Massive DIY wort cooler 96ft long

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Incredible. Just incredible. Beautiful! Wow.

SilverBrewer - regarding your desire to have a stirrer thru the center - perhaps some spacer rings or other device under the plexiglass to raise it off the lip of the pot will allow some steam to escape, and allow room at the bottom for a stirrer?
 
You're going to need a bigger brew pot to compensate for all the wort that thing will displace. That thing is awesome!!
 
Wow.
Been trying to get into home-brewing for a while, and Make featuring your (outstanding) work led me! Just joined, hope to be on the home-brew train by Xmas.

Outstanding work there sir! All that copper gives me…well, let's just say it's very pretty and we'll leave it at that, shall we?

On a technical note, that thing will displace a lot of wort, but I'm sure an artisan of your calibre has already calculated that to the nearest cubic-centimetre and allowed ample space etc.
 
Mordantly..The foam's trade name is Obomodulan and it is made by this lot
www.obo-werke.de It is used in industry as a base to machine items from cad data using 5 axis machines. The machines we have are about £2,000,000 each and we have three of them! We stick blocks together and machine it into full size car models, or to make full size moulds for making composite car parts without needing to construct a plug.
It aint cheap, and I realy mean that!! The stuff I used (Type 302) is at the cheaper end as it is soft. (you can mark it with your finger nail) and it costs £1250 per cubic metre!!! The stuff I used is just the scrap bits. There is no reason why a former cannot be made from blocks of pine. The knots may prove a pain but it's no big deal, just hit the chisel harder...

Yuri...I will try the coil out next time I test my heaters, as I am still a long way from having a working brewery, but it should be big enough! I must thank you for all your work on Peltier coolers a few years back. I read the lot, and it saves me going down the same experiment. For this coil I will be using tap water, then perhaps cooled and iced water as I have a water chiller that seems quite powerfull and should be able to get a fair quantity of insulated water quite cold prior to my boil. We will see...

Now off to bend some heating elements to the shape I want.....
 
Wow, that's a work of art right there! Any reason you went this route rather than a pump and giant plate chiller?
 
Well my first reaction was Holy F...en C..p,
Then I started drooling, with a little foam on the lips.
Then I just wanted to run home to Mommy.

- My only question is why 96? I can understand 69, but 96 is just not a good number for me, a few inches here and there would have made a nice even 100. Now anyone with one finger can understand 1xX. But then I am a very simple person. -

But really, that is BIG!
You Sir have put new meaning to go large, or stay home.
 
Wow, I thought my immersion chiller project was big. This takes it to a whole new level. Nice craftsmanship. I'd love to see some performance results for this monster. A couple questions I'm curious about. 1) how much wort does this thing displace in your pot? 2) is it possible to whirlpool with it immersed, or do you have to pull it?
 
after seeing that, I have decided that when I get home today, I am kicking my wort chiller and calling it a *****.
 
I wanted to use an immersion cooler so that cold break debris was not put into the fermenter, and also so the main body of the hot wort got cooled quickly and saved hop oils evaporating.
The coil array displaces about 1 imperial gallon, and the reason it is 96 ft long is that over here, 1/2" copper pipe comes in 15 metre lengths. Each 15 metre length made three 5 metre cooling coils. I bought three lengths, and I made 9 coils, giving me 1 practice attempt during the bending phase, as I was intending to use 8 coils. I have only ended up using 6 coils. 5 metres is about 16 ft, so 6 x 16 is 96

I am now wondering if I can make up two more coils out of 5 metre 3kW heater element, and thus make 2 coil shaped heatsticks! I would then re-mount the 6 cooling coils and the 2 heatsticks as an array of eight, fitted to a new lid. i.e. six cooling coils and two 3 kW heatstick coils. This depends on how much straight 5 metre 3kW elements are to buy. The company I am dealing with are not giving me a price for straight elements until I give the full spec on my requirements, which I will do over the Xmas break.
They are saying that the recommended length for an 8 mm diameter 3Kw element in wort is about 2.2 metres ( 7ft 3" ) to give a watt density of 35 watts per square inch. they quote an ideal wpsi range of 30 to 40 for wort.

If these elements are out of my price range I will fall back to plan "B" which is standard 3 kW elements from immersion heaters at 1.270 metres long, at £18 each
 
Very nice work.

I am supprised that foam that can be scratched with your finger nail, would hold up to the pressure of the copper tubing. Let alone filled with sand. I would like to have seen your former before I started my boiler build. I probly would have not welded it.

I would like to know how well it cools for you.
 
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