Immersion Chiller / Heating Coil

[Brendan]

Wanted to build an immersion coil to be able to quickly cool my all grain mashes, so that I didn't have to rely on passive cooling in ice baths. Got an 18m coil of 1/2" copper tube.

I made it to fit perfectly in my open top keg/mash tun, and found that this 12L glass container was the right size for what I needed, so proceeded to start coiling.

As well as building an immersion coil, I had this crazy idea that a way to be able to cook up my corn for a bourbon wash, was if I was able to recirculate boiling water through the coil while it is submersed in the mash. Then I should be able to raise its temperature and not have to worry about gas burners or internal heating element which can have detrimental results on bourbon mashes.

Also found I had a couple of small bits of 1/2" coil laying around that were offcuts and I hadn't used for anything else, so I thought i'd buy myself a few extra turns and go all out for a 75 foot (22.86m) coil. Although the 18m would have been enough for an immersion chiller, I really wanted as much coil as possible to use as a heating coil in the mash tun.

Joined them all together, and attached input and output arms...

Gave it a good clean up and sanding

[Brendan]

The extra arm that you see is a structural support to firstly hold it all together, but secondly to be able to pick it up, as the input arm starts at the top of the coil, so has not strength to be able to lift with. The support arm is looped under the bottom of the coil aswell for structural strength to be able to lift it from the bottom by pulling up with that arm...it's open at the top so that there is no build up of pressure under changes of heat in the coil, but no wort/mash ever gets into it.

Fits perfectly in the keg mash tun as planned

[Brendan]

Gives you an idea of the structural support at the bottom. The left hand side is the output which comes out and back in for both balance and a bit of strength and then heads up to the top to the output spout...The right is the structural arm to help in picking the coil up and taking it in and out of the mash tun while full.

I found these wicked push connect fittings in Bunnings (like Home Depot). I've been using the push connect fittings for the Pe-X high temp pipe, but they also have stuff for copper, so I got these copper to Pe-X couplers which are push connect for both...

Pe-X high temp tubing attached which can handle boiling water through it for use as a heating coil.

Found that rather than having to make anything more complex, the standard garden hose locks into the push connect perfectly, so that made that easy. Hose hooked up to run mains water through as an immersion cooling coil.

[Brendan]

To achieve the heating coil idea that Ihad in mind, I need a pump that can handle 100 deg C boiling water. In the future I will look to get a better quality pump, but for now all I had was a couple of the little brown pumps. I know they've got a terrible track record and don't know how long it will last, and some people have been through several in a few months...but it's still going for the last 6 months of use

Wired the pump up with another pc fan speed controller in a project box, which allows me to control the flow rate of the little pump

Works a treat. I'll show the setup and running in my upcoming all grain bourbon thread

[MitchyBourbon]

Very cool Brendan, that will definitely chill. Let me know how well it works out for heating, I'm always looking for better ways to cook corn.

Cheers.

[MitchyBourbon]

I have 2 March pumps. They can handle higher than 100° C. They are a little expensive, I think I paid about 150 each for mine.

[Brendan]

Very cool Brendan, that will definitely chill. Let me know how well it works out for heating, I'm always looking for better ways to cook corn.

Cheers.

I've been using it for a while now Mitchy...this is actually something I had posted up on another site so I want to share a few of my threads here for everyone.

It works really well for heating. I use my boiler on a bench above it which keeps the temp of the recirculating water up, and the pump pushes it through the coil with ease. Holds the temp of the corn mash at about 93 degrees celsius (199.4 deg Farenheit)

I have 2 March pumps. They can handle higher than 100° C. They are a little expensive, I think I paid about 150 each for mine.

Yeah March pumps are good. I just gave this little cheap one a go, and it's been working perfectly. But I will upgrade to a March when I need one.

[bellybuster]

Nice chiller, I'll give you a good thing to think about.
The first time you use it in your boil pot for beer, make sure you know how much liquid it displaces. Screaming hot wort all over is not a fun thing to experience.... Hard to get off the garage floor too....

[Brendan]

Nice chiller, I'll give you a good thing to think about.
The first time you use it in your boil pot for beer, make sure you know how much liquid it displaces. Screaming hot wort all over is not a fun thing to experience.... Hard to get off the garage floor too....

Yeah belly, the first time I used it, the mash came right to the top of my mash tun...I had to agitate very carefully Did spill a lot of sugar corn mash on the shed floor which does not clean off easily!

[heartcut]

I have 2 March pumps. They can handle higher than 100° C. They are a little expensive, I think I paid about 150 each for mine.

Check out Chugger pumps- a ss body pump is less than the polysulfone March pump that I bought (dammit) and it has the same dimensions and power so the ss chugger can be retrofitted to the March.
That is a seriously good looking immersion chiller, and I'm also a veteran of the displacement wort mopping.

[Prairiepiss]

That's a big chunk of copper. Nice looking chiller.

[bellybuster]

"displacement wort mopping"

we should start a club

[MitchyBourbon]

Hey Brendan,

Is stirring corn a problem/inconvenient with the coil in the pot?

[Brendan]

Hey Brendan,

Is stirring corn a problem/inconvenient with the coil in the pot?

I'm going to put up my thread on it early next week, but there's no problem as I use a paint mixer on a 240V drill to agitate it. Just stick it down the middle and it works its way around the coil. Once the corn has gelatinised, I take the coil out and give it a good blast with the mixer while getting the temp down for malt addition.