First Post: Built my own wort chiller

[AUMonkeyBoy]

After much back and forth I went to Lowes and bought 50ft of 3/8in copper for $56. I had made the mistake of buying 50ft of 1/4in copper thinking that it would work...it didn't.

So I turned my 1/4in copper into prechillers. By using T joints, it allows the maximum amount of water into the wort chiller itself. Before I was only getting the amount of water coming through the 1/4in tubing. This is called an orifice.

One T joint from the hose(3/8in) to prechillers(1/4in) and on T joint from prechillers(1/4in) to wort chiller(3/8in). It MAY be a little over kill, but didn't want to waste any of the copper and I wanted the most water running through the wort chiller as possible. 200* to 80* in 13 minutes

 

[Brandonovich]

How did you form the copper tubing into a spiral?

 

[NewBrewB]

How did you form the copper tubing into a spiral?

Dont most people wrap it around a corny keg?

 

[AUMonkeyBoy]

The small coils around a 1 1/2in ID PVC pipe. The wort chiller, around a heavy duty card board cylinder, used to mail blue prints. To get the tightest coil, the best thing to do is drill a hole and put just the tip of the coil in and have another person roll either as you press into shape. You will have to cut the tip off, but no big deal.

I do think most people use a corny keg, but I'm not at that point yet.

 

[_JP_]

First, welcome to HBT.

Second, you should be happy with that chiller. Here in GA my groundwater temp is 80°, so I can't ever get that low with an immersion chiller, without using a pre-chiller. I've been pitching at 85-90 and putting it right in the ferm chamber at 65°F.

 

[AUMonkeyBoy]

I'm in AL so I understand exactly where you are coming from. I will be using it tonight.

 

[beernardo]

That's a pretty tight spiral. Nicely done. My first immersion chiller was really sloppy.

 

[Atl300zx]

First, welcome to HBT.

Second, you should be happy with that chiller. Here in GA my groundwater temp is 80°, so I can't ever get that low with an immersion chiller, without using a pre-chiller. I've been pitching at 85-90 and putting it right in the ferm chamber at 65°F.

i knock it down to 100F, then i switch to a pond pump in a brew bucket with ice water.

 

[AUMonkeyBoy]

I was trying the pond pump for a while, but after buying the right sized copper, I couldn't spend the money on a pump good enough. It us in my future though.

 

[Atl300zx]

my pump was $15...400 gph...got it from an aquarium supply store and it has garden hose threads already on it.

 

[Maxkling]

my pump was $15...400 gph...got it from an aquarium supply store and it has garden hose threads already on it.

I got mine from Home Depot(20$ maybe), it doesn't have to flow a lot. Once its knocked down to 100, and I switch to my pump its just a slow trickle. Flow isn't very important, surface contact is well more important.

 

[AUMonkeyBoy]

I was spending $50 at lowes and never getting more than a trickle. It was taking way to long to cool, I thought because the flow was not strong enough. I brewed last night and got down to 80 in 14 minutes.