Chilling Wort.

I know, I am too cheap for my own good, but I can not get myself to buy a copper or stainless steal wort chiller and I am not skilled enough to make one. What are some other options that I can use? is there nothing else that works like a wort chiller ? Or should just pony up and buy one..... oh and happy Easter...

How much wort are you trying to cool? I do pretty well filling my 5gal pot (which has 3.5 - 4 gal of wort in it) with cold water and doing an ice bath.

About 2-4 gallons....What if you don't have ice around....Is there anthing that I can Fill and freeze and that I can submerge in the wort? What can take the heat of freshly boiling wort?

Are you suggesting that I put water into the wort itself to cool it down? I have never thought about that... I have always put it in the Primary...Hmm.

In the winter I fill up a yard bucket with snow and water. The slush mixture will cool down 5 gallons in about 20 minutes. But I know I'm going to have to pony up and get a chiller soon.

I will build a wort chiller eventually, but until then I put my brew pot in the sink. I have a double sink, so I plug one side and fill it with cold water and run a small stream, letting the excess (and heat) overflow into thesecond sink and drain. Stir every few minutes. I do a split pot boil and have the whole thing done in 45 minutes, usually 20 per pot 212 to 75 degrees. Tap water running about 65 here in north Geargia.

Just make sure the pot is pinned so that thin stream of water running does not go into your wort! It is not perfect, but it is working and buys me some time to save some money for a wort chiller later!

I hope this helps. Criticism is welcome, but I do a thousand things that would horrify some on here, and I am still drinking good beer.

What I always did when I did smaller boils was put cold water in the sink, adding ice from the freezer to the ice bath. Then, when it was less than 100 degrees (and it only took about 15 minutes, if your stir the ice bath and add cold water as needed while draining the warmer water or sticking it in the other sink if you have a double and running more cold water into that sink), I added to my bucket with cold tap water. Gave me a perfect 70 degrees in about 20-25 minutes.

Some people boil and cool two gallons of water (like in sanitized ice cream pails) and then freeze that and use that as their top off water in the bucket. I've never tried that- but if you do, try to ensure the wort doesn't get too cold.

If you have the freezer space you could try one of these: http://www.hospitalitysupplyonline....ID=60&osCsid=cf14696ce97b9394dde0395b2def55fe

Great little things I don't have space for it but it can be sanitzed and reused over and over. If you have two I am sure you could cool wort down He((a fast!!!

Hoppy Brewing!

Having made my first wort chiller today, I have to disagree with the idea that any skill level is required to make one. All you need is 25 or 30 feet of rolled copper and gallon paint can for a guide as to minimum diameter. What I did with mine was unroll it, then roll it to the diameter required, being careful not to kink it. Then I used a compression fitting which basically screwed right on. Then I screwed a garden hose attachment to the compression fitting. The end.

Here's a tip. A good local hardware store--not Lowes, but a smaller shop like a True Value--will take the time to help you get every piece you need. Just tell them what your looking to attach the copper tubing to--ie: attach to a sink, attach to a garden hose or attach to some vinyl hose to be gravity fed by an ice bath. A good shop will even show you briefly how it goes together. Mine did. But here's something I found on the web before I decided to make it:

http://www.allaboutbeer.com/homebrew/equip/chiller.html

Edit: By the way, what I made does not look as pretty as the stuff for sale in my LHBS shop, and the diameter isn't 100% consistent throughout the roll, but I'm sure it will cool my wort. My total bill was about $10 since I already had the rolled copper laying around.

TRapi-Kool™ Quick Chill Freezable Containers -These things look awesome! I wonder if they cool quicker then a Metal chiller? Don't need a water source! Sanitize and stir! sweet... Thanks.

Copper is expensive, so buy carefully, but none-the-less, I would say get/build a copper chiller. You will love it, show it off to your friends, and post pictures of the DIY build. In short there is no good reason not to. You will spend the cost in cheap beer in no time.

Yes, happy Easter.

I've seen some Stainless steel Chillers... they are alittle cheaper...is that a good alternative?

Rolling the copper around a large coffee tin or corny keg makes a nice circle.

In the meantime, take some 2L pop bottles, remove labels and fill with water. Freeze them then sanitize them on brew day, add to wort. Same idea as the freeze stick thing.

I ordered my copper from this company, coppertubingsales.com , it seems to be a lot cheaper than most, My roommate wanted a wort chiller as well, so we split the cost, it ended up being $43 including shipping for 50 feet of copper tubing, so 21.50 for each chiller. I have already made the chiller, and am just waiting now on some ingredients to try it out. It's the cheapest way I've found.

won't the heat melt the plastic of a pop bottle?

Copper makes a better heat exchanger with more rapid heat transfer. SS is nice for many things and will last long enough for your grand kids to use, but I still prefer copper.

breisspastor said:

won't the heat melt the plastic of a pop bottle?

Click to expand...

No.

First off PET doesn't melt anywhere near that low a temp and second the ice will cool the plastic anyway.

Have you ever seen someone boil water in a plastic bag over a fire? I have.

Big "A" said:

If you have the freezer space you could try one of these: http://www.hospitalitysupplyonline....ID=60&osCsid=cf14696ce97b9394dde0395b2def55fe

Great little things I don't have space for it but it can be sanitzed and reused over and over. If you have two I am sure you could cool wort down He((a fast!!!

Hoppy Brewing!

Click to expand...

I have been wondering about one of those vs. a chiller. My wife said that is what they always used when she was a chef and they needed to fast cool something.

I was at Menards last night and they had an icemaker kit that was basically a 25 ft coil of 1/4" copper. It wouldn't be as quick as 1/2" copper, but it is already coiled so all you would have to do is pull it apart a bit and add some poly tubing on the ends. It was $12.

IMO the 1/4 inch would be too small to be efficient.

Actually, it should be more efficient.

It depends on what you mean by efficient. Using the least amount of water possible? Yes. Very efficient. How about cooling as fast as possible? No. Not very.

There's a sweet spot between how much water you use vs. how much time it takes to chill and I think 3/8" is a pretty good middle ground. 1/2" is even better if you don't mind using more water for the fastest possible chill down.

1/4" is nice if you split the flow into three separate paths, but it's a slightly more complicated build.

Yeah, sorry, I was thinking of a Counterflow chiller not an immersion.