I'm a stovetop brewer and have been playing around with the idea of buying a chiller -but if I can find a used one that would be great! I'm just looking for the basic immersion with a sink attachment as I do all my brewing inside! PM me if you may have something and are in the Milwaukee/WI area!
__________________
Graduate of Geology.
Undergraduate of Brewing.
Primary: Oudu Bruin, German Alt
condition:TartRaspberryAle, Saison, Hefeweizen
on deck: Hmm..
It seems like this would be an easy DIY project at home depot.
Roll of copper tubing, a few feet of plastic tubing, two hose clamps, and a faucet adapter.
It can be that simple, I built mine into a brass frame so it sits flat in the bottom of a brew kettle. A couple years ago I upgraded to a homebrew (pun intended) counterflow chiller made from 25 feet of 3/8" copper tubing and garden hose, which works much faster.
__________________
On deck: a clone of Carolina Beer Co's Rye Stout, clone of Breckenridge's Vanilla Porter,
Primary: Holiday brew
Secondary: Alt
Keg Conditioning: Big Muddy Monster clone attempt, RyePA, Honey Koelsch
On tap: Okto, , Bourbon Stout, Dunkelweizen, Tastebuddicide
Bottled: Mead, Quad Rajet, Granola Bar Braggot
Too much of everything is just enough.
- J. Garcia
I built mine about 15 or so years ago, and even though it's butt ugly, poorly coiled, kinked here and there it still works great for me. It's one of those things that should last forever if properly maintained.
I did the math at Home Depot:
After the initial $25-$30 for a 20ft roll of copper its really inexpensive to go with basic hose clamps and clear plastic tubing. I found a hose thread adapter for $2
I was under $40 for the parts. I hear bending the copper is the hard part though.
The "challenge" with counterflow chillers is sanitation. You have to meticulously keep the interior of the inner copper tube clean and clear or you risk infections. An immersion chiller is immediately sanitized by immersing during the final 5 minutes of the boil. Easy peasy.
I, too, made my I.C. many, brew moons ago. I used 50' of 3/8" copper refrigeration tubing before copper became so dear, and wound two helixes, one around the other with an inch or two of space seperating them. I then left enough on the ends to run the copper chiller lines all the way out of the (1/2 barrel) brew kettle to make the connections to the vinyl supply hoses outside of it (in case of leaks and drips). Looks like this:
I recall that the whole thing cost me a grand total of ~$30. No way close in today's copper prices. Best I can find is around $1 a foot now. Copper is so dear that miscreants go around cutting the pipes out of unoccupied houses to subsidize their crack habits these days.
Most of the IC's that you see for sale are just single coil 25' length. They will work OK, but just take a little longer, especially on larger batches. The more chilled copper you can get immersed in the wort the faster it will work. It's all about surface area, especially when the wort his down to 80 degrees and you're trying to get that last 10-20 degrees out.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rumplemintz
I did the math at Home Depot:
After the initial $25-$30 for a 20ft roll of copper its really inexpensive to go with basic hose clamps and clear plastic tubing. I found a hose thread adapter for $2
I was under $40 for the parts. I hear bending the copper is the hard part though.
No, not at all. Refrigeration tubing is very malleable. Just straighten it out completely in some big open area first, then rewind it around something of the right diameter to form your coils. Do not attempt to twist it, that's the only time you'll get into trouble. Roll, baby, roll.
You'll be (pleasantly) surprised how easy it is.
Tempus fugit. Carpe cerveza!!
__________________
Fred W -
Chief Proprietor and bottle washer - Fearless Freddies' Brewing
Mine is a 50/50 split immersion chiller. Meaning 50 foot, then about a 5 inch gap, then 50 more feet of coil on the top half. It's 100 ft total of 1/2 inch copper. It's made for half barrel kettles. I bought it for $98 from morebeer.com. I agree with Fred that the copper price was at least $1/ft, which would have put me more than that before I soldered the ends on for the hoses. Plus morebeer.com ships for free.
FWIW, Craig's list is a great way to find used brewing equipment.
Good luck!
ya know I've been looking really hard on craigslist for ANY brewing equipment and have had no such luck finding even a carboy... Maybe just not as big of a hobby here I guess
Linear Mode
