Immersion Chiller for Fermenter

[BrunoBrau]

I saw Brewpastor's setup in BYO last year and have been trying to decide if I want to emulate his fermentation chiller. I have limited storage space, otherwise I'd just get another fridge for fermenting.

My plan was to use water instead of glycol. I would take a pond pump and put it in a bucket of water. The bucket of water and pump would go into my chest freezer kegerator, with the fermenter outside it. The kegerator is normally in the 30-40 F. range. I'd plug the pump into a temperature controller, with the probe in a thermowell that would go in the wort. Hoses would connect the pump to the tubing.

While I'm sure his copper tubing setup works fine, I am worried about off-flavors in my beer. I was browsing McMaster-Carr's website and saw that I could get a coil of 304 stainless in 3/8" (item 8989K93) for about $56.


Parts list:
SS coil $56 +sh
Pond Pump $30 - Lowes
Temperature Controller - $75 + sh
Thermowell - $20
hoses & connectors - $10

Does this sound like a reasonable/worthwhile project?

 

[MixnMatchBrew]

How about a coil of sanitized plastic tubing? The heat transfer would be fast enough to do the job and be a heck of alot cheaper than a stainless coil.

Zip tie it to keep the coils together and sanitize it before adding to the beer.