Immersion chiller design

[Chuginator]

I've had a 50' roll of 1/2" copper tubing sitting around for over a decade, with the intent of making an immersion chiller out of it. Well, the time has finally come as I'm aiming to start up all-grain brewing again this fall. Will be using it in a keggle with a drain-off in the bottom.

Thing is, I'll probably be doing 5-gallon batches most of the time, but I might want to do 10-gallon in the future.

So if I make the coils tall enough to be efficient for a 10-gallon brew, they'd be sticking up over the wort line if I do a 5-gallon batch. Is this a bad thing, or would I just not be able to rely on heat sterilization in that case and have to Star San it?

 

[organ]

If it hasn't been boiled it's not sanitized. How wide is your 5 gal kettle?

 

[Chuginator]

It's a 15-gallon keggle, the cutout at top is about 11" in diameter.

 

[nostalgia]

I give mine a spray of Star-San anyway, but I'm a little different from most: I put my chiller in at flameout and let it sit a minute or two before starting to chill. That is, my chiller is never boiled.

All of the food-safety information I've found says 180F for 30 seconds is sufficient for sanitation. For example, from the NY health department (emphasis mine):

(a) The following are acceptable methods of sanitizing:

(1) immersion for at least one-half minute in clean hot water at a temperature of not less than 170 degrees Fahrenheit (76.7 degrees Celsius);

Even in Flash Pasteurization, "The liquid moves in a controlled, continuous flow while subjected to temperatures of 71.5 °C (160 °F) to 74 °C (165 °F), for about 15 to 30 seconds."

I've got over 50 uninfected batches with this method so far. So do what you're comfortable with, but in my experience and research, a boil is not necessary for sanitation.

-Joe

 

[nostalgia]

Now back to the OP: for a 50' hunk of copper, my preference is to break it into two, 25' coils and use them both at the same time. My reasoning is that one, 50' run will saturate with heat some at some point along the line and waste the potential for the rest of the run to chill.

By splitting it, you're essentially using two chillers at once, introducing two separate streams of cold water. So in theory it should be more efficient.

As an added bonus for a 5-gallon boil, it means your chiller can be shorter if you nest the two coils.

This chiller, made from 1/4" copper, cooled 5 gallons from boiling to 65 in under 8 minutes.

-Joe

 

[Chuginator]

I doubt I'll be able to nest the coils; getting 1/2" bent to 9-10" should provide sufficient frustration as is.

Thank you for your input - it's giving me some ideas.

 

[DeafSmith]

Why not make the chiller large diameter and short so that you can get all or most of it into a 5 gallon batch? If you keep the wort moving, as you should do for efficient cooling, either by stirring or by recirculating and whirlpooling with a pump, you'll still get good cooling on a 10 gallon batch. And with large diameter coils, it leaves a lot of room in the middle for stirring with a paddle if you choose to do it manually.

 

[Chuginator]

That sounds good. I think I'll shrink the coil section to about 5-6" tall, wherever 5 gallons is in the keggle.

Thanks for the input everyone!

 

[Komodo]

I doubt I'll be able to nest the coils; getting 1/2" bent to 9-10" should provide sufficient frustration as is.

Thank you for your input - it's giving me some ideas.

Go look at some of the coils the home distillers are making . . . .they are a sight to behold.

 

[Chuginator]

I will do that!

Home distilling- something I'd love to get into.