New Wort Chiller Idea

[DallasSVT]

I recently brewed with a friend of mine for the first time and he showed me a totally new way of chilling your wart. he built a chiller out of 30' of copper tubing, about 10' of plastic tubing and a pump. he had about 5' of plastic tubing connected to the out port of the pump and about a foot of plastic tubing connected from the in on the pump to the chiller, than from the other side of the chiller was the other 4' of plastic tubing. Now here is the cool part get a 5 gallon bucket of ice water and put the chiller in the bucket, than pump the hot bear out of the brew kwttle threw the chiller in the cold water and right into the carboy you are using for your first stage. the beer is chilled down to like 70 degrees in one go round and it will take about 5 min to pump 5 gallons of beer!! Works Great. YOU MUST SANATIZE the pump and chiller by pumping a sanitizer threw it. :D

[Jeff]

Out of curiosity what size of pump is he using? Does this method also make the flow turbulent enough to aerate the wort before going to the carboy? How do you make sure you get all of the wort out of the coils, water, air etc?

[YamahaXS]

It is different, but I would be concerned that over time, that pump is going to become a petri dish.

[chris1kanobi]

My buddy pumps his WORT through a counterflow chiller in very much the same manner. Just make sure you run cleaner and sanitizer through the entire set-up before and after brewing. Here is another version of the same concept:

http://www.zymico.com/elcheapo.htm

[OldHooky]

I thought about doing it that way, but sanitation worries me. I used 1/2" flexible copper(50') and run tap water through it. It took only 14 minutes to chill the wort to 75 degrees. Fast enough for me and one less worry about infection.

[DallasSVT]

you have to keep every thing clean, i usually run like some pbc threw it and than the sanitizer. and yes before and after, other than that it works great

[toneyc]

OK, I've been thinking about this a little bit this morning.... Oops, hang on, the coffee's ready... OK, so the question that came to my mind this morning is: I've just turned off the burner and I start siphoning my very hot wort through my chiller immersed in a bucket of ice. What temperature is the wort when it comes out of the chiller? What happens to the hot and cold break? I guess that question also applies to counterflow wort chiller users. My biggest concern, though, is the temperature of the wort at output, because at present, I dump the entire cooled contents of my brew pot into my fermenter, anyway, hops, hot-n-cold break, and all. Is vinyl tubing OK at nearing boiling water temps or do I need to use a copper pick up tube from the pot to the chiller? It seems to me that 3/8 tubing would supply more surface area to wort ratio than 1/2 tubing. On the other hand, what about laminar flow? Ug, I need another cuppa coffee.

:)
Toney.

[DallasSVT]

i would have to get the specs on the pump for you. the wort comes out the pot at arround boiling temp hops and all go right threw the pump and it goes strait into the fermenter at arround 68 degrees. the ice in the bucket will melt extreemly fast, so the colder you want it the more ice you need, you should give it a try after using this method i will never try anything else it works so smoothly and compleet. just remember you are pumping beer so EVERYTHING has to be kept clean and sanitized

P.S. is tere anywhere on this fourm where people sell products like carboys, pots...?

[chris1kanobi]

Toneyc- The hot and cold break will still seperate in the fermenter and all the wort does end up in the fermenter if you wish. Normal tubing will be fine, however I use Tygon, it is food and temp grade and has a better fit. It available at usplastics.com or better hardware and brew stores. 3/8 in. copper would chill better than 1/2. and 1/4 would be even better (if you could find a 50 ft. roll and not kink it to death. Dry ice or snow would really help this type of system. My Dad uses a small heater core (from a car) and pre-chills his water for his emersion chiller in an ice bath. It takes less time, but my 50 ft. of copper and Colorado water takes about 10 min. to chill 6 gallons, so why clean and set up more stuff? I like the comfort of knowing that my emersion chiller is clean and boiled. I am willing to wait 10 min. for that comfort. But it is great that you guys are dreaming up new ideas for brewing.