Wort Chillers For 50 Litre Keg

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SJW

As you must brew, so you must drink
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Now i got the keg and burner sorted i guess i need a chiller. I understand the concept but could u fellas please post a couple of pic's, and give some instruction on how to get the hose conections onto the 12mm copper pipe?
The ol local HBS bloke said not to worry about a chiller just leave covered over night and transfer to fermenter in the morning after it has cooled. I think not, but what do u think, is it worth the extra expense for a chiller?
I guess i swiped the keg from a local pub,
got a great 3 ring burner & a stand for $30
and own a water tank and pump, for the chiller process,
i guess it wont hurt to cough up a bit for a chiller if its worth it.
 

Justin

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Absolutely worth the expense in my opinion. Chill your beer in 20mins (water temp depending of course) and pitch your yeast. Minimum time for badies to get started on you beer. Precipitates the cold break.

For cheaper copper tubing ring around plumbing supply places, refridgeration places (also try bunnings/mitre 10/hardware stores etc-but expect in most cases for these to be dearer).

I used 8-9 metres of 3/8" (10mm) annealed copper tubing, then soldered this on to some lengths of 1/2" (12mm) tubing that I had. 3/8" is a bit cheaper than 1/2" sometimes, and flow rate is excellent so don't worry about that aspect.

See Justins brewery in the gallery for pics. If using 1/2" copper no adapters are needed for garden hose, slips right on, clamp with hose clamp. Or if using 3/8" get some compression fitting and some barbed fitting to connect to the garden hose. For the compression fittings and barbs don't even bother with hardware stores, IMHO you'll blow hours piss farting about trying to get something to suit out of a poor selection of fittings and still not get it to work, my recommendation go straight to a hose and fittings place (see Yellow pages) and get exactly the fitting you want in 2 mins for a cheaper price.

Easy and comes in under $50 with 3/8" in my experience.

Justin
 

JasonY

The Imperial Metric Brewery
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Not sure if you want to go an immersion chiller or counter flow? If you are goint to make an immersion then I have a bunch of pick in the gallery of the steps I followed when making mine to fit a keg a couple of weeks ago ... not the nicest looking chiller but functional.

If you are going a CFC then you could look at just buying one ... I think goliath's have them for $80 which is pretty reasonable given the effort and materials you would need. Not sure how efficient a chiller it is but its reasonably priced.

Definately worth having otherwise you will not get the cold break if doing AG brews.
 

Batz

Batz Brewery...Hand crafted beers from the 'Batcav
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Your on your way SJW
Immersion chillers are possiably the way to go to start with , fairly cheap a nd easy to build , there's lots a pictures and info on how to make them too.

Most anyone can make a decent job of it , don't end up with something that looks like this !

I heard it works but hell !!!
 

Batz

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Sorry here's the baby I was talking about
 

Guest Lurker

Big Dog Brewing
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Hmmmmm, wondered how long it would take. Laugh all you like boys, but it works!

(But with the cost of the copper etc I think its hard to go past an $80 cfc from Goliaths if it is as effective or better).
 

Batz

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there is the champion of CCWC at morebeer , that's what I have $90.00 US plus postage

Maybe getting a little expensive , but hey , but it once
 

JasonY

The Imperial Metric Brewery
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It is a thing of beauty indeed GL, the more I see it the more its twisted coils impress me :ph34r: :ph34r: :ph34r:
 

sosman

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Well the largest single collection of chiller pics (immersion, counterflow and hybrid) are at (where else) the brewiki:

Chiller Gallery

BTW I haven't added any new ones for a while so if you have links to some please feel free to add them or let me know.

Also, the prize for the most symmetrical coil goes to:

JagMatic coil maker

You might get some inspiration on making your own for this. In fact melbourne brewers are planning a coil making day, just chip in for petrol. :blink:
 

dicko

Boston Bay Brewery
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Hi SJW,
FWIW, I would go the Goliath Chiller.
I built my own at great expense (see the photo gallery, it is a monster) and from what I have seen it would have been cheaper and easier to get a Goliath one.
I have seen how they work and they will cool a 23 litre wort to pitching temp from the kettle in the time it takes to gravity feed into the fermenter.
If you want to build your own you can buy the fittings for $38.00 from Dave and make it as long as you want.
Anyway that how I would go if I was doing one again.
Cheers,
 

Trough Lolly

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I bought the counterflow wort chiller from Grumpies a couple of weeks ago - $80. Will let you know how it goes when I use it...
TL
 

JasonY

The Imperial Metric Brewery
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TL, are you going to gravity feed the wort through the CFC? I would be interested to know how it goes if you are as I don't have a pump and have been thinking about a CFC.
 

warrenlw63

Just a Hoe
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SJW,

This is my immersion chiller. It's given me 4 years of very reliable service. It's my 2nd chiller and cost me about $60 all up. I had a fellow HB club member bend the coils around a special mandrel that he had set up specifically for the purpose. If you're not too good at soldering or can't make sharp bends. (like me) I just used a couple of brass elbows. These have never given me any probs so far.

My first chiller was a smaller one which I purchased from ESB. I only use it as a pre-chiller now because I've gone from 23 litre to 40 litre batches.

Think ESB still sell them if you can't be bothered making your own.

Warren -

Oh, excuse the less than pristine condition of the coil. I'd just finished cooling a batch after I took the pic.
 

Jazman

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well i got a grumpys c/f chiller and it works well it takes a while before the wort will come out being gravity fed but does work well will look a t pump later and maybe a hopback
 

deebee

The Bludgeon Brewery
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How much water do you use to cool a wort with a CFC and with an immersion chiller? Does anyone recycle the water? Use it to fill the bath or something?

Is there a good option that doesn't use so much water.
 

Jazman

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they all use a lot of water i use the left of water to clean up then down the stormwater i will get a pond pump and use my rainwater and pump it back in the tank at least it aint a waste and its free
 

PostModern

Iron Wolf Brewery
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deebee said:
How much water do you use to cool a wort with a CFC and with an immersion chiller? Does anyone recycle the water? Use it to fill the bath or something?

Is there a good option that doesn't use so much water.
You could pump the cooling water thru a radiator something like this one:
Rad1.jpg

In fact I'm planning on experimenting with this one (left over from a never-completed PC watercooling project).
 

MCWB

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My immersion chiller fills about 2 watering cans-full in 30 mins, then the garden gets watered. :)

PoMo: borrowing from the watercooling idea, a bong (or other) evaporative cooler (a la Volenti?) would be even more effective than the rad.
 

Trough Lolly

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JasonY said:
TL, are you going to gravity feed the wort through the CFC? I would be interested to know how it goes if you are as I don't have a pump and have been thinking about a CFC.
Hi Jason,
Yep, I will be doing a gravity flow as I don't have a pump - I spoke to Thomas about this and he reckons the wort should come out within 2 to 3 degrees of the water temp at the end of the run - and thats with a gravity feed. The water here in Canberra is bloody cold so it will not take a lot of water running through the CFC to knock off the heat.
From what I've seen and read, CFC's are a lot more efficient than immersion heaters water use wise - it's just a pain having to clean the CFC out to stop any gunk blocking up the wort line so you need to have reasonable filtration of the wort out of the kettle... ;)
Cheers,
TL
 

Doc

Doctor's Orders Brewing
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What about a dry ice pre-chiller. This would be great for you FNQ and NT boys.
Found here.

Beers,
Doc

dryIcePreChiller.jpg
 

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