An alternative chiller

[oldjiver]

Having shot myself in the foot with my last post on chilling wort, (found the answer about one minute after posting the question) heres another idea...
Many years ago I cobbled together a device for collecting the scent of boiling lavender :whistle: :whistle: :mrgreen: . It consisted of a six foot length of rigid plastic tubing about one and a half inches in diameter with a bored demijohn rubber stopper pushed into each end. A two meter length of three eighths glass tube was put through the stoppers creating a waterproof jacket with a couple of inches of glass tube sticking out of each end. I drilled (first) a hole in each end on the side of the plastic tube to take two push fit syphoning tubes. One of the syphoning tubes is connected to the tap the other to the drain. When the tap is turned on it circulates water from the bottom to the top of the plastic tube cooling the glass tube. Glass is not a good conductor of heat but at the extreme thinness of three eighths tube it worked well. It has occurred to me that copper could work even better for beer wort.
Ahh. you say but the circular cooler is 50 feet long. So it is but only the water is only circulating through the copper,the wort is not circulating which gives a problem with thermal inertia. In my tube although it is only six feet long BOTH the wort and the water are moving by each other which should be more efficient. The temperature could be controlled by adjusting the flow rate of the wort. I am a bit restricted for space to have boilers and long tubes in my kitchen but it might work in a shed.

 

[calumscott]

Something like this?

 

[graysalchemy]

They are meant to be quite efficient but I think you still need a lot of copper otherwise you would have to recirculate back to the boiler ie use a pump.

 

[calumscott]

Always the tradeoff...

...if you want your wort cooled and transferred quickly you need a massive surface area. There isn't any other way round it really.

EDIT: :hmm: Membranes... I wonder...

 

[graysalchemy]

Cooling does tail off as the wort approaches coolant temp. . . . Which increases cooling time. . . Therefore I Cheat, and when I am ready to transfer to the Conical I switch another Plate chiller into the coolant line which is connected to the recirc of my Maxi 310 . . . This takes the coolant down from 16C (Currently) to around 5-6C . . . With subsequent better cooling . . . Normally a bar chiller can't be used for chilling wort, but I am using it to chill coolant, and the ice bank is good enough to do that successfully.

Also at this time I turn the coolant rate down to ensure a better heat transfer

Aleman has Enlightened us yet again.

 

[oldjiver]

Something like this?

Lovely piece of gear. But mine takes 30 minutes to make and costs about a fiver! Having said that the principle of having both the wort and the water moving seems to be the best idea.

 

[graysalchemy]

Something like this?

Lovely piece of gear. But mine takes 30 minutes to make and costs about a fiver! Having said that the principle of having both the wort and the water moving seems to be the best idea.

But will it actually chill the beer sufficiently. :wha: :wha:

 

[oldjiver]

If the flow is regulated I think it will. Down to some bright spark to have a go! I might just get mine out of the garage roof, blow out the spiders and confound all the theorists.!! Thing is, I have just waited for my wort to cool naturally in the past and have had no problems with clearing or infection, so I have had no inclination do try it. I can understand that if you are brewing vast amounts, or a trying to make a living brewing, you have to get it dead right. This forum has prompted me to ask questions I havent considered before because I make good beer very simply. I am stuck between carrying on my simple ways or educating myself in the finer points of brewing. I always try to come up with a cheap alternative to expensive equipment, but sometimes you just have to dig deep!

 

[silverbrewer]

Did someone say massive surface area? How about mine then?
viewtopic.php?f=13&t=29146

 

[Springer]

I love all that copper work Silver, keep it locked away or someone will be weighing it in for you :cry: :lol:
The counter flow principal works very well for me, as posted by calum, I have 10m of 8 mm copper threaded down a 1/2 inch braided hose, boxed it up to make it easier to handle. Water is permanently connect at the back, coat of paint is on the to do list but as I said works a treat, counterflow principal
Cools 80 litres down in 20 mins or so
It sit below the HERMS as below.

S

 

[EskiBrew]

Like the idea of boxing it in Springer :thumb:
They are a bit unweildy in the raw state.

Where do you get those quick connectors from :hmm:

 

[Springer]

From here

It was one of Vossy's finds. I was a cheap skate and went for the aluminium ones, should have spent more and gone for ss on this occasion. Mine work ok but corrosion is showing on some of them. :)
Yes I tried it without the box, just cable ties, :nono:

Pic of the internals, showing water in beer out end, bottom connection water out beer in, has the water out pipe rotated 180 degrees.

S