Homemade wortchiller

Seems like overkill to me. I've got the "standard" commercially available chiller, and it works just fine. Why spend the extra effort and material for what would seem to be a minimal increase in efficiency? Unless of course you just want to do it for the heck of it.

bob p

On Wed, 30 Mar 2005 20:08:32 -0500, "MarkMogs" said in alt.beer.home-brewing:

Think about it. The cold water comes into the top of the coil and flows to the bottom. Then it goes back to the top after it's been warmed? Why? You want to get rid of that warmer water. You can use more than 25 feet, but keep it in a single coil, top to bottom. The colder wort on the top sinks to the bottom, exposing warmer wort to the colder cooling water. Doing it in 2 coils ruins the thermodynamics.

I have to say negatory on the ruining thermodynamics thing.

Cooler wort moves down, warmer wort moves up.

The more surface area of copper to wort that you have, the faster the cooling effect is going to take place, depending on the flow rate of cool water, of course.

If you are going to the trouble of making one, make it the way you want to. How much is necessary, for a result, well... probably you are going to get the same result, cooling, only faster, and with twice the Cu, twice the cooling rate, but you are probably also going to have to run the water faster to see a maximum net effect.

Have fun!

Al Kle> On Wed, 30 Mar 2005 20:08:32 -0500, "MarkMogs"

my buddy and i just got a standard 25' chiller and it cooled 7 gallons in 12 minutes to 72 deg. that's plenty fast enough for me. rich

No no no! If you have temperature layers in your wort, then you ain't stirring enough! The other thing is, if you have too many coils in your kettle, it will be that much harder to do the gentle stirring that's necessary to effectively (read that "quickly") chill your wort. Ken

MarkMogs a écrit :

Hello,

I'm very surprised at the obsession some have to cooling wort at formula one speed. I own a homemade wortchiller, but I don't use it anymore for I don't like to waste water (Any Quebecer home brewer interested to buy it can contact me by removing «.antipourriel» from my address) and I have never lost a batch since then.

My traditionnal all-grain brewing season starts in october and stops in april (winter here) and I use to put my pots (1x40L and 2X15L) directly from the woodfire stove to a 0°C to -30°C outside room, and it cools downs in a few hours, never being too exposed to O2 since all my pots are full and kept closed, while the temperature difference is keeping fresh air outside the pots.

Then I filter the wort (still containing its hops and sometimes fruits, branches etc., depending on the kind of beer I make) through hop bags and squeeze them with sterile hands to get all the tasty juice in the wort, before throwing it from 4 ft high in the stainless steel sterile primary without airlock but with a no-hermetic cover, pitching the yeast after the first 15L and before the rest, allowing to fully aerate and mix evenly. Never experienced off-flavor doing that, providing the rest of the process is air-free (using copper syphon). Neither wasted public treated water.

When I happen to brew during summer (+30°C often here in july), I do the same but I put the wort to cool in 18°C basement, which takes twice the time at least, yet the beer is still as good as the winter one. And be sure I know what good beer is!

Keep it simple and st...! ;0)

N. Falcimaigne

I don't stir as it chills. I swing the chiller back and forth in the wort. I have the tubing (in and outs) at the right height, so the tubing rests on the rim of my brew put and the bottom of the chiller is just off the bottom of the brew pot. So it is east to swing it back and forth, which keeps the wort moving and chills it down faster.

The reason I chill fast it to cause the "cold break" When you chill that fast "cold break" will form white coagulated clumps of stuff (is that stuff protein guys) that will settle out when you whirlpool. That gives you clearer beer. It has nothing to do with losing a batch.

| >> said in alt.beer.home-brewing: | >>

| >> >I'm going to be making a immersion type wort chiller and instead of the | >> >usual 25' 3/8 in. tubing im going to be using 50', and I was thinking, | >> >instead of doing a single coil of about 10'' diameter, I was thinking of | >> >also doing a inside coil of about 4'' diameter inside the 10'' coil. | >> >This | >> >way the coil will go down on the inside and come up on the outside. It | >> >doesn't seam like that much more work. Do you guys think it will be | >> >more | >> >cooling effective? or is it just a waste of time? | >>

| >> Think about it. The cold water comes into the top of the coil and | >> flows to the bottom. Then it goes back to the top after it's been | >> warmed? Why? You want to get rid of that warmer water. You can use | >> more than 25 feet, but keep it in a single coil, top to bottom. The | >> colder wort on the top sinks to the bottom, exposing warmer wort to | >> the colder cooling water. Doing it in 2 coils ruins the | >> thermodynamics. | >>

| >>

| > No no no! If you have temperature layers in your wort, then you ain't | > stirring enough! | > The other thing is, if you have too many coils in your kettle, it will be | > that | > much harder to do the gentle stirring that's necessary to effectively | > (read | > that "quickly") chill your wort. | > Ken | >

| >

| | I don't stir as it chills. I swing the chiller back and forth in the wort. I | have the tubing (in and outs) at the right height, so the tubing rests on | the rim of my brew put and the bottom of the chiller is just off the bottom | of the brew pot. So it is east to swing it back and forth, which keeps the | wort moving and chills it down faster. | | -- | | I Brew My Own Damn Beer! | Johnny Mc | | To E-mail me, get rid of the "BAD-BEER" | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |

I used to stir before I got my pump......Now I just start the pump and recirculate when I add the chiller at 15 minutes to flameout.........So nice......HJ

Damn!!!! You got me beat!!!! 8^(

I built a regular 25' coil of about 8" diameter and it cools 5 gallons to pitching temperature in about 10 minutes, pretty cool and very very useful! I fyou want even faster times then build a counterflow cooler but the construction is trickier and you'll need a pump.

James

I'm a pragmatist..if it works for you, it's good!

-------->Denny

"MarkMogs" a écrit dans le message de news: n_H2e.1682$ snipped-for-privacy@fe11.lga...

The question I asked myself when making mine was "at the end of 25', what will be the temp of my cooling water, will it still be cold enough to cool the wort?" So instead of using 25' of 3/8" i used 3-' of 1/2" thinking that the bigger diameter will have more sqare inch of surface to exchage temp and the bigger inside diameter will let more water pass true so it will be less heated and more efficient even at the end of the coil.

I'm still doing extract brewing and partial boil so i can't compare times with wath the others brewers told but so far it works well.

You just used 3' of tubing!!!!! That would not make it to the bottom of my brew pot and back to the top!!!

How exactly do you "sterilize" your hands? The heat of pressurized steam required to do this would remove the skin from you hands, and the full thickness burns you'd get would cause the need to have them amputated. The chemical means of doing it are toxic.......

Oh, you mean you "SANITIZE" your hands!

I really wish people would not use these words interchangably here. They are NOT the same and provide radically different levels of cleanliness. What is sanitary is not necessarily (almost rarely) sterile.

"Johnny Mc" a écrit dans le message de news: d2ju7e$b1l$ snipped-for-privacy@domitilla.aioe.org...

Wouppsss! 30 not 3-, excuse my typo.

Put you pet back in his kennel. What is you pets name? I think his name was "Peeve" That's it!!! You "Pet Peeve" ;^)>

Okay, you corn-fused me......

Problem is that you need to have movement of the wort to benefit the cooling.

You put the first chiller in a batch of hot wort. You just turn on the hose. Take 45 to 90 min depending on the water temp.

Same chiller, same water temp, add in constant movement to wort via human interaction or power device. Your time will drop in half. The area around the tubing will be in constant flow instead of just sitting there.

Adding allot of extra tubing won't gain you much. The initial water is hot within 5' of travel in the copper depending on the velocity of the water flow. Adding another 20 extra feet won't add squat of heat pumping action.

Better gain is for an electric drill with a paint mixer at low speed.

__Stephen