Breaking the rules that violate my agenda since 1988. I crack myself up! #ILLSquad
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I'm a kegger newbie in Australia and tried the ice bath method which was a total waste of time. I just started researching chillers and seen cheap stainless units on the Net from China but I'm wary of possible contamination and durability due to substandard materials. Your DIY double decker unit looks simple, efficent and effective. P.S. Thanks for sharing the bloopers also Matt.
Hey Matt, I really liked your video. I hope that you don't mind if I offer some of my experience as a few tips for your viewers, to make things easier. No criticism intended. If you haven't made anything like this before, I would use a larger inner PVC Tube for the initial former (Larger than 4" for 1/2" copper) so you can wind the helix without stress (=spilt beer, kinked pipes, shouting at the wife to leave you alone because you know what you are doing etc). Perhaps even a bit of math to approximate lengths of the intended inner and outer coils. Once you are ready to trim the tails off your handiwork, get it as pleasing to the eye as you can before you cut the copper because once you cut it, it will become your enemy. Bending springs like it when you slightly over-bend and then straighten, again to avoid, not only the spring binding to the copper tube but the empty glass on the floor being thrown out the window at the neighbours' cat and you storming off to get REALLY drunk. In all seriousness, I have one final thing for those that haven't used thread-tape before. Always wind the thread-tape onto the male thread in the same direction as the fitting you are about to screw on to it. A normal right hand thread, you turn clockwise so you wrap the thread-tape clockwise. Imagine as you turn the fitting, it is tightening the thread-tape. Cheers Matt.
if you want to bend the copper without it kinking next time you can fill the tubing with sand and cap it before shaping/bending. I highly recommend flare fittings compared to compression fittings if you want a secure connection.
Stuve715 what if we get into a business where I can ship you some copper rolls... Where you and I can make some extra money... I'm in Texas, where are you from?
LOL wouldn't it be nice if it were that easy... I live on almost the opposite side of the world from you. Freight here is an absolute killer, and then you have to pay taxes and duties on the _landed_ cost: _including_ freight. That's why shit's so expensive here
Did you consider using a five gallon homer bucket and cooler pump as a ice bath. Then recycle your water, you will need a waste water line to dump the ice melt in to the drain but that could be saved to another five gallon bucket. Also you don't need to but RV water hose the white kind is sanitary and not made from waste garden and industrial hoses it just a better hose overall.
The wire is a good idea but you may have a more sanitary chiller if you used solder and just ran a strip of the wire down the sides of each part of the chiller soldering as you go...would take some time though.
sweet coil ! I built 2, I put one in a cooler packed with ice and water as a pre chiller, hook up the garden hose, drop the second one in the boil pot. It will take 12 gallons of 212deg wart down to 70deg in 11 mins hahaa....= crisp clean beer !
I haven't read the comments on here but if you tape off one end of your copper and fill it up with salt until its full then tape the other end it wont kink at least not as easily. then you can connect your hose and flush it out and being that you are only using it as a cooler not like a condenser for a still whatever salt stays in won't matter and it will be flushed out eventually. good video thanks for sharing!
Really great video. You're a natural in front of the camera! I'm going to need to this when I build my one-barrel system. My current coil is quite small.
I like the theory that some villagers forgot some bread grains and water outside for awhile - and when they discovered it wild yeasts had created alcohol - then after trying it they never looked back. Or a God gave it to them. Or aliens.
I had one, but unfortunately rolling the tight inner coil flattened it a little and it wouldn't fit in the spring. I should've waited and tried a bigger spring if possible, but I was impatient. Thanks for the comment. Cheers!
So I have a few questions since you have already brewed this beer I figure you might have some pointers. I found the recipe for the White House Honey Porter and Ale and I was looking for the stuff so that I could brew it. The recipe calls for crushed Amber malt, since there are several different kinds of amber malts that all have their own ranges of flavor and color; which did you use? How was the clarity? Did you have to leave an inch or so of beer in the bottle to avoid getting a cloudy end product? Do you think this beer is too ambitious for someone whose just started brewing at home? Any tips you could offer that you have learned along the way? Thanks
Just a note, 1/2" piping is not only more expensive than 3/8", but also less efficient per unit volume being pumped through it. There is effectively less surface area on the pipe per litre being pumped through. 3/8" is easier to work with, cheaper, and will provide better cooling per litre being cycled through the system.
You make no sense. This is basic geometry: 3/8 tube: d=3/8=.375, r=.1875, C=(2*Pi*r) = 6.28*.1875=1.275” 1/2 tube: d=1/2=.50, r=.25, C=(6.28*.25) = 1.57” (do I really need to go on?) So for a 12 inch length of tube, the surface area is:A = 1.275 *12 = 15.3” for a 3/8” diameter tube.A = 1.57 *12 = 18.84” for a ½” diameter tube.There is 19% more surface area per unit length on a 1/2 inch tube as compared to a 3/8 inch tube.Yes 3/8" tube is cheaper and if you can afford to stand around an extra 6 minutes waiting for your wort to chill from 212 deg F to 65 deg F then 3/8 tube its a better bet. Otherwise the difference is negligible
How did you manage to wrap the copper around the PVC pipe with such ease? I've been trying to wrap my 1/2" OD copper pipe around a 4" (100mm) PVC pipe and can't seem to do it with out it kinking. I really wanted to make an immersion chiller like this one but it's not looking good for me so far...
+imauriacaf I think the trick is to start with a lot of slack and start the bend way back gradually with more dispersed pressure. When you're trying to bend with a lot of pressure in a smaller area I think that's where you run into the bends (like i did when bending the neck). I can't say for certain though, as this was my first go at it and I didn't run into this issue. Good luck, and thanks for the response!
When you're using your wort chiller, do you circulate cold tap water or do you pump chilled water through it? I live in Las Vegas and our tap water is about 75 degrees in the summer time so that won't do the trick for me. I was thinking about using a sump pump in a cooler full of ice water to chill my wort. What do you think?
Yeah, I just bank on my water being cool enough, it doesn't have to be ice cold to work, but 75* is probably too warm. There are people that have rigs that run the water through ice or some similar contraption before it hits the wort chiller in the beer. Another thing that helps is kind of stirring the wort chiller while its inside the wort to circulate the cooling wort more efficiently. Good luck, and cheers!
You could instead make a pre-chiller. Have your warm tap water go through the first coil that is soaking in an ice bath, and flow to the 2nd coil that has been sitting in your wort. With 50ft of pipe you could easily make two chillers.
Thanks for sharing tips to people on my video -- a pre-chiller would be a good option. There are also videos for counter chillers, but you're getting a bit more complicated when you do that. Cheers!
Good job! This looks great. I have one that I paid for from the local homebrew shop, but I like that this one I double cool and I like that it is 1/2 inch thick.
Between boiling and around 120f your wort is still giving off DMS which for most styles you don't want in your beer if you cover it during the ice bath it will condense on the lid and run back into your kettle causing off flavors in your finished beer. Most people recommend cooling uncovered (which is part of why you need to do it fast).
was going to build this but then saw on brew international a pre built 1/2" 50 ft copper double coil IC for $80 including shipping which is how much I would have paid for supplies in this DIY. Think I'll save myself the trouble lol.
Thanks for this tutorial. I just built one of these and I'm really proud of myself as I'm not really a handyman. Also happy I built a dual immersion chiller instead of a single. For those of you unsure if you should do this: do it! Two tips: 1. You don't need the hose adapters, you can just buy a hose that fits over your copper tubing and fix it with hose clamps. Just wrap some electrical tape around the copper before putting the tube over it. 2. Bend the ends over something (e.g. a small tube) to avoid kinking the copper tubing.
hey question-could you explain why yoiu want the cold to go in the inner first? It makes sense to me to have cold into the larger coils on the outside first, giving you more surface area when the water is colder. thx
My thoughts were kind of the opposite, I figured since the inner coil was more total feet of tubing there would be more surface area for the colder water to contact going down, and then coming up as it was warmer it'd have a shorter path/less surface area to the top. I could've gotten it backwards though, maybe your way is correct. Both way would cool your wort much faster than the traditional chiller though, I assume.
Excellent Video. Just a suggestion to prevent kinking...It's a pain in the ass, but if you add water to the tubing and freeze it, before you turn your coils, the frozen water inside the tubing helps resist the stresses exerted on the copper tubing at the potential point(s) of failure (kink points) hence mitigating the risk of a major kink (or god forbid a rupture). Happy Brewing!!!!!!
Great vid! This is exactly how we're going to make our own wort chiller. I have to tell ya, though, the moment you kinked your copper tubing, I threw my hands up into the air and shouted, "Oh, FUCK!" Best Moment of Fail EVER. Followed by a nice recovery. Home brewing FTW!
This is a great video. Cheers. I literally made mine in 5 minutes by bending it around a road safety come. It's as ugly as a bucket full of assholes but it does the job. Ps: if you're not a member already then join the "home brew network" on Facebook. Lots of great info.
