Wort chiller

[adrphij]

I have read a few postings about chillers....online at Home Depot / Lowes they have what appears to be flexible metal hoses for hooking up refrigerator ice makers...they run 6 - 10 feet..my question is how long does a chiller need to be for optimum chilling and is steel/aluminum good enough or is copper much better?...

 

[user 574]

I'd stick with copper. Steel or other hardened metal would be difficult to bend. Aluminum; the jury is out on repeated boiling. 20' minimum (my length), 25+' preferable for your chiller. The more loops the more surface area and the faster you cool the wort which is the ultimate goal.

 

[Baron von BeeGee]

I haven't seen the piping in stainless or aluminum...I imagine copper would be a good deal cheaper, anyways. I made mine out of 25' and it seems to work pretty well. The more you have, the more surface area and potential for heat exchange, although you'll reach a point of diminishing returns. Also, my 25' of coil displaces a fair amount of wort when I drop it in my kettle...something to think about.

 

[david_42]

25-30 ft of 1/4 inch copper tubing is the way to go. Avoid having any connections except at the ends.

 

[adrphij]

thanks for the tips...the 10 feet is flexible..in the picture it is looped twice, has couplings at each end and cost $16.00...from the comments it sounds like it isn't long enough..does that mean it would take 3 times as long to chill? I have tried to attached the link to show the picture
http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=100401-320-12IM120&lpage=none

 

[Baron von BeeGee]

thanks for the tips...the 10 feet is flexible..in the picture it is looped twice, has couplings at each end and cost $16.00...from the comments it sounds like it isn't long enough..does that mean it would take 3 times as long to chill? I have tried to attached the link to show the picture
http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=100401-320-12IM120&lpage=none

Unfortunately, that product is totally inappropriate as a wort chiller. Only the outer braid is stainless steel, while the inner core is synthetic and a pretty good insulator which means it won't chill for crap if it even is able to withstand boiling wort.

Fortunately, a coil of copper tubing 25' long is only ~$10-15 more.

 

[Orfy]

The other thing to consider is the diameter of your kettle and the depth of the wort in it.

I made a chiller from a coil of 8mm copper but found it wouldn'd all submerge in the wort, so I was not getting it all sanitised by the boil. I reduced it so all the coils are sumbmerged on 5 gallon of wort.

This is before I chopped it.

 

[adrphij]

thanks all for the knowledge....

 

[Baron von BeeGee]

Nice knives, orfy. Are those curry spices in the background? I'm diggin' on your kitchen today!

 

[Orfy]

BeeGee, you got good eyes. Yep that's my Curry Corner.
Ignore the mess, I just finished a rabbit dinner.

 

[Baron von BeeGee]

BeeGee, you got good eyes. Yep that's my Curry Corner.

I'm all about eating well! And drinking, too, when I don't screw it up.

 

[DeRoux's Broux]

BeeGee, you got good eyes. Yep that's my Curry Corner.
Ignore the mess, I just finished a rabbit dinner.

damn orfy! that kitchen looks pretty skippy to me

 

[Orfy]

I had to move the kitchen to a different room when we got the house so it was my design. It's a small room (Small house) but we got most of the things in needed. It's in the middle of the house so it's like a hub.

 

[Orfy]

damn orfy! that kitchen looks pretty skippy to me

What's skippy?

 

[adrphij]

what about ICE????

 

[Orfy]

If you boil your water (or you know it is good) then freeze it yourself then yes.
Store bough could have anything in it!!

 

[adrphij]

I was thinking gallon jug of spring water...just cut the plastic off..giant ice cube

 

[Orfy]

That would do. Good idea.

The thing to remeber is you should aim to boil as much of your brew as you can.
But plenty of people on boil half of it (Or less sometimes)

 

[adrphij]

I ahve done 2 brews...both 2 gallons in the brew pot and 3+ gallons of cold spring water...it took a long time to cool down....both were partial mash recipes...

 

[DeRoux's Broux]

What's skippy?

clean, cool, spiffy, jam-up, diggin' it, *****'n

 

[Darth Konvel]

clean, cool, spiffy, jam-up, diggin' it, *****'n

How about sharp? (have to make a knife reference )

 

[Orfy]

Cheers.
All it's missing is a fridge that can get food and beer in it.

 

[DeRoux's Broux]

Cheers.
All it's missing is a fridge that can get food and beer in it.

oh yea, need one of those
what do u use know?

 

[Orfy]

Unfortunately I have to plan ahead.
I drink room temp from kegs and put two or three botles in the fridge to chill.
I'll have to do something for the summer.

I'm considering building a out house to put a temp controlled freezer in.
Only thing is my gardens smaller than the house.

The shed's moved so I could build something there.

 

[The Happy Mug]

I don't know if I'd trust dropping ice into my brewpot.

I was watching Food Network, and there was an episode of Good Eats about homebrewing.

For cooling, he froze some water bottles. Cleaned and sanitized them, then dropped them into the brewpot. I've never tried it, but it sounds safer to me.

 

[woodstone]

Orphy, nice pad! You've probably decided already but to add an "!"..copper is the best as it conducts cool/heat best. Also, the longer the better (err, so says the gal). ! Fittings are everwhere and copper is easy to form and connect. Go with copper and max length to fill your brew pot and typical batch size...you won't be dissapointed! I have an undersized chiller and can cool a few gallons in 10 to 15 minutes. Cheers!

 

[talleymonster]

I've been reding this post along with others and I have a question:
what is the difference between a wort chiller and just putting it in an ice bath (or some other rapid cooling process)? are there benefits from either or?

 

[rewster451]

Talleymonster: I've used ice baths exclusively, and it takes a long go**amn time to cool down the wort. I really want to devise some kind of wort chiller. It is so frustrating when you come home from work, start brewing right away, finish the boil in perfect time to go to bed and wake up early for work again, but the go**amn wort won't cool down for more than an hour. By the time you pitch yeast and get it in the carboy you know you're going to hurt in the morn.

 

[rewster451]

By the way, Orfy you have a totally awesome view!! The little college student house in Missouri I live in is so... basically the oposite of your place. I'm jealous.

 

[user 574]

I've been reding this post along with others and I have a question:
what is the difference between a wort chiller and just putting it in an ice bath (or some other rapid cooling process)? are there benefits from either or?

An ice bath is a wort chiller as well but I know what your asking. Typically for homebrewers a wort chiller is a bunch of copper line looped up where you stick it in your kettle of hot wort and run cold water through the coils. There are other ways but this is the most common for us. Ice bath has its limits since it's not in direct contact with the wort whereas this item is:

 

[Truble]

did my first 2 batches cooling with an ice bath. Made a chiller for my 3rd, and just used it for my 4th. Batches took 1/2 hour to cool in the ice bath, and that was with adding ice, and still running water around it. With the chiller, took me 12 minutes to cool from boil to just under 80*F without having to touch it at all. It is fast enough that, since I do 3 Gal wort boils, I can boil the other 2G, and cool it, and then add it to ther wort right after the wort is done, instead of having ot get it all done in advance, and then seal the water up and hope for no contamination.