Using a wort chiller

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HAREEBROWNBEEST

HAREEBROWNBEEST

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I made a wort chiller out of some copper tubing i had laying around at work. After using it a couple times i cant believe how well they do what their name implies. It draws the heat right outta the wort in minutes. I used to do the wort kettle in an ice bath, what an amateur way to cool your wort, so if you don't have a wort chiller get one or make one!!! A must have.View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1425262555.062467.jpg
 
twistyboy said:
even better : https://www.brewmagic.com/product/plate-pro-sanitary-wort-chiller/
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Yes, that looks nice. The removable plates for inspection and cleaning are a must for a plate chiller IMHO. Problem is, I am unlikely to inspect and clean those 41 plates. Instead, I pull my immersion chiller (similar to the OP's) out of the wort, dunk it in a bucket of the hot water produced by the IC, wipe it with a wash cloth, and it's ready for the next brew day. A little cheaper too (cough).

Anyway, nice chiller OP. Plate chillers are great for some, but not for everyone, and you will be happy with your IC.
 
Oh yeah, no way I'm going to spend $750 on a chiller! I spent about $7.50 on mine and it works great! This was my first attempt at making one and Its not pretty but it functions well.
 
I bought 20' or 3/8 copper, some vinyl tubing and using adapters use an old sump pump (we cycle ours every 2 years, so have like 4 old ones).

I drop the pump in an ice bath, throw a thermometer in with the pump and copper in the wort. (I put it in for the last 15 minutes of the boil).

1 large bag of ice and 3 gallons of water. fastest to 70 has been 15.48.

Going to add two more coils in the loop, and a secondary cold bucket. cost should be around 20 more dollars, and should bring the time down to under 10 minutes. at least that's the plan.

While I am still new to this, I know how long it takes for beer to drop down to 70 degrees while outside in a Chicago winter at a temp of -4 degrees. It still takes well over an hour....
 
I would advise bending the inlet and outlet copper pieces downward over the edge of the pot like J-hook. It will help prevent kinking and if you ever get a small leak between the hose and the copper (happened to me even with hose clamps) the water will drip back down the hose instead of into the kettle. Also when you put the chiller into the boiling kettle 10min (or however long) to sanitize pre-knockout, make sure to check the tightness on your hose clamps. Also you might look at getting liner hose clamps (if you don't already use them) as they are less likely to damage hoses.
 
I bought a chiller over a week ago and used it twice this past weekend. Up until now I had been using the ice bath method which would take 1.5 hours or more and cost 5 bucks a batch in ice. The IC does it in less than 20 minutes and gets to pitching temp (64F) in 25 minutes or so. I was blown away. My brew day is still 6+ hours but most of it is just sitting around and waiting for things to happen and cleaning. I love my new IC.
 
Teromous said:
I would advise bending the inlet and outlet copper pieces downward over the edge of the pot like J-hook. It will help prevent kinking and if you ever get a small leak between the hose and the copper (happened to me even with hose clamps) the water will drip back down the hose instead of into the kettle. Also when you put the chiller into the boiling kettle 10min (or however long) to sanitize pre-knockout, make sure to check the tightness on your hose clamps. Also you might look at getting liner hose clamps (if you don't already use them) as they are less likely to damage hoses.
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I think this post is worth reading twice. Good advice!

One thing that will make an IC work even better, like a lot better, is recirculating the wort while you're chilling.
 
Singletrack said:
Yes, that looks nice. The removable plates for inspection and cleaning are a must for a plate chiller IMHO. Problem is, I am unlikely to inspect and clean those 41 plates. Instead, I pull my immersion chiller (similar to the OP's) out of the wort, dunk it in a bucket of the hot water produced by the IC, wipe it with a wash cloth, and it's ready for the next brew day. A little cheaper too (cough).

Anyway, nice chiller OP. Plate chillers are great for some, but not for everyone, and you will be happy with your IC.
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I didn't think of this. I run the hot/warm water from my IC down the drain. Nrxt time I will fill a bucket with it and then place the IC in the bucket to soak/rinse.

Thanks!
TPH
 
Well i used my wort chiller for the first time last night and worked like a charm!! 22 mins after i pitched!
I had a pond pump doin nothing in my shed so i rigged it up to it into a rubbermaid full of cold water and snow...Summertime will be more interesting!
 
Let me draw out a little hate!

What a waste of money and water! I've gotten the same result with my beer by going to no chill. It takes longer to get to pitching temperature but I'm goinig to let the beer set in the fermenter for 3 weeks and in the bottles for 3 weeks so what difference does a few hours make?
 
RM-MN said:
Let me draw out a little hate!

What a waste of money and water! I've gotten the same result with my beer by going to no chill. It takes longer to get to pitching temperature but I'm goinig to let the beer set in the fermenter for 3 weeks and in the bottles for 3 weeks so what difference does a few hours make?
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I think Brulosopher oughta put this to the test. What affect, if any, does chill vs no chill have on the outcome?
 
I brewed a Trappist with a friend over the weekend, and we got 5 gallons of wort from 212° F down to 60° F in 4 and a half minutes. :) Gotta love plate chillers and Canadian winter tap water! Besides the time savings, it's nice to waste less water. In our case, we saved the first 2 buckets of hot "waste" water from the chiller to use for cleaning, and went through 3 more buckets (dumped into the snow bank) before we hit our temperature. So really, only wasted 3 buckets of water - not too bad.
 
We have some concerns, but honestly for a family of three my water bill is less than 30 a month, but that includes my sewage and garbage fees as well as my water bill. We know that one day our neighbours from the south will come to claim our water, so for now we will use it until the great North American water wars have begun. And we will play our national sport upon frozen lakes of water beneath which lie the bodies of frozen invaders, weighed down with curling rocks.
 
phug said:
We have some concerns, but honestly for a family of three my water bill is less than 30 a month, but that includes my sewage and garbage fees as well as my water bill. We know that one day our neighbours from the south will come to claim our water, so for now we will use it until the great North American water wars have begun. And we will play our national sport upon frozen lakes of water beneath which lie the bodies of frozen invaders, weighed down with curling rocks.
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Geez $30??? Here in southern California we try and conserve water yet our bill is close to or $200 monthly!
 
phug said:
We have some concerns, but honestly for a family of three my water bill is less than 30 a month, but that includes my sewage and garbage fees as well as my water bill. We know that one day our neighbours from the south will come to claim our water, so for now we will use it until the great North American water wars have begun. And we will play our national sport upon frozen lakes of water beneath which lie the bodies of frozen invaders, weighed down with curling rocks.
Click to expand...

Geez $30??? Here in southern California we try and conserve water yet our bill is close to or $200 monthly! Family of 4.
 
phug said:
We have some concerns, but honestly for a family of three my water bill is less than 30 a month, but that includes my sewage and garbage fees as well as my water bill. We know that one day our neighbours from the south will come to claim our water, so for now we will use it until the great North American water wars have begun. And we will play our national sport upon frozen lakes of water beneath which lie the bodies of frozen invaders, weighed down with curling rocks.
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Geez $30??? Here in southern California we try and conserve water yet our bill is close to or $200 monthly! Family of 4 and my sprinklers are off, my grass isn't as green as I would like it, and I buy spring water in gallon bottles when I brew. .99+tax each
 
My IC usually drops me to temp in about 20 minutes.

I had a spare a friend had given me that I never used so I went a bit further today. Put the second IC in a bucket of ice water then connected the out to my primary IC.

Cooled me to temp in under 10 minutes.
 
Hank_Scorpio said:
He has a guest post on this very topic!
http://brulosophy.com/2015/02/09/a-year-of-no-chill-lessons-from-a-secret-xbmt/

The author had some trouble with hop-forward styles using the no chill method, but maltier beers seemed to turn out just fine. Worth a read, for sure.
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I've had the same experience, and now use the immersion chiller for the hop-forward beers and no-chill everything else. However I then use the first 8 gallons or so of the immersion chiller water as pre-heated mash water for a second batch.
 
Random slightly off topic question but does anyone else worry about their IC cracking when they first hit it with cold water?

I do even though I sure they dont as i would have heard about it by now
 
HAREEBROWNBEEST said:
Geez $30??? Here in southern California we try and conserve water yet our bill is close to or $200 monthly! Family of 4 and my sprinklers are off, my grass isn't as green as I would like it, and I buy spring water in gallon bottles when I brew. .99+tax each
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I'm sure prices vary throughout the country. And we don't have a pool. But when you live on one of the Great Lakes, water Is plentiful. Plus we've got an area not too far away called land'o'lakes. You can't go two miles in a straight line without hitting another lake. And if you've ever flown over northern canada it's lakes and snow everywhere.

Has anyone considered floating, or tankering icebergs down from Alaska to California?
 
ol-hazza said:
Random slightly off topic question but does anyone else worry about their IC cracking when they first hit it with cold water?

I do even though I sure they dont as i would have heard about it by now
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You can rest easy, copper is very resilient and sudden temp changes from boiling to near freezing will not cause it to crack. You would need it to get subzero before having to get concerned.
 
Hamaki said:
I've heard this idea before but can't imagine how it could be cost effective. Anyone ever done it and tracked costs?
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The currents would be in your favour moving southward from Alaska, and when you ship stuff by sea, size and weight don't seem to mean much.

The real problem I see is gettin the water into the reservoir systems.
 
Hamaki said:
I've heard this idea before but can't imagine how it could be cost effective. Anyone ever done it and tracked costs?
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There's at least one bottles water company that does harvest icebergs off Alaska. I recall watching a documentary on it
 
phug said:
There's at least one bottles water company that does harvest icebergs off Alaska. I recall watching a documentary on it
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It blows my mind that people are willing to spend enough money on bottled water to make that a profitable venture.....
 
theseeker4 said:
It blows my mind that people are willing to spend enough money on bottled water to make that a profitable venture.....
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I agree but at the same time I've been really put off by theoretically potable tap water in a number of cities. Worst I ever experienced was at my son's home near Pensacola, Florida. Our well here is high in iron & manganese but I like the taste. Best tasting water I've experienced is from a stream about 75 miles from here, as long as you don't ruin it with iodophore or boiling. I've never had giardia and have been told by those who have that if I ever do I'll change my ways.
 
CJ-3 said:
You can rest easy, copper is very resilient and sudden temp changes from boiling to near freezing will not cause it to crack. You would need it to get subzero before having to get concerned.
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I thought as much but still whince when the first jet of water goes through it
 
The past 3 batches using my wort chiller and I have learned a lot.

I recirculate my water, and originally we started with 1 bag of large ice, and 4 gallons of water, and it would take under 15 minutes.

now we use 1 bag of large ice and 1 gallon of water, just under 8 minutes (3 gallon). same set up, same coil. (20' 3/8 copper).

So playing around with the beginning water/ice ratio really did help save water, as well as cut the time in half :)
 

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