DIY wort chiller- pls advise

bendog15 · Jul 12, 2014

Gonna make my own wort chiller this weekend. Been watching a lot of youtube tutorials and it seems pretty straightforward.

Picked up- 25' 3/8 copper tubing
4 galvanized metal hose clamps
pipe bender
pipe cutter
copper wire

Am I missing anything? Lastly, I just got a chugger pump w/stainless steel head. Since I live in a very warm climate, I have to pump an ice water bath thru chiller instead of using groundwater from the garden hose. I have some 1/2" food grade tubing that connects to the pump. Can I find some kind of modifier that will attach this silicone tubing to the copper tubing on the wort chiller? Any advice would be helpful. Thanks!

EdMerican · Jul 12, 2014

I wouldnt be too awful concerned with the food grade tubing as its not going into the beer. There is a thread on here with a "ribcage" chiller. Its really cool and I made one. Very efficient but impossible to whirlpool with. Can't say I recommend it if you plan to whirlpool. Shouldnt really need the pipe cutter. Use all 25 feet. I and others used paint cans to form the coil. Very easy to reform the coil around the can from the box. Corny kegs work great too. Make sure to figure out how tall you need it and start from the inlet down. I would wish you luck, but its super simple and very easy to do. :mug:

jekeane · Jul 12, 2014

If you have a chugger I would suggest looking into recirculating (whirl pooling) your wort with a chiller like Jamils build and then picking ups a small harbor freight submersible pump for running ice water through your chiller. Wort recirculating will up the efficiency of your chiller dramatically. The link to the instructions isn't working today for some reason but here is a pic.

just google jamils chiller or whirlpool immersion chillers and you are bound to find something. I will be retrofitting my chiller once I get a wort pump I have to stir constantly to get a really quick chill and I used 50ft of copper...

USAFSooner · Jul 12, 2014

jekeane said:
If you have a chugger I would suggest looking into recirculating (whirl pooling) your wort with a chiller like Jamils build and then picking ups a small harbor freight submersible pump for running ice water through your chiller. Wort recirculating will up the efficiency of your chiller dramatically. The link to the instructions isn't working today for some reason but here is a pic.

just google jamils chiller or whirlpool immersion chillers and you are bound to find something. I will be retrofitting my chiller once I get a wort pump I have to stir constantly to get a really quick chill and I used 50ft of copper...

I do the same thing and it works great. I wish I would have built a 50' chiller though I just upgraded to. 50' 1/2" SS unit. In fact id sell ya my 25' 3/8" copper chiller for cheap. Whirlpool the wort with the chugger and recirculate ice water in the mash tun the ought the chiller with a submersible pump. Buy the HF warranty because mine crapped out after a dozen batches.

Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

jtratcliff · Jul 12, 2014

don't start off with the ice water... You'll just be wasting ice. Start off with the garden hose... Ground water is plenty cool enough to drop 212F wort to 100F or so.

Then you can switch to ice water to cool further down to pitching temp.

jbb3 · Jul 12, 2014

I recently made my chiller using 50'-3/8 copper tubing and soldered a female brass hose fitting with a 1/2 barb onto the inlet side. You could use the male version of the brass hose fitting, insert the 1/2" barb into the tubing coming from pump and screw the male fitting into the female fitting on your chiller. Just take a small piece of your tubing into the home store with you to make sure you get the right size barb.

If you've never done it before soldering is very easy. Compression fittings may be an option but the cost can add up fast.

http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/video/0,,1632426,00.html

Not sure how you plan to use your hose clamps? As you can see, the lower clamp on my chiller actually touches the wort. So I used SS hose clamps. Make sure your galvanized hose clamps do not come in contact with your wort. If so, you need to move to SS. I would probably use SS regardless. I bought a package of 10 SS clamps for under $10.