Wort Chiller Design Question

[tictoc43064]

Hello all, rookie here. Been reading a lot and you've all helped me tremendously. With that said, I have a design question that I haven't found covered. I'm a DIY guy and can typically come up with a simple/cheap way to make things work. So here goes:
Chilling the wort is the part of the process i am wanting to simplify. I want to add a ball valve to a stainless steel kettle. From the valve I want to connect to soft copper(size yet TBD). The soft copper would be coiled, similar to a standard IC, inside of a 2 gallon water cooler. Wort would gravity feed into the top of the cooler and exit at the bottom into my primary. The cooler is obviously filled with ice water.

What size copper to use? I want to use 1/4 inch, as in my head, it's cheaper, could pack a lot of coil into the cooler, and I would think be able to empty my kettle in 15 minutes or less(when the valve is wide open) possibly dropping down to pitch temp with one pass.

Thoughts? I can't be the only one who's thought of this.

 

[IslandLizard]

Build a counterflow chiller (CFC) instead. They are among the best. To get the last few degrees down, use a small pre-chiller in a bucket with ice water.

1/4 inch is too narrow. 3/8 is more common.

Using ice to chill boiling wort is a waste, regular tap water will do the heavy lifting practically for free. Use the ice where it counts. In the summer a few ice packs and a couple pounds of ice is all I need to notch it down to ferm temps where the tap water left it. If I don't quite hit it, I place the fermentor in the fermentation fridge for a few hours.

 

[tictoc43064]

Thanks for the quick reply. thought about CF's, but kinda shy'd away from it, due to the wife. She tends to freak when her kitchen isn't just so. I'm working on the brew room, but not there yet.

 

[thekraken]

@BrunDog 's DIY chiller project might be right up your ally. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=542263

 

[IslandLizard]

A coil sitting in a pot with an ice water/ice cube mixture, similar to a jockey box, isn't the most efficient wort chiller unless you recirculate the chilling medium at the same time. You could run water through the pot to get the first 100-120 degrees down, then add ice. But an immersion chiller would be more practical and more efficient (read faster). If you can build something like those Hydras, from stainless coil, your wife will love the looks of it.

 

[oylerck]

A coil sitting in a pot with an ice water/ice cube mixture, similar to a jockey box, isn't the most efficient wort chiller unless you recirculate the chilling medium at the same time. You could run water through the pot to get the first 100-120 degrees down, then add ice. But an immersion chiller would be more practical and more efficient (read faster). If you can build something like those Hydras, from stainless coil, your wife will love the looks of it.

This is what I have done as well, but copper is more malleable I would assume. I just dunk it in the wort before I finish boiling so it's sanitary and hook to hose. You could use the run off to water a garden or fill and laundry tub if you want.

 

[kristiismean]

You are playing with gravity. Ice is practically free if you have an ice maker, I use ice and recirc so I am not wasting so much water. In the summer I might run it to the pool,

I built my own CFC, and it's good. it works, 3/8 copper for the inside. 25', but I recirculate.

get a pump, (2 if you want to recirc cooling water through an ice batch)m. one for cooling water, one for wort. I used the williamsbrewing mkII wort pump, and an old bilge pump from my boats and a battery charger to run it. (it's small), but any cheap pump will work.

 

[tictoc43064]

Islandlizard, by slowing the flow with the ball valve, would efficiency be increased by having to cool half the wort lets say? or at a 50% rate in other words? ideally increase efficiency enough to run through the chiller once. running it twice wouldn't be the end of the world, as i would just dump the first run back into the kettle, aerating it a bit.

 

[IslandLizard]

Islandlizard, by slowing the flow with the ball valve, would efficiency be increased by having to cool half the wort lets say? or at a 50% rate in other words? ideally increase efficiency enough to run through the chiller once. running it twice wouldn't be the end of the world, as i would just dump the first run back into the kettle, aerating it a bit.

You'd use the same BTUs, there's a difference in time it takes. Longer times shave of BTUs through naturally cooling.

It's bad practice to aerate warm or hot wort, HSA. Wait until it's below 80F, or better yet, until it's at pitching temps, ~65F for ales, ~55 for lagers.

 

[tictoc43064]

Good to know on the aerating temps. Gonna store that in the old memory bank. the above link from Brundog and his chiller has me intrigued. Since my original idea seems not to be the most efficient, i'm also kicking around the idea of a recirculating whirlpool used with an IC. But using gravity appeals to me because of the ease of it. Thanks again for the quick responses to you all.