an ice bath in the sink for about 10 minutes to take the initial heat off, then I flowed it through my new cfc. By about 2/3 to 3/4 of the way through, the temp of my wort was already down to 73 degrees so I shut the water inlet off at the ball valve and finished flowing the majority of the wort in and finally dumped the last bit straight from the kettle into the fermenter. All in all, it cooled the wort very effectively and for my next batch I'll probably skip sticking the kettle in the ice bath and go right for the cfc.

BierMuncher said:

You’re prolly looking for a simple immersion chiller to start with.

It’s easier than you think. Go hit Lowe’s or HD.

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Oh Thank God. I just built a 50 foot 3/8" wort chiller and it looks like complete crap. A bird's nest in every sense of the phrase. I was a little bit ashamed.

It's good to know that other people struggled with twisting the copper too. I love the variance in the coil sizes. I have that in my design too!

Mike

So my copper tubing will be here today. What kind of advice do you have for someone who is getting ready to coil and bend his own chiller? I have access to all kinds of tools, but don't really have any experience with copper tubing. Do you use the spring type bender recommended by some people? Do you make your 90's with a spring type or the other kind? Is it worth it to have the hose connections put on, or do you just clamp some hose to the pipes? Help me out, I don't want to screw this up....

Mike, what kind of problem did you have exactly? The 3/8" stuff is a dream to bend.

Suggestions for chef... Don't try to unbend the coil first, it's already ALMOST a chiller when you open the box. Pick a cylindrical form that is 2-4" smaller in diameter than your kettle. A corny keg worked well for me when I was using a turkey fryer pot. Drop the large coil of copper down over the corny and hold the inside end of the coil against the form with your foot. Slowly work the coil tight against the form keeping it tight to the form and floor. When you get all the way around, let it ride up on the previous coil of copper but keep it tight to the form. Keep it going all the way up the form until you have about 12" to spare. This will be the input line which you can bend straight up. There's no real need to have really sharp angles on the input/output lines, in fact you risk kinking. Once you remove the coil from the form, you will now grab the lower one or two coil revolutions and form the upright input line. You can either bring it up through the interior of the coil or expand it a bit to bring it up on the outside. Again, it doesn't have to make a fast 90 degree bend straight up, it can kinda sweep up at a 45 as it coils.

Found a pic of mine. You can see that I expanded it upwards to put about 1/2" in between the coils. My theory is that it allows maximum flow of wort past the coils. However, with 3/8" OD tubing, it creates a wobbly spring-like structure which is why I wound it with some 14gauge electrical wire. If you're handy with soldering, I imagine you could lay it right across the coil and solder it instread of the wrapping. In any case, it's nice a sturdy now. I like putting the fittings right on the coil to keep it compact for storage. It sucks to have a huge mess of hose attached. You can use compression fittings with NPT to Hose adapters. A little more money, but no soldering required. I usually have a 6' output hose directly clamped on to the output to collect for cleanup water but I put a male hose fitting on temporarily for a big brew in my yard so I could direct the hundreds of gallons of water to the edge of my property.

Bobby_M said:

Mike, what kind of problem did you have exactly? The 3/8" stuff is a dream to bend.

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Well, it is easy enough to bend, but I had problems making my coils the same size. A soda keg would have helped with that issue. The paint can was a little bit of a pain to use. I gave up and just started coiling by hand. I was careful so there are no clinches.

I also have the spring issue. The 14 gauge wire that everyone is raving about should fix that. I might pick some up.

Bobby_M said:

Drop the large coil of copper down over the corny and hold the inside end of the coil against the form with your foot. Slowly work the coil tight against the form keeping it tight to the form and floor. from the form, you will now grab the lower one or two coil revolutions and form the upright input line. You can either bring it up through the interior of the coil or expand it a bit to bring it up on the outside. Again, it doesn't have to make a fast 90 degree bend straight up, it can kinda sweep up at a 45 as it coils.

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Your directions make sense. I can probably still tighten it up, right?

As long as it's not kinked, yes you can.

Bobby_M said:

As long as it's not kinked, yes you can.

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What do you mean by kinked? Clinched so that the water flow is closed off?

yeah, bent to the point where it can't be unbent in highly technical terms.

Bobby_M said:

yeah, bent to the point where it can't be unbent in highly technical terms.

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It seems like this would be hard to do unless you insisted on making a 45-90 degree angle.

Thanks Bobby_M. I recoiled the wort chiller and it looks awesome. Building your own is definitely the way to go. 50 feet of 3/8" copper including shipping was ~$42 from this place. Great deal!

Later,
Mike

Nice write up Bobby_M

Thanks for sharing
BeerCanuck

Mine looks more like Beermunchers, but with compression fittings (which I already had). Works great!

Thanks for all of the good information, I will be using most of it! I wish I hadn't given that cornie I had back to the brewery that owned it...maybe they'll let me borrow it for the afternoon so I can bend out my chiller...

A few quick questions?

Does it matter what type (K or L), is there any type of refridgeration tubing to avoid (such as something with other combined metals). And as far as the copper wire used to sturdy it up, do they sell raw pure copper wire at home depot or did you guys strip it out of a sheathed cable. I guess my main worry is some of this type of stuff could contain lead or something.

Oh and on the compression fittings for garden hose hook ups, what size should I be using?

Thanks guys!

-Mark

Taipans said:

A few quick questions?

Does it matter what type (K or L), is there any type of refridgeration tubing to avoid (such as something with other combined metals). And as far as the copper wire used to sturdy it up, do they sell raw pure copper wire at home depot or did you guys strip it out of a sheathed cable. I guess my main worry is some of this type of stuff could contain lead or something.

Oh and on the compression fittings for garden hose hook ups, what size should I be using?

Thanks guys!

-Mark

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Type K and Type L dictate the thickness of the tubing wall. Type K is thinner, but is what most people use. See wiki.
Unless you acquire your wire from an untrusted source, I'd not worry about lead. You can buy bare wire by the foot at your local HW store.
The compression fittings you need will be based on the tubing size you've used. Likely 3/8"Compression X 3/4 GH(garden hose). Also available at Home Depot (kind of expensive though, ~$8 each)