Homemade wort chiller

[Lawfish]

Made a wort chiller this weekend. 50 feet of 3/8" copper tubing wrapped around a 5-gallon bucket. Supply line is 3/8" to 3/8" compression. I have an overhead supply valve, which I use to supply cooling water to my worm when pot-stilling, so this same line serves as the supply line for the wort chiller. It brought 5 gallons of boiling wort down to 90 degrees in 5:42. I'm amazed. Cooling used to require about 40 minutes in the deep sink surrounded by gallon and 2-liter ice bottles. The mixer vastly increases efficiency. You can literally watch the temperature drop.

[rgreen2002]

Nice looking setup ya got there Lawfish!

[Truckinbutch]

I'm impressed . SRD and I have been relying on ambient temperature and constant stirring to cool a mash . We have also been talking about winding chiller coils to immerse in our mash boilers .
That cooldown time beats hell out of waiting for convection to cool a mash .

[bronctoad]

having a stirrer in the middle of a wort cooler way cool. I'm sensing new build thanks Lawfish

[WIski]

The mud mixer would need to be stabilized or run very slow as it would play hell with that soft copper tube. Don't ask how I know this.

[jb-texshine]

The mud mixer would need to be stabilized or run very slow as it would play hell with that soft copper tube. Don't ask how I know this.

I wont ask as i can guess,but did you by chanch get it on video as i could use a laugh....

[Truckinbutch]

The mud mixer would need to be stabilized or run very slow as it would play hell with that soft copper tube. Don't ask how I know this.

I wont ask as i can guess,but did you by chanch get it on video as i could use a laugh....

+1 . Another "Don't ask me how I know this" moment .

[Lawfish]

The mud mixer would need to be stabilized or run very slow as it would play hell with that soft copper tube. Don't ask how I know this.

I designed it specifically to stay clear of the mud mixer. First run was textbook. I can't believe I didn't make one of these sooner. Now the time that I used to spend waiting for the wort to chill is time I can spend on the front end making all-grain beer instead of extract crap-ola.

[WooTeck]

looking good lawman. its one of the things i couldnt live with out since i made mine a while back. ive been thinking about making a new one. my old has seen better days its been beat up pretty bad. looking at the hydra wort chiller and jamil zainasheff from mrmalty.com as insparation. i feel the hydra is a little over kill but going from boil to 68f in 3 min is something to aspire to. i like the mr malty whirl pool idea, but i think it would help with my trub isues i have currently.

[Brutal]

Looking good man! I made one out of 3/8" tube as well, the same length too. Unfortunately I've not been able to use it yet. I wrapped mine around a smaller keg so it's a little narrower than yours. I wanted to be able to use it on my smaller barrel shaped fermenters so it needed to be narrow enough to get in. It's real use is going to be for cooling big 40+ gallon AG mashes. In those I hope to hold it up and have my mixer go through it and extend down below it. Good job buddy 5ish minutes from boiling is impressive. I hope mine works as well.

Happy stillin'.

[Lawfish]

Thanks all. I used it for a second time this past weekend. It went from boiling to 75 degrees in 9 minutes. The stirring obviously has a big impact on how fast this thing cools. I'm loving it!

[okie]

I made one a few years ago. They work fast

[goinbroke2]

There's talk of cooling the wort quickly and "leaving the cold crash in the kettle"....what does that mean? Is he talking about the bits of crap that drop out of suspension when it cools? Cool it quickly and all the crap drops out of suspension, then transfer the clean (er) wort to your fermenter?

I have a SS mortar mixer and a bunch of copper line so yes I think I'll do the same when I start doing all grain beer.

Boy, there's lots of good info on this site eh?

[ShineRunner]

There's talk of cooling the wort quickly and "leaving the cold crash in the kettle"....what does that mean? Is he talking about the bits of crap that drop out of suspension when it cools? Cool it quickly and all the crap drops out of suspension, then transfer the clean (er) wort to your fermenter?

I have a SS mortar mixer and a bunch of copper line so yes I think I'll do the same when I start doing all grain beer.

Boy, there's lots of good info on this site eh?

Yep, they're talking about cold break proteins. They will form as the wort cools from boiling. It results in a cleaner wort to your fermenter, but there is some debate amongst Brewers whether that makes any difference or not. I use a counterflow chiller for brewing and all the cold break proteins end up in the fermenter. I haven't noticed a difference, but maybe others can.

SR

Edit: check this out http://brulosophy.com/2014/06/02/the-gr ... ts-are-in/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

[WooTeck]

what sr said.

i was going to link to brulosophy while reading your comment but you beat me to it.

[Lawfish]

I read that article before too. I just siphoned everything in the brew kettle into my fermenter. With the use of Irish moss, all that stuff dropped to the bottom within an hour.

[Wolfairious]

Ice Baths - Immersion Chiller - Bigger immersion Chiller - Counterflow chiller. That has been my progression. Love my counterflow and the water it saves me.

[Yummyrum]

I’m a bit confused .
Do you run the hot wart through the copper coil or run cool water through it as in an immersion chiller .
Not real up on all this beer stuff

[Wolfairious]

You run the cold water through the coil and put the immersion chiller in the wort. Then you move it up and down or stir the wort around so that it moves against the chiller. Otherwise it will take forever. My immersion chillers are stainless tube.

[Yummyrum]

Thanks wolf , guessed as so but just checking I wasn’t confussing myself .
Wolf yo say yours is Stainless ... been wondering about this . Makes sense to use Staino cause its not gonna be effected by wort / wash but copper’s lot easier to bend and such . Is staino a better option .?

[Wolfairious]

As with anything in the hobby world there are differing opinions. The thermal conductivity of copper is much greater than stainless, so in theory it will cool the wort quicker. In the small scale home-brew applications how much this actually effects it is up for debate. I found that the stainless is so much easier to keep clean and to sanitize that the small added cost of it far out weighed the increased time it might take to cool. NY Brew Supply has the best prices on stainless pre-made chillers. I am huge into DIY, but after reading about how many issues people had trying to make their own I decided my time is worth more than the added expense, added to that better sanitation features ect I went with the pre made stainless. Plus Copper is real expensive at this point so the price difference wasn't that great.

[The Baker]

As with anything in the hobby world there are differing opinions. The thermal conductivity of copper is much greater than stainless, so in theory it will cool the wort quicker. In the small scale home-brew applications how much this actually effects it is up for debate. I found that the stainless is so much easier to keep clean and to sanitize that the small added cost of it far out weighed the increased time it might take to cool. NY Brew Supply has the best prices on stainless pre-made chillers. I am huge into DIY, but after reading about how many issues people had trying to make their own I decided my time is worth more than the added expense, added to that better sanitation features ect I went with the pre made stainless. Plus Copper is real expensive at this point so the price difference wasn't that great.

Yeah my son made beer a few times but he said (I don't drink beer) that it wasn't so great.
So we plan to make some beer with the braumeister before trying it for grain whiskey.

Geoff

[greggn]

Wolf yo say yours is Stainless ... been wondering about this . Makes sense to use Staino cause its not gonna be effected by wort / wash but copper’s lot easier to bend and such . Is staino a better option .?

I made mine out of CSST ... which we all know is a breeze to form. I coiled mine to fit in my fermenter, rather than my mash tun, so it's narrower than the typical retail chiller.

[Wolfairious]

Yeah my son made beer a few times but he said (I don't drink beer) that it wasn't so great.
So we plan to make some beer with the braumeister before trying it for grain whiskey. Geoff

Fermentation temp stability makes a big difference in beer. After getting great sanitation, that is the next thing to work on when making beer. When I started I was getting what I call "homebrew" taste out of my beers. After finally trying different things I figured out that one of the common yeast, S-05 was causing this flavor that I just didn't like. It's just me, other people think they taste great. I just don't like that yeast.

[Wolfairious]

I made mine out of CSST ... which we all know is a breeze to form. I coiled mine to fit in my fermenter, rather than my mash tun, so it's narrower than the typical retail chiller.

I just made a chiller from CSST for my CCVM upgrade. If I could get that stuff in a long enough piece that would be a great wort chiller! I used 3/8 at 72". My wort chiller is like 50' long at 1/2. I couldn't find CSST that long. I am sure the increased surface area of the CSST would mean you don't need as long of a piece but I would think it should be longer than 72".

[Anyhowe]

Yeah my son made beer a few times but he said (I don't drink beer) that it wasn't so great.
So we plan to make some beer with the braumeister before trying it for grain whiskey. Geoff

Fermentation temp stability makes a big difference in beer. After getting great sanitation, that is the next thing to work on when making beer. When I started I was getting what I call "homebrew" taste out of my beers. After finally trying different things I figured out that one of the common yeast, S-05 was causing this flavor that I just didn't like. It's just me, other people think they taste great. I just don't like that yeast.

Yup. Lots of esters in that London style ale especially if fermented warm. So5 is much cleaner if that suits you.