Yeast Starter Immersion Wort Chiller

[Huaco]

So, I got a little 10 foot section of 1/4 OD copper tubing and put some thought into it. Figured out how to coil that 10' length into a double helix coil that was only a little over a foot in length. I plan to place it in the flask as it boils the DME for the starter. That will sanitize it all. Once it's done boiling, I'll crimp some heavy-duty foil over the mouth of the flask and set it on my stir plate. Once the wort is stirring I'll then start the flow of the chilling water. I bet tap water will work great... though I also plan to try to pump ice water through it with a recirculating pump and a 5 gallon bucket.
It's not quite done yet, it needs fittings and to also put some hook bends on the end to hang it off the mouth of the flask. Also, this is meant more for a 5L flask because of the huge thermal mass compared to smaller 2L flasks. I look forward to trying it out to see how fast it chills the starter compared to the Ice Bath I am used to using.

Coil side view. You can see the double helix here.

Coil top view.

 

[Huaco]

Tested this tonight. Results coming when I can get them into a spreadsheet.

 

[Hello]

Brilliant. I wondered about a chiller for my starters and this is a great idea. I need to find some more copper tho.

 

[Huaco]

Setup:
I boiled several gallons in my boil kettle. While that was heating, I set up the other things. I had a 6-1/2 gallon bucket with about 10 pounds of ice in it for the ice bath. To that I filled with water 'till the ice was floating well. Probably up to the 4-1/2 gallon mark. I took an ambient air temp reading with my 2 probe K-Type Thermocouple Temp Meter. The two probes were within 0.1 degree F from each other.

I then took a reading of each of the temps of the "chill water" as expected, the ice bath was near freezing. My tap water used for the chilling coil was in the low 80's.

At this point, the water was boiling hard. I dispensed even volumes to two 5 Liter Erlenmeyer flasks and that turned out to be just over 5 Liters. These dropped a little heat from the glass sinking some away. The starting temps were very close though. Starting point shown in photo.

9:10pm

At this point I placed the ice bath flask into the chilling water. Then, I placed the coil into the flask and started the stir plate as well as the chill water.


Results:
I attempted to photo every minute until one of the samples dropped below 100 Degrees F.

9:13pm

Continued...

 

[Huaco]

Continued...

9:14pm

9:15pm

9:16pm

9:17pm

Continued below...

 

[Huaco]

Continued

9:19pm

9:20pm

Graph

Final Setup with fittings. This thing was made just so the elbows supported the coil into a 5 Liter flask. It holds the bottom of the coil about an inch or 1.5 inches off the bottom of the flask. I was able to get a nice rotation of the "wort" with the stir plate/bar.

Final Setup

 

[Huaco]

If anything... this test was skewed severely in favor of the ice bath. That near-freezing water would have been great to circulate with a pump through the coil...

 

[fuxorfly]

I love how much details you've given us as to your methodology. Very scientific, someone who is interested in this can make thier own decision as to how much this may benefit them. Thanks for this!

Question - how did you coil the copper? It looks like an extremely tight coil, and double helix as well? Would be interested in some more details about that.

 

[kh54s10]

Interesting, I boil my wort in a saucepan, I let it cool on the range for a little while then I stick it in the freezer. I then continue watching TV or browsing HBT. In about 10 minutes I check it, see how much it dropped then figure how long until I check again.

 

[Huaco]

I love how much details you've given us as to your methodology. Very scientific, someone who is interested in this can make thier own decision as to how much this may benefit them. Thanks for this!

Question - how did you coil the copper? It looks like an extremely tight coil, and double helix as well? Would be interested in some more details about that.

I coiled around a "mandrel" of 1/2" PVC pipe. It's Outside Diameter is .75". Yes, it is double-helix.
An important step is to fill the tubing with salt prior to coiling. It supports it on the inside and is water soluble so it can be flushed from the coil.

 

[day_trippr]

"For the home brewer that thought he already had every conceivable gadget"

Cheers!