Graham Style Condenser

[amÉIREcan]

I am looking to build a Graham style condenser that I can use for multiple purposes, of course for distilling but I also am picturing an in line wort chiller for my beer making setup. I did a little research and the general consensus is 1/2 inch vapour tube. What's the minimum tightness should I make the coil to avoid kinking my precious copper tubing what size pipe should I use for my outer jacket? And what about overall length of the cold water compartment? My current still is a tiny 3 gallon but will most likely upgrade to a 13 gallon beer keg someday in the future. Also if anyone has ever built a Graham condenser and they have any tips or tricks they are willing to pass down would be greatly appreciated!

[StillerBoy]

Try here, and see what is can provide.. you will need to type the url in, just can't get it to work right..

http://homedistiller.org" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow graham condenser

Mars

[corene1]

Rolling the coil is the hardest part. I have a built my Grahm condenser with a 5.5 inch diameter stainless tube 16 inches long and it houses 10 feet of 1/2 inch ID copper tube. It will cool anything I can put to it. I rolled the copper tube around a piece of 3 inch od pipe. Make sure you use soft copper that is sold in the box, not a piece of the straight copper tube that is sold in the rack . To bend it I fill it with water and crimp the ends then freeze it solid. Then I put the pipe in a vise and clamp the end of the copper tube to it and start winding it onto the tube keeping constant pressure and also pulling on the copper to keep it tight to the tube. Try to keep your spacing's between the wraps equal. I have about a 1 inch space per wrap and it seems to work well.That puts the copper tube about 1-1/2 inches on center. If you are working too slow and the ice begins to melt just put it back in the freezer for a while and continue.