making your own wort cooler?

[jodami84]

I have read about several people making their own copper cooler and want to have a go myself. Most people seem to have wrapped some copper around a demijohn and used that.

I am just wondering what kind of length i would need for my boiler which is a 32 litre stockpot. I can't imagine it would need to be much. Also what size should i get so it would fit the hose or would i need to buy some sort of join to make it fit.

Thanks for your help

[Lugsy]

I used 10 metres of 10mm microbore for mine and then used 15mm to 10mm compression reducers so I could add short lengths of 15mm tube to the ends. Standard hose pipe fits over these and is secured in place with jubilee clips:



I wound mine around a 6lb gas bottle and use a cable tie through the base to hold one end in place. I used an external bending spring to prevent kinking the tube, not sure if this is essential but mine turned out OK.

[Martin G]

Mine is much like the one Lugsy made. I put straight through solder ring connectors on mine because they have little ridges on that my hose pipes slot onto nicely, the hose pipes stay on without jubilee clip (I use outdoors). The other difference is that mine has longer 'legs' coming out of the boiler, I was paranoid about splashing/spraying hose water into my wort once it is cooling. I just shaped mine by hand around something or other the right diameter for my boiler, without external spring (didn't know they existed until looking at another thread today) I got a couple of sort of dents in mine as a result, but it still works fine.

[BlakenhallBrewer]

Mine's a twin coil chiller made from a 10m roll of 10mm soft copper tube, 4x 15mm to 10mm reducers, 2x 15mm equal tees and a couple of short lengths of 15mm tube

[img]http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6156/6204 ... 33b0_z.jpg[/img]

I borrowed some jars to use as the formers

[img]http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6140/6204 ... 6b79_z.jpg[/img]

Put the smaller coil inside the larger and using the tees, reducers and 15mm pipe connect the top of the inner coil to the bottom of the outer and vice verca

[img]http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6165/6204 ... 88bc_z.jpg[/img]

Works brilliantly

[img]http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6149/6204 ... 8b43_z.jpg[/img]

From this

[img]http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6167/6204 ... 051f_z.jpg[/img]

To this in 27 minutes

[img]http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6125/6204 ... 823b_z.jpg[/img]


EDIT - sorry I've got BBCode enabled in my profile but for some reason I cant get the pictures to display..

[jimp2003]

Mine's a twin coil chiller made from a 10m roll of 10mm soft copper tube, 4x 15mm to 10mm reducers, 2x 15mm equal tees and a couple of short lengths of 15mm tube



I borrowed some jars to use as the formers



Put the smaller coil inside the larger and using the tees, reducers and 15mm pipe connect the top of the inner coil to the bottom of the outer and vice verca



Works brilliantly



From this



To this in 27 minutes




EDIT - sorry I've got BBCode enabled in my profile but for some reason I cant get the pictures to display..

There now we can see the pics. Looks good!

[greenxpaddy]

10m for a 35l volume is about right. Should chill to room temp in about 30-45 mins.

[BlakenhallBrewer]

jimp2003 - thanks for sorting the photo's. I tried for ages but couldn't get them to display

[tractorboy]

I made a twin coil from 20m of 8mm microbore (I had it left over from a central heating install I did 20 years ago). I put solder 8mm to 15mm fitting reducers on each end and then compression 15mm to 3/4 inch BSP male which then take standard garden hose fittings. I formed the coil by wrapping around a rolled-up garden bin-bag filling thingy (stiff plastic sheet). It ain't pretty but it chills 30 litres from boiling to 20 degrees in 15 minutes:


If I was doing it again I'd use 10mm microbore. Also, no need for bending springs if you keep the radius large enough. Another thing about bending is that the copper work-hardens as soon as you bend it so be very careful if you try to undo any bend at all; if you feel the resistance increasing then stop! It will kink otherwise.

Bob

[charliefarley]

I originally made a single coil out of 10m x 10mm but I remade it into a twin coil and it cools much faster. It's also shallower so I can 23L batches without it sitting half out of the wort.
With a pump recirculating from the tap back onto the top of the cooler I can now cool 50L of boiling wort down to 25C in 15 minutes - with winter tap water temperatures.

[jodami84]

Cheers for the help fellas. Managed to get one sorted much easier than expected. Took about 35 mins to get down to temp

[dynamic dave]

I also made my own using 10mm pipe one thing I do when using it is to stir the wort around occasionally to mix hot and cooled spots together.

[greenxpaddy]

What do you stir it with ,, is it sterile?

[Martin G]

I use a stainless steel spoon on cooled wort easy to steralise in a flame, also use a steralised mash paddle in a drill for aerating.

On the subject of getting the best out of the cooler, do folk send the cold water from the top to bottom or bottom to the top? I always agonise about it and can never resolve it in my mind, gut feeling is to send the cold from bottom to top as it seems to keep the cold deeper in the vessel??

[greenxpaddy]

Bottom to top tends to work best for me, though it helps to swap 3/4 way through

[dynamic dave]

Just added another 10 metre coil running around old one and what a time saver and water saver might even beat the hosepipe ban!
Next time i use it i will time and record the tempertures.