Wort chiller design question

[binabik]

I am looking to add a Wort Chiller to my setup and was thinking that rather than use my tap water for the chiller water I would use a bucket of ice water and an immersion pump to pump chilled water through the chiller to help cool the wort more quickly. Is there any reason to not do it this way?

Since I am going to be making my own chiller, is it better to use copper to stainless?

Thanks for the assistance.

 

[sailipo]

For the same metal thickness and surface area copper conducts heat 10-30 times better than SS. Copper will also be easier to work. Just be sure to "pickle" the copper coil before your first use. Do a search on this site for copper pickling methods, really easy.

 

[dkevinb]

I agree that copper is easy to work with and performs well.

I use a pond pump and a Homer bucket full of ice water to do exactly what you describe. The only caveat is that I use tap water to chill to 120F or so before I start recirculating. If you try to recirculate from boiling you're going to need a LOT of ice. The water coming out of the chiller will be scalding hot to begin with. Be careful with it.

 

[grainbill]

I agree that copper is easy to work with and performs well.

I use a pond pump and a Homer bucket full of ice water to do exactly what you describe. The only caveat is that I use tap water to chill to 120F or so before I start recirculating. If you try to recirculate from boiling you're going to need a LOT of ice. The water coming out of the chiller will be scalding hot to begin with. Be careful with it.

Agreed, I use the same method. We have a chest freezer so I would collect ice. I typically brew two 10 gal batches simultaneously. I don't have an exact count, but at least 16 bags of ice, which adds a bit of cost to each batch.... Using tap water to knock the temp down and then going to ice water allows me to collect ice from the ice maker from the kitchen fridge and store it in a chest freezer.

 

[dcrog]

I do the same as above, except instead of bags of ice I freeze milk jugs in the garage fridge freezer. Cool for a little while with tap water and then to get it down to where I want it I put a pump in a plastic tote box with about six of these gallon jugs and recirculate the water into the opposite end of the tote from where the pump is.

Then the jugs just go back in the freezer.

 

[biertourist]

I agree with what everyone else said. Also think really hard about how you'd plan to bend stainless tubing; it's a beast.

Go with copper tubing, consider a double coil if you've got the skills to make one, start with tap water and after the wort temp drops then switch to ice water.

You also want a way to mix the wort as it will give you much higher efficiency / lower cooling time. You can use a pump and Jamil-style recirculation arm, or you can put an additional ball valve and fitting into your kettle to make it a whirlpool kettle or you can just mix with a spoon while chilling.


Adam