Homemade wort chiller

I have a free Saturday this weekend looking for a project. Was thinking about making a wort chiller. Anyone out there done it? Worth the time rather than buying

P.s. I am in love with this hobby because of the ingenuity and science that goes into it

It's absolutely worth it to build your own. You can make one for almost as little as half the cost of buying one, and it's easy to do. I've made two- a 25' for my old stovetop brewpot, and a 50' for the larger kettle I use now. Both took maybe a half-hour/45 minutes or so to build. Just make sure you use a proper tubing bender for your harder angles and take your time so you don't crimp or collapse your tubing.

Chillers are quick and easy to make. A really good thing to DIY and a great afternoon project.

As soon as you make a chiller, you'll look up making a counter flow chiller and want on of those. I say spend another $10-15 and make the CFC. I'm so glad I made mine and wish I just went that way in the first place.

I made one for about $100 with 1/2 inch tubing for my keggle and it will cool from boiling to 70 degrees in about 10 minutes if that, I think my last batch took 8 minutes. Well worth the minimal effort, and its fun. Check out YouTube.

Yeah I think this is definitely going to happen this weekend. I've been wanting to brew again but I want to start doing full boils and I have been banned from using the stove anymore haha. I have a burner but need a propane tank but can't store one in my apt. And my LHBS is an hour and a half away! The struggles you go through for some good homebrew haha

Should I do 3/8 or 1/2".

Home Depot does 20' of 3/8" refrigeration tube, that's what I would go for personally.

Yeah I think I am gonna do that. Looks like it runs about $25. I was debating if 1/2" x 20' would be worth it for $37 or if I should just stick with 3/8

SCBrewster said:

Yeah I think I am gonna do that. Looks like it runs about $25. I was debating if 1/2" x 20' would be worth it for $37 or if I should just stick with 3/8

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Wow, $37 for 20' ? That's great, I paid $70 for 20' at Home Depot up here. That was the most expensive part.

My gut feeling is that you'll need to put the wort fairly slowly through a 20' chiller to cool it in one pass so I don't think you need 1/2" unless you go longer too.

50' x 1/2" would be the killer chiller but a bit rich for my cheapskate blood.

SCBrewster said:

I have a free Saturday this weekend looking for a project. Was thinking about making a wort chiller. Anyone out there done it? Worth the time rather than buying

P.s. I am in love with this hobby because of the ingenuity and science that goes into it

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https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/great-wort-chiller-386382/

Check out this thread... I made this immersion chiller recently and it rocks... Pretty simple build as long as you have all the pieces lined up and it is also helpful to get someone to lend a hand

By the way... I would at least use 1/2 inch... It's much more efficient than 3/8...my 5/8 chiller may be a bit overkill but it takes boiling wort down to 68 degrees in only 7 minutes

Damn that website has some solid deals on pipe!!

SCBrewster said:

Damn that website has some solid deals on pipe!!

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They do... It makes you realize how much Home Depot and Lowes is making on their copper tubing. Also, they have kits that you can buy that includes all the pieces needed to build the wort chiller. And if you call them, I think the guys name is Aaron, he is helpful as well.

I bought my 1/2"X50' kit from them, it was way cheaper than buying the stuff seperately even with shipping. I would strongly recommend using them.

Yeah I really wanted to make it this Saturday but now that I saw that I'm thinking about buying that and then obviously waiting until it ships

SCBrewster said:

Yeah I really wanted to make it this Saturday but now that I saw that I'm thinking about buying that and then obviously waiting until it ships

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And if you want to make a 5/8" immersion chiller just call them up and they will make sure you have all the pieces you need

Now if only there was a website that had kegerator conversion kits that cheap.... Haha

SCBrewster said:

Now if only there was a website that had kegerator conversion kits that cheap.... Haha

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I hear that... Just got done building a keezer and it wasn't cheap but it turned out great

Well as long as it turned out you really can't complain too much I suppose!

I went with 50 feet of 3/8. The price of copper has gone crazy. I think it cost about 70 bucks. It cools the wert in about 15 minutes. I clamped pvc tubing over the inlet/outlet of the copper and it drips if I turn the water to high. I would recomend soldering hose fittings to avoid this problem.

Stocktonbrew said:

I went with 50 feet of 3/8. The price of copper has gone crazy. I think it cost about 70 bucks. It cools the wert in about 15 minutes. I clamped pvc tubing over the inlet/outlet of the copper and it drips if I turn the water to high. I would recomend soldering hose fittings to avoid this problem.

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I agree with soldering the fittings and using the hose bib fittings. Don want water leaking into the wort

I went with S/S because its, can you believe it, cheaper than copper. S/S is hard to bend so I bought it pre-made from NY Brew Supply. 50 ft 3/8" for $66.99, so not much more than the cost to make it yourself. Their copper chillers are also pretty cheap. Unfortunately the do not offer 1/2" S/S at this time.