Natural Born Chillers

[Kai]

Duck's nuts, wayne.

 

[domonsura]

No, they're bigger than that honest.

 

[Sammus]

I have one of these chillers bought from the man himself, and I may as well confirm that it is indeed the ducks nuts, or the bulls bollucks, if you prefer. Great stuff mate!

 

[KoNG]

me wants one....my precious

 

[WilBier]

Are there any negatives at all from using copper as a wort chiller?
I know it is readily available, and maleable are easy to use, but are there any implications from the copper being in contact with the wort? Does any copper leach into the wort? I have noticed that some copper looks all pink from sanitising I guess.

That being said, does anyone think it would be worth attempting to make an imersion coil from 1/2 inch stainless tube? I have a couple of lengths available (cheap) from a mate who has them left over from a job. I was thinking of annealing the tube and bending it. Slower and painful process than using copper, but methinks it could be worth it. Could even clean up the oxidising layer with pickle paste to get the stainless back to shiny.

But if there are no negatives at all from using copper, it would be cheaper and easier to use copper.

WilBier

 

[Pumpy]

Are there any negatives at all from using copper as a wort chiller?
I know it is readily available, and maleable are easy to use, but are there any implications from the copper being in contact with the wort? Does any copper leach into the wort? I have noticed that some copper looks all pink from sanitising I guess.

That being said, does anyone think it would be worth attempting to make an imersion coil from 1/2 inch stainless tube? I have a couple of lengths available (cheap) from a mate who has them left over from a job. I was thinking of annealing the tube and bending it. Slower and painful process than using copper, but methinks it could be worth it. Could even clean up the oxidising layer with pickle paste to get the stainless back to shiny.

But if there are no negatives at all from using copper, it would be cheaper and easier to use copper.

WilBier

Wilbier,

I have been using a copper chiller for years with no adverse affect :blink:

But not for the last six batches in order to save water and time and improve the clarity of the wort , you really do not need a chiller these days.

Unless you wish to pitch the yeast on the day you mash .

Pumpy

 

[WilBier]

Wilbier,

I have been using a copper chiller for years with no adverse affect :blink:

But not for the last six batches in order to save water and time and improve the clarity of the wort , you really do not need a chiller these days.

Unless you wish to pitch the yeast on the day you mash .

Pumpy
[/quote]


So after boiling, you just let the wort sit there to cool down to twenty something degrees?
Wait overnight or something?

WilBier

 

[Jez]

Hi Wilbier,

For more info do a search on "no chill" and "no chill method".

A lot of brewers on brewday just drain the hot wort into plastic cubes (the 20L water cubes like you get at Bunnings), then pack them away to ferment whenever. Same theory as a fresh wort kit you can buy in 15L cubes at brewshops. Works fine from all reports.

Jez

 

[BrissyBrew]

If you want stainless steel, I can always plug my 304 Stainless Steel, braized with pure copper in an oxygen free furnace plate heat exchangers, rippled plates to avoid laminar flow, chillout for under $100.00 most people will pay more for a coil of copper pipe and some fittings.

 

[Pumpy]

I no longer use a Chiller

It is in the history books along with

Carbon paper

Candles for the purpose of lighting

Valves in computers

leather soled shoes

Hops not supplied in vacuum paks

brewing kit beers in a poly bag in a dustbin

Druids .

Cask ales in Australia

Flowery shirts

Winkle picker shoes ( Oh they may be making a comeback

Dinky toys

Frys Chocolate bars

just a few examples of the end of a era

No chill is less risk of infection and clearer wort and more wort too

GO the NO!!!

Pumpy

 

[poppa joe]

Pumpy..
Do you miss theIce Man..
The Rabbitoh Man...
The Clothes props...
If you still had Milk delivered in SS containers...You could probably talk him into
loosing a couple ...for boilers ETC.
PJ

 

[Coodgee]

I've got to admit I am a die hard chiller. My 18M of copper pipe hasn't done me any harm so far ( fingers crossed).

A friend has devised a system withe a "pre-chiller", a small roll of copper pipe immersed in an ice bath before flowing into the main immersion chiller. he hooks it up when the temp gets to about 25 degrees, because the water out of the tap is about 22-23. get's it down to 20 degrees for him.

 

[Pumpy]

Pumpy..
Do you miss theIce Man..
The Rabbitoh Man...
The Clothes props...
If you still had Milk delivered in SS containers...You could probably talk him into
loosing a couple ...for boilers ETC.
PJ

Yay !That is the spirit PJ

Coodgee ,

Dont worry there is a guy along my street who drives a 1957 Holden ,

habits can be hard to break

Pumpy

 

[benno1973]

That being said, does anyone think it would be worth attempting to make an imersion coil from 1/2 inch stainless tube? I have a couple of lengths available (cheap) from a mate who has them left over from a job. I was thinking of annealing the tube and bending it. Slower and painful process than using copper, but methinks it could be worth it.

I think (and I'm no scientist here) that you'll probably not get the same results as using copper. The thermal conductivity for copper is around 400W/mK, while stainless only has a thermal conductivity of somewhere between 10 and 40 (depending on the type of stainless being used). So assuming a higher thermal conductivity, you're going to get a more efficient chill using copper rather than stainless.

Which doesn't mean stainless won't work, just means that you'll use a lot more water in the process, and water is fairly scarce these days in some areas...

 

[TasChris]

Hi all,
with all the talk and concern with regard to brewing and water usage the time to install water tanks is right. This way you can control your water quality and recycle your cooling water back into the tank.
The other option is move to NW Tas as the definition of drought here is a week without rain.
Chris

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

I live off water tanks, and my chiller water goes straight back into the tank, so I dont use any water at all. B)

 

[colinw]

I'm curious about the lengths of everyone's chillers.

My immersion chiller is a mere 6 metres of copper tube, formed into an open coil (ie. not touching itself anywhere) by bending around a corny keg.

It brings 25 to 30 litres of wort down to 28C in 15 minutes with the best of 'em. Better than that in winter.

I suspect that most of the chilling happens in the first 3 or 4 metres of coil, after which the heat differential isn't enough to make much difference.

I also have a CFC. 9 metres long. I bet it would work fine at half that.

 

[Pumpy]

I live off water tanks, and my chiller water goes straight back into the tank, so I dont use any water at all. B)

Stu this is the post that spawned 'the No chill method'


Pumpy

 

[hupnupnee]

I'm curious about the lengths of everyone's chillers.

My immersion chiller is a mere 6 metres of copper tube, formed into an open coil (ie. not touching itself anywhere) by bending around a corny keg.

It brings 25 to 30 litres of wort down to 28C in 15 minutes with the best of 'em. Better than that in winter.

I suspect that most of the chilling happens in the first 3 or 4 metres of coil, after which the heat differential isn't enough to make much difference.

I also have a CFC. 9 metres long. I bet it would work fine at half that.

I agree ColinW,

my chiller is also a shorty and I get similar cooling time to yours. I have also put a few kinks in the copper tube to restrict the flow and generate turbulance, which may or may not help. I also find that slowing hte flown until the water coming out is only a few degrees cooler than the wort does not slow the cooling down to any appreciable amont for the same reasons. This saves heaps of water, I have found.

Also 6m of copper is only about $20.

T

 

[Brewtus]

That being said, does anyone think it would be worth attempting to make an imersion coil from 1/2 inch stainless tube? I have a couple of lengths available (cheap) from a mate who has them left over from a job. I was thinking of annealing the tube and bending it. Slower and painful process than using copper, but methinks it could be worth it.

I think (and I'm no scientist here) that you'll probably not get the same results as using copper. The thermal conductivity for copper is around 400W/mK, while stainless only has a thermal conductivity of somewhere between 10 and 40 (depending on the type of stainless being used). So assuming a higher thermal conductivity, you're going to get a more efficient chill using copper rather than stainless.

Which doesn't mean stainless won't work, just means that you'll use a lot more water in the process, and water is fairly scarce these days in some areas...

You can design around this by having about ten times the suface area and the same cross sectional area so ,visavi, the same water flow. To do this you would have a very flat shaped or ribbon like stainless pipe. As stainless is much tougher than copper you could also reduce the thickness of the wall by half so only need five times the surface area. You could also make it twice the length so then have only 2.5 times the cross sectional perimeter.

This is a bit acedemic but WTH it friday arvo.