Wort Chiller

[slamback]

I just bought supplies to make a 50' 3/8" immersion wort chiller. Here's my question: I spent ~$75 on the supplies, and I can get a ready-made chiller for $57 at the LHBS, but it's only 25'. Is a 50' THAT much better than a 25' chiller? I brew only 5 gallon all grain batches, and probably won't be brewing 10 gallon batches. If it's not a significant difference in performance, I assume putting that $17 towards my next batch...

 

[gungadin]

The extra $17 for the 50' is worth it, but not required. 25' will just take longer to chill (and is fairly worthless if you want to move to 10g boils in the future).

 

[yodalegomaster]

Really the only way to tell is if the water at the end of the cooling cycle is arriving at the output side cooler than the wort's present temp. This assumes you have a reasonable water flow rate. What that means is there is not enough surface area in the cooler and you need to add more surface area. I had about 25 foot of 3/8 inch originally and added 25 foot of 1/4 and it really helped bring down the cooling rate.

 

[slamback]

I went ahead & made it & it looks good. I'll give it a whirl Thursday. I think the 50' is a good call

 

[PBHBeer]

Just used my new stainless 50' chiller from (http://www.nybrewsupply.com/products/wort-chiller-stainless-steel-immersion.php) and it was so much faster than my 25' copper one which I will be using as a pre chiller