Multi Stage Wort Chiller

[user 78027]

I comment in another thread about this so I should probably delete that post. I have arthritis in both hands so I can't lift and twist heavy things. I am in the process of starting to brew, so I have no real credibility

I have been trying to find a way to make the counterflow wort chiller at 25' length with not much success. I'm also cheap, so I want to make sure I have a home for it before I build it. No one seemed interested so I started thinking about my options.

I was thinking of recirculating through a shorter chiller, then I don't need as much height differential to gravity push the wort through the chiller. I thought I could make a 10' chiller and in 2 passes it would be much better.

Then I thought why not just build the two passes as one chiller, I'm not that cheap, and feed tap temperature water into the bottom of each segment. Because the chiller operates from a temperature differential, this arrangement would provide a greater difference the entire length of the chiller.

Then I thought why not make 3 5' segments. I would create a manifold for input water and for output water so only one hose would be needed for the supply side and one hose needed for the exhaust side.

I will make one of these and test it, unless someone can tell me why it won't work. My thought is that if people have warmer tap water, this type of device would help with the temperature differential and be more efficient at cooling the wort. The real drawback is it uses 2 or 3 times more water.

 

[ronjonacron]

I was thinking about doingt his exsct same thing, i cant find anything longer than 20' coils locally, and buying 2 11' coils is cheaper for somr reason.

 

[user 78027]

I am going to prototype a 3 segment device, each segment is 6', and see how it performs. It will take me a few weeks to try it out and will post my results.

 

[MikeInMKE]

I think the fly in the ointment isn't that it will use twice the water, but that it will use almost the same amount of water, with half cooling the first stage, and half cooling the second stage.

I think you'll end up with half the cooling capability per stage, times two stages, to achieve nearly the same result.

 

[FuzzeWuzze]

Why not just use two and make one a prechiller....the first immersion chiller is in a bucket of ice water that then goes through the wort and out...i'd think you would have better success this route, the key is to get it down below like 140F(or is it 160?) ASAP, by creating a huge differential between the ice water and your wort it should drop substantially and quickly.

 

[user 78027]

The idea here is, if you consider just 2 chillers in series, The top chiller will have cooler water at the mid point, then if a single chiller is used, and consequently the top half will be cooler all along the chiller surface then it would otherwise be. So, if the top half is cooler then with a single chiller, the bottom will have less work to do to get the temperature down.

At this point it is just an idea.

 

[user 78027]

Here is my first two stage implementation, I have water flow checked it but have not checked if it works like I expect it to. If/When I make another one I would make some changes to the design. I will post the data when I get my thermometers to do some testing. I figured I would change the input water temperature from 50, 60, 65 and see what difference it makes in the wort temperature. For the test I will use water.

This device uses 20ft of copper tubing for the wort flow and each side is 9.5ft of chilling length.

 

[Misplaced_Canuck]

I've tried the two-stage method using 2x25-ft.

I tried feeding fresh water to both, and I tried circulating the water end-to-end (one water output of the chiller's goes into the input of the other).

My results were that the split water source was LESS effective than using a single linear water source. I was only using a source of water from one outlet that was split into 2 near the chillers. The back-to-back had a 4-5 degree advantage.

I'll be interested in knowing your results.

MC

 

[SMTX]

I think this will work better than a standard 20' chiller. I built I 10' CFC for my first brew, it dropped boiling wort to 78 degrees with 70 degree tap water. I think length is overrated, once the input water is warmed up it no longer does anything. I suspect the effective heat transfer zone is maybe only a few feet (at least with the diameters I used).

 

[user 78027]

Your right, its the difference in temperature that makes all the difference. It is easier to conduct heat out of the wart tube if the difference is greater. I wanted to make this a three stage chiller with the same 20 feet but ran into a few problems.

First the reducers have to go on the copper tube before it is straightened. Otherwise when it is straightened the tube is not perfectly round anymore and the reducers bind going on. I had to cut a set of fittings off with a dremel because I couldn't get the reducers on far enough or get them off once I twisted them on as far as I could. I now own a 25' and a 23' single stage chiller I hope to sell soon.

Second, there needs to be at least a couple of inches between the connectors for the different segments so the copper tubing can be bent and doesn't have such a flat surface where the manifold is.

 

[user 78027]

I just had a flash as I was contemplating building a three stage device. Using what I know now, I can't figure out how to do it. A two stage device will have to do. The problem is that the reducers cannot go on the tubing after the tubing has been straightened out. The problem is getting the hose on the coiled tubing without straightening it out. I will have to think about this.

 

[Misplaced_Canuck]

I just had a flash as I was contemplating building a three stage device. Using what I know now, I can't figure out how to do it. A two stage device will have to do. The problem is that the reducers cannot go on the tubing after the tubing has been straightened out. The problem is getting the hose on the coiled tubing without straightening it out. I will have to think about this.

I'm not sure why you're complicating this more than it needs to be. You can just use 2 or 3 or 4 independent wort chillers, back to back, and connect the outputs to the next chiller's input via a silicone hose. That's how I did mine.

MC

 

[user 78027]

Your right but that wouldn't be as much fun.

 

[user 78027]

I boiled my first Kettle on my new stand and ran it through the two stage chiller. I only boiled 3 gallons instead of 5 and I didn't time it. It took however time it takes for gravity to drain the pot. I will do a 5 gallon boil tomorrow and time it, and will do a brew test on thursday I think, maybe this weekend.

The source water temp was 45 degrees, colder then I thought it was.

I started the water through the chiller before I opened the tap to the boil just enough so a stream was coming out the water output line and with this water flow the output from the chiller was 65 degrees.

I turned the water on another 1/4 a turn, enough so the output flow filled the hose output and the output from the chiller was 55 degrees.

I think the real value in this is if your water temperature is not that low, this will enable one to get closer to pitch temperature.