IC chillosaurus rex

I made this a few weeks ago based on some thinking and some posts here. I wanted to improve performance over my standard 3/8" 25 foot IC. I had already made a 50 foot 1/2" version for my brew club based on BobbyM's howto, which worked very well, but I wanted something a little different, a combination of that with a rib cage design. So this is what I have. Sorry the images are a bit big.







As you can see the idea is that the incoming cold water line is 1/2" hard pipe which gets split into two 1/2" flexible copper chillers that are intertwined. The idea of splitting the incoming water into two was not mine, I picked it up here and liked it. It's like two mini coils. Then at the bottom they come back together into another T and up and out. The performance getting the wort down below 120 blows my smaller chiller away, but things slow down after that. This weekend I am going to whirlpool while chilling using a pump and see what that does.

Holy copper. Wow, looks nice. How long does it take to chill from boiling to whatever temp you can get too? How slow does it get when it gets below 120?

In a 5 gallon batch I hit 140 in about 2.5 minutes, 120 in 10. Then it slowed down. I didn't measure the tap temp, but it took a good while to hit 75, long enough that I was a little disappointed frankly. I did slow the water down after 120. I will try to do a better test this weekend, plus the whirlpool.

I envy your ability to bend copper without kinking. My IC looks like I drug it behind the car for miles.

Just wrapped it around a corny. I've done it numerous times so I've kind of gotten the hang of it. I'm really just hoping this thing will chill decently without the hassle of switching to ice water.

dbrewski said:

I didn't measure the tap temp, but it took a good while to hit 75, long enough that I was a little disappointed frankly. I did slow the water down after 120. I will try to do a better test this weekend, plus the whirlpool.

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Only slow the water down if you want to conserve water.

The key for ICs are water input temp (key for all types of chillers) and movement of water over the coils. Either stirring the wort or using a pump-aided recirculation whirpool would solve the second issue.

For the first issue, you either need colder tap water (pretty much impossible in the summer in some places) or run ice water through the IC (some examples in the DIY forum). You don't need a fancy pump for that since wort isn't in contact with the pump - just a pond pump.

Yes I do have a pond pump which I used to recirc water through my smaller IC after it dropped low enough from the tap water. This beast uses a lot of water so I did slow it down. At some point I guess I'm just fighting physics, it's more water or more time. I will probably use the pond pump after I get the temps down to 110, at least this will get me there quick.

I'm looking forward to some cooler temps, our tap water will get down to the 50's pretty quick.

>>The key for ICs are water input temp (key for all types of chillers) and movement of water over the coils. Either stirring the wort or using a pump-aided recirculation whirpool would solve the second issue.

+1

Stirring will make a big difference. I'll bet you can get that 20 degree drop from 140 to 120 down from 7.5 minutes to 5. But once you come within 20 degrees of your tap water, it will greatly slow down. At that point I switch to cold water fed by a pond pump sitting in an ice both.

Sorry for any bad formatting, posting from my phone. Brewed a simcoe ipa tonight, ran a whirlpool while chilling. This is timed from flameout with 64 degree tap water:

1 min 165
2 min 140
3 min 120
4 min 106
5 min 97
6 min 91
7 min 86
8 min 82
9 min 79...

Then I had to help the swmbo load the car. It was slowing pretty dramatically but I think I could be within pitching range around 15 min. I came back at 18 min and it was at 69. Whirlpool is definitely key! This is a definite improvement.

I have 50' of 1/2" copper, in a single coil arrangement. I get the same cooling, 7 minutes below 90F. At that point I switch to recirc/ice water using two 8 lbs bags of ice. 8 additional minutes to 60F.

(with constant stirring)

Yeah, plus with a single round coil you have more room on the middle for a hop bag or sleeve. I didn't have to use ice but I did have to bring out the pump for recirc so there was a little extra cleanup. I did the recirculation through a short piece of 1/2" and it worked better than stirring for me.

Oh well, it was fun to think about and build and it works better than my old one. Next time I will time it down to pitch temp.

That chiller is a beauty!
I added a coil( 25ft)to a cooler filled with ice water. My hose connected to that coil then i ran another to the chiller in the kettle. It is simple and effective. This dropped my temp very fast, but i never timed it. It slowed down when it hit about 75F. I wanted to try dry ice but I never got around to it.

Thanks, I used it three times this weekend. No ice required, gets me down inside the 70's within ten minutes, into the 60's in 15. But again, the whirlpooling is key, so I've traded one pain (ice in bucket with pond pump) for another (pump, tubing, cleanup, yada). I did think of doing what you're doing by using my old chiller as a prechill but it's not necessary for me. Dry ice would soup it up pretty good!

Sounds like yours is working great. Have you ever used a plate chiller? I just bought a system that has 2 of tem
And I have never used one.

I have not. I have made a CFC which worked well and had less of a chance to clog. IMHO the plate chillers seem to be the most fussy and cleanup/prep intensive of all the chilling options, but many love them.

Try using this.

The faster your wort moves across the coils, the faster it will cool. I use 20 or 25' of 3/8" copper tubing and I in December I can cool my wort wicked quick. If you have an extra motor laying around this would be a perfect use for it.

jgalati said:

Try using this.

The faster your wort moves across the coils, the faster it will cool. I use 20 or 25' of 3/8" copper tubing and I in December I can cool my wort wicked quick. If you have an extra motor laying around this would be a perfect use for it.

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Yep I've got one. I used it more for oxygenation (sp?) than cooling. I never used it above 110F though.

I made an electric stirrer from a molon motor and copper scraps. Boil to under 90 in 6 minutes. Switched to ice. Down to 62 in 4 more. Crazy.

tom_hampton said:

I made an electric stirrer from a molon motor and copper scraps. Boil to under 90 in 6 minutes. Switched to ice. Down to 62 in 4 more. Crazy.

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Details please! So you use it with an IC? How fast does it stir (do you avoid splashing)?

I'll take some pictures, but in the meantime its based on Push Eject's described here:

http://www.wortomatic.com/articles/Wort-Cooling-201

Yes, I have a 50' x 1/2" copper IC. The Molon motor rotates at 63 RPM. I made a couple minor change to the paddle design...dunno if it makes a difference. But, compared to manual stirring last weekend...man it was fast. I wouldn't have believed it, if I hadn't measured it myself.