Mini Wort Chiller (for yeast starters)

[ryanryates]

So, it seems necessity is indeed the mother of invention. Since I've moved up to brewing larger (half barrel) batches, I've needed much larger yeast starters. Trouble is, it takes me forever to chill the wort down to pitching temp using the old ice water bath technique.

Ironically, brewing my yeast starters is much like my 1st extract batches back in the 90's.

Anyway, I decided to make a small scale wort chiller that will attach to my kitchen sink. Problem solved!

Used 5' of 1/4" copper tubing. Used a jar of pbw as the mold to coil the copper around. Turned out great. Less than $20 at H0me Dep0t.

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[Vandulus]

Love the idea as I usually stick my wort for starters in the fridge for hours to cool down! I might have to look at building one to play with...

 

[ryanryates]

OK all, tested the wort chiller out this evening. Everything worked well. Chilling time for 4l of starter took around 15 or so minutes. That's boil to 70 degrees with no stirring. I imagine if I was stirring the time could have been a little less.

I consider this a success as it shaved a good 45 minutes to an hour off of my old ice bath method.

If I had to do it again, I'd probably grab 10 feet of copper instead of 5.

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