25' or 50' wort chiller for 10 gallon boil

Hey folks,

Quick question. Would you recommend just going ahead and using a 25' wort chiller or should I go ahead and spend a little extra money and get the 50' wort chiller for 10 gallon boils?

Previously I have just used a 25' wort chiller for 5 gallon boils, but I'd like to upgrade to 10 gallon batches and I'm wondering if the 25' wort chiller will be enough.

Thanks!

Pat

I would say 50'. The 25 will work but will take longer. Just depends on how fast you want to chill. I built a 50 for my 5G setup with plans to be able to do 10G in the future.

Bigger is better (faster).

Jason

JasonInBTR said:

I would say 50'. The 25 will work but will take longer. Just depends on how fast you want to chill. I built a 50 for my 5G setup with plans to be able to do 10G in the future.

Bigger is better (faster).

Jason

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Jason,

That seems like a good idea. I kind of regret getting the 25' chiller knowing I could have just bought the 50' and used it for both the 5 gallon and 10 gallon boils.

I guess it couldn't hurt to upgrade to the 50', and pass the 25' on to a friend (if they get into homebrewing), or keep it as a backup.

Bro, how did you make your chiller? Did you find a guide, or what? I prefer to make things myself, but I got the older 25' chiller so long ago that I just ended up buying it. I didn't even really get into building things myself.

Thanks for all the help,

Pat

both! use the 25 footer as a prechiller (a pail with Ice/snow and water) and then make/buy the 50 footer for the boil kettle. It takes about 10-15 min for me to cool down a 10 gallon batch with this setup. I wish I would have done a 50 ft coil for the prechiller, but it is better than nothing.

Just went to HD and got a 50' coil of copper. Wound it around a 5G bucket and attached some vinyl tubing. Used some copper wire to bind it up to keep structure. Sparky's idea to keep the 25 as a prechiller is great.....I'm guessing I'll have to make a prechiller for summer use down here.



Jason

50' works much better for 10 gallon batches. 3/8" is OK but 1/2" is better. Personally I use 50' of 1/2" copper for my IC. I also do a whirlpool. The whirlpool will make any IC much more effective.

In my experience the pre chillers really don't do much unless you have really warm tap water. And in that case recirculating ice water thru the IC with a cheap garden pump is a MUCH more effective method. In the summer I use the IC with tap water to get it down to 100F then I hook up the garden pump and recirc ice water thru the IC to get it down to pitching temps.