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sirsloop

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...a drill and a wine degasser is the HOT SETUP!!! Got my new 50' 1/2" IC workin today for the first time. I also picked up a wine degasser and used that to stir up the hot wort. Man... it took 5 gallons down to like 120° in like 2 minute. I think it was down to 64° in like 7 minutes. I checked the run off water at 5 gallons and it was over 140! HAHAH! Its definitely the hot setup...whirlpool the hell out of the wort and get max cooling.

Oh, and next time I build a chiller (probably never) I'm gonna run some hot water through the chiller and tighten down the clamps some more. I had the water out hose burst off and explode in my face. Apparently you gotta retighten the hoses hot or they dont hold.
 
50' coil... basically followed Bobby_M's youtube tutorial using the elbows and such. I have 3/8" hose, so I also added a reducer and a couple inches of 3/8 OD tubing to clamp down on. I tied the top, the bottom, and the middle of the vertical pipe with copper wire... its rock solid. Ignore the mediorce soldering... I had a ****in fit with one of the elbows and a tiny leak.

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sirsloop, you worried about hot side aeration?

I always wait to start stirring my wort until under 150. It usually drops pretty fast with that big a differential anyway. Once it gets down to about 100, i start stirring vigorously to start the aeration (finish with o2 in the kettle).

One other thing I learned from Bobby_M was the soldered 5/8 brass hose/barb ends to connect to garden hose. F worm clamps, they always leaked for me.
 
I was worried about melting too... another guy in our homebrew club does the same as well with no issues. Hot side aeration...yes... I go slow enough at first where its not cavitating and foaming up... after like a minute or so you can crank it without worry. I did bent the copper tubing out slightly at the end so hopefully between that and the clamp being tight as hell the hose should hold. I didn't have any problems with my last chiller and clamped on hose. The reason it leaked was I crimped the hose to toss it over the side of my deck. The pressure build up and popped the hose off. I collect the first 6 gallons or so for cleanup. It ended up exploding in my face...luckily it was just warm and the chiller was build with the hoses outside the pot.
 
Oh, and next time I build a chiller (probably never) I'm gonna run some hot water through the chiller and tighten down the clamps some more. I had the water out hose burst off and explode in my face. Apparently you gotta retighten the hoses hot or they dont hold.

I recommend Oetiker clamps instead of the worm-type tubing clamps in your pic.
 
I also connected a 20ft hose off the end that drops off my deck down to the ground. That helps suck water through the system faster, and will help suck the water out of the hoses when you disconnect the input from the faucet.
 
The one thing that seems like it would suck on 50' coils is draining afterward, my 20' isnt' too bad but not fun.
15 seconds with my bicycle pump is all it takes or if the kids are around they think its fun blowing the water out. Keeps em busy for 5 minutes.
 
I also found out about needing to re-tighten the hose clamps at hot temperature. I am not sure which is worse though, a blast of hot water to the face or a barely noticeable leak of tap water into the kettle that I didn't notice right away?

Here's a question though. When cooling wort, I will stir with a spoon maybe once or twice. Without hardly any stirring I can go to 65F in 12 minutes. Is it really worth the added effort to shorten it to 7 minutes? I imagine there is point of diminishing return.

Also, a tip for aeration which I got from a different thread (I forget who posted it). If you are using an immersion chiller, you can do a pretty good aeration job after cooling using your IC. Just dunk it in and out of the cooled wort a few times. It's basically like one big whisk.
 
On your copper tubing ends just use a double flare adapter without using the final flare to creat a bulb at the ends of your tubes to prevent the hoses from sliding off the straight sides of the tubing. A 30 second job to add a bulb to each tubing end, problem solved.
 
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