Beer Forum

I finished my new wort chiller Friday 1/9 just in time to brew on 1/11 (my first all grain in 20 years!). The thing performed pretty well. Here's a pic:



I did a lot of thinking to come up with the design, and I'm just a little bit proud of it. You can see the construction details at;

http://www.sawdustangels.com/chiller.html

Check out the performance data at the bottom of the page.

There are a couple of things I will change when I modify it or make a new one. For one thing, I will eliminate the dead space at the end of the tube (it will be shorter).



There are no plans or parts lists except the ones in my head. I appreciate your comments and suggestions.

Charlie

That is an awesome CHILLER! I am impressed with your fabricating skills. I am not positive but I think those numbers come close to commercial plate chillers. I cant wait to see your sculpture if you get around to it!

Very nice. You should talk to Push, he may want to post that on wortomatic

Totally awesome, how long did it take?
BUB

Nice!

budrockdiesel wrote:I am impressed with your fabricating skills. I am not positive but I think those numbers come close to commercial plate chillers.

Not to knock Charlie's mad skilz ('cause he sure as hell got 'em, who's kiddin' who?) but a Therminator will chill 5 gallons of boiling wort to within a degree or two of cooling water temp as fast as the kettle can be emptied. For me, using gravity, that was about 5 minutes.

BeerPal wrote:

budrockdiesel wrote:I am impressed with your fabricating skills. I am not positive but I think those numbers come close to commercial plate chillers.

Not to knock Charlie's mad skilz ('cause he sure as hell got 'em, who's kiddin' who?) but a Therminator will chill 5 gallons of boiling wort to within a degree or two of cooling water temp as fast as the kettle can be emptied. For me, using gravity, that was about 5 minutes.

The engineer in me purely loves Blichmann, and the Therminator is a lovely piece of equipment. It's much more compact and easier to clean than my design. There's some stuff ahead of it on the list, but if I get a chance I'm going to add a Therminator.

The problem was that I wanted to make all grain beer _*NOW*_, and the budget wouldn't fit around everything. I had to have a wort chiller, and I didn't have $200 to put on it. So I put this chiller together. It cost about $55.00 and 16 hours labor (not counting the 1/2 NPT tap and the 4 1/8" hole saw). It will never be a Therminator, but I'm proud of it. It would probably flow faster except I didn't give flow rate a high priority because I had no clue I'd get such good numbers. So if/when I build another one I will pay attention not to restrict the flow.

I have another idea.... Anybody know where I can get some 4" ID Pyrex tubing?

Charlie

Pretty damn boss Charlie, when is the first time you are using it? I would love to hear how it performs.