Homemade Wort Chiller

[twilbrew247]

First attempt before switching to all grain.

 

[bellam87]

It'll work... that's what everyone starts with

 

[Dunerunner]

Looks good! Nice job!!

 

[KettleCorn]

I like it, let us know the delta t from flame out to pitch temp....

 

[twilbrew247]

I like it, let us know the delta t from flame out to pitch temp....

Will do. Going to take it on a test run before I brew to see how quick and how cool I can get it.

 

[Curtis2010]

What was your cost for materials? Hours to build?

 

[bken620]

That looks good, I unfortunately/fortunately just bit the bullet and bought one through NY Brew Supply via Amazon. While I love to DIY, I just didn't think that this was cost effective, I'll pay an extra $5 - $10 if it means that it's done by someone who's done it more than once.

A couple of years ago my friend and I figured out that in NJ it's more cost effective to have someone else do your oil change instead of doing it yourself, because here in NJ you can get a quality oil change for $20, when the cost of 5 quarts of oil and an oil filter costs $20. Then if you factor in the cost of your time, mine $15/hr, it actually ends up being cheaper.

 

[twilbrew247]

What was your cost for materials? Hours to build?

$25 for 20 ft of coiled copper, $10 for 20 ft of vinyl tubing (don't really need that much), $5 or so for fittings...

It beats $70 plus shipping since I don't have an LHBS.

 

[twilbrew247]

I like it, let us know the delta t from flame out to pitch temp....

Forgot this post. I ended up buying a 17-gal wash tub to use an ice bath in conjunction with the chiller because tap water is about 85°F in the summer and I couldn't get it to pitching temp quick enough. Anyway, I'm able to get down to around 75°F in about 20-30 minutes or so from boiling. Gives me time to rehydrate my yeast.

 

[Justintoxicated]

Yea buying online is almost abut the same as making it yourself but making it yourself is still way cheaper than the LHBS I went for a stainless 50' chiller cause I didn't like the fact that copper oxidizes and didn't want oxidation coming off in my wort, but I doubt it is really much of an issue, plus I couldn't bend stainless myself nearly as easily so it seemed more worth while. Copper does conduct heat faster I suppose although either material will work for this.

My hardware store only had 3/8th inch coil in 20 foot lengths, and 20 feet just isn't really enough. I thought it would be enough for my pre-chiller (made the coil smaller by wrapping it around a conrey keg), but I have my doubts.. It only drops the tap water temp about 5-6 degrees so I end up with about 76-77 tap water for cooling this time of year..I think a longer coil might have worked better.

 

[signmastr]

I bought 50ft 3/8" copper on ebay, $45 shipped. Wrapped it around an 8" sono-tube. Made a 30' chiller and a 20' pre-chiller. About $15 worth of brass hose fittings. Pre-made chillers were just too small (short) for my brew-pot.

 

[BradleyBrew]

that looks nice... I bet my would make the top 10 of the most ugly chillers, but it gets the job done so whatever lol!