Building a wort chiller

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MaximumTrainer

MaximumTrainer

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Hey guys,

I want to get an immersion wort chiller to speed up my brew day. I currently use the bath, but it takes around 5 hours to cool down 5 gallons.
After checking the prices here in Canada, I found building it would be way cheaper. Too bad I don't live in the US because amazon.com has great deals on SS immersion chiller

I found this tutorial that seems pretty good. but it requires a 50' 1/2" OD Copper Tubing.
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S94Lhp-bv8M[/ame]

My local store only has access to 25ft like this one:
http://www.renodepot.com/en/copper-pipe-0144048

Would this be enough to cool down 10 gallons of hot wort? I'm thinking of doing 10 gal batches later and want to build a good cooler.

I'm not good with tubing and stuff, so any help building this thing is appreciated!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I would not buy or make a 25' IC.

I got one when I started and I found it to be very inefficient for my 5.5 gallon batches. If you are going to do 10 gallon batches I view it as a very bad choice. It's completely unsuited to the task.
 
home depot Rona etc etc carry soft copper in 50' rolls under "refrigeration tubing"

That said, I made mine out of 3/8" and it worked wonders for 12 gallon batches.
 
For 10g batches, you want a 50' chiller, preferrably 1/2". I started with a 25' chiller, can't remember if it was 1/4" or 3/8". It wasn't even really that good for 5g batches. Better than an ice bath, but it still took a while.

I can't say what prices are in Canada for 50' 1/2" soft copper coils but they are around $60 here in the US.

I watched several tutorials when I built mine (including the one you linked to). This is the one I found to work the best for me:
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8EolKTDZUQ[/ame]

I like this one because it has separate vertical pieces and you don't have to worry about bending the coil up to the hose connectors.
 
Wow thanks guys I was not expecting that many replies
So 25ft is not good for my needs, I will check out to find 50 ft of 1/2 tubing now, going to hit Rénot dépôt directly today.

@hezagenius - Good video, not sure I have this level of equipment though (torch, ...) so I may go with the cheaper version and bending the tube
 
I recently built a dual could immersion chiller. It has two 20' coils, w input goes to the bottom where it is split and comes up the two coils where the water joins again at the output. It cools my 10 gallon boils to 70 degrees in 15 minutes. Of course this is dependent on the temp of your tap water as well.

image.jpg
 
A couple of things. As Johow mentions, the temperature of your tap water will have a big impact on your cooling (temperature difference is the important variable here.) To claim that "25' of copper isn't enough" is kind of silly; 25' of copper will just take about twice as long to cool your wort to a given temp as 50'. Bear in mind that once the temperature of the water in the tubing has come up to equilibrium with the wort, no more cooling will occur, so at first, having 50' instead of 25' won't gain you anything. Remember that surface area of copper is your most important variable; 1/2" OD is 33% more, so it will cool 33% faster (given constant tubing length.) If the cost of 25' of similar diameter tubing is less than half the cost of a 50' length, you may want to consider building 2 separate immersion chillers and use one as a pre-chiller. Put the pre-chiller in a bucket and fill it with ice and water after the initial temperature reduction (you won't need the pre-chiller at first, the temp of 200F wort will drop rapidly when it comes in contact with 60F tap water.)
 
Thanks guys, I'm now considering a Plate Chiller instead.

So how does one control the temperature with this type of chiller?
With an immersion chiller, I would just check and stop the water going in when my temp is on target.

How does this one work?
If I don't want to use a pump, I need the wort to be exactly at pitching temp when it goes out so that it goes directly in the fermenter.
I have a valve on my kettle, so I would plug a hose from the kettle to the chiller. I'm also a bit worry about sediment (flour) coming from the wort, can it block the chiller?
 
plate chillers sure can and do block with trub, they need a clear wort. I sold my plate chiller in favour of a counter flow chiller. I don't have worries about trub.
That being said, they work fantastic and temps can be hit bang on if you have a consistent cooling water source. You can either have a constant wort flow or water flow to gain the perfect temp. If the exit is too warm, simply increase cooling water or slow down wort transfer, easy.
 
Use something to contain your hops during the boil and you shouldn't have to worry about plugging the plate. A hop screen, hop spider, a BIAB bag clipped to the side of the kettle. Really anything will work.
 
MaximumTrainer said:
Wow thanks guys I was not expecting that many replies
So 25ft is not good for my needs, I will check out to find 50 ft of 1/2 tubing now, going to hit Rénot dépôt directly today.

@hezagenius - Good video, not sure I have this level of equipment though (torch, ...) so I may go with the cheaper version and bending the tube
Click to expand...

I bought the torch for 30 USD. That came with flux, a flux brush and solder. You'd need to buy some elbows and straight pipe as well. Not sure if I'll use the torch again unless I build another chiller but it was fun to play with! Took some practice to get the hang of soldering.

I figure I spent about $100-110 all-in to build the chiller which is definitely cheaper than buying a 50' 1/2" chiller. And to build another one or do some other copper soldering, I've got the torch now.

I think in terms of stability, building it like in the video I linked to is more stable than making the whole thing out of 1 piece of copper coil. That was a big reason I built it that way.

Post #3 in this link is what mine looks like
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=540770
 
Bellybuster said:
plate chillers sure can and do block with trub, they need a clear wort. I sold my plate chiller in favour of a counter flow chiller. I don't have worries about trub.
That being said, they work fantastic and temps can be hit bang on if you have a consistent cooling water source. You can either have a constant wort flow or water flow to gain the perfect temp. If the exit is too warm, simply increase cooling water or slow down wort transfer, easy.
Click to expand...

My wort is pretty clear, but I have a bit of flour at the bottom each time (I use wilser bag but my grain is pretty small so some flour pass). I don't think this would block the chiller, since it doesn't block the kettle spigot. I will decide between plate chillers and counter flow chiller. Do you guys use silicone tubing from the kettle spigot to the chiller? Thanks

What do you guys think of this one? It's in rebate right now
http://hopdawgs.ca/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=342&search=chiller

New problem, where to find 1x Silicone tubing (hot wort) and 3x Vinyl tubing that will fit this?

Silicone Tubing:
http://hopdawgs.ca/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=309&search=tubing

Blichmann Thrumometer 1/2"
http://hopdawgs.ca/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=269

Adapters and 3X Vinyl tubes to find...
 
MaximumTrainer said:
Okay I have updated my buy list here. If anyone with tubing skills can help me. What kind of adapter would be missing there? I will be using my kitchen faucet. I'm guessing I will also need 2 garden hoses, one for intake and one for outtake?

Copper Refrigeration Coil 1/2 Inch x 50 Foot - 58$

Junior Tube Cutter - 6$

4-Piece Tube Bending Spring Set - 8$

Copper Wire-Coiled 20G X 7.5M - 4$

Adapter to Hose - 6$

Supply Fitting 1/2 Inch Compression Straight Chrome Plated Brass Lead Free - 2X 4$
Click to expand...


ouch, 50$ for the copper. I happen to own a heating company, so i have thousands of pounds of leftover copper tubing from ac units. I made a 7/8" 50 foot chiller for my set up. Cools it down great, and was free :)
 
I made a 50' wort chiller, and of the items I bought, I thought the price of the hose adapter was the most ridiculous.

50' of soft copper from the local plumbing supply house was $35.
 

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