Here is mine. Taking my time with it. It is a tube/shell style heat exchanger made from 304 stainless. The wort will flow through the tubes and the chilling water will flow through the shell. The shell is not installed in photos below, and I still have a few tubes to install.
Original design was 57x12" long tubes of 3/16" OD in a 3" shell. The tubes are 11.875. I have 7 baffles to cause turbulence. On each end there will be a sanitary fitting and cap (with wort passage) fit with gasket and triclamp so I can remove the core for cleaning.
The design was simulated to cool 212F wort to 92 with 45F water (from my prechiller) first pass, and since I recirculate through the brew kettle to whirlpool, I should be able to get the wort down fast with this device.. <crosses fingers>
So I am in the Army and I was cleaning out a old connex or storage and found this R2D2 looking cooling bot that was on top of a 10 gal water igloo. So of course I took the igloo and took apart the Top piece and found this! all copper with some aluminum fins! So my plan is to run the hot wert into one side and out the other to the fermenter, all while in a ice chest. Any thoughts? I did a test hit about a week ago with 150 degree hot water and it went from 150 to 80-84 at the end. If any one is using something like this please share. thoughts?
Looks like it has great potential, I don't see why it wouldn't work well. My main concern is what type of potentially hazardous chemical was that used for originally? You don't really have a good way to know if there are any deposits or sediments from whatever use to be in there, and you probably don't want them touching your beer. Unless of course you can disassemble everything and mechanically clean every bit of tubing.
Get this! Just water. there was a 12 volt water pump inside so it was like a portable swamp cooler. So I plan to run star san thru it for about 20 min and use it tonight for my stout.
First major DIY project, and first post!
I ordered a Bayou burner and set to work on a wort chiller.
I initially tried (but failed) to be efficient with the cost of the project.
After tons of research on the forums
I was leaning toward a traditional design, BUT....
I used the {insert complicated thing here} so that I can {insert thing that probably helps} since I plan to {insert justification that you'll use with SWMBO}
Overall the project ended up costing quite a bit
but it made for a great learning experience
Looking forward to trying it out on my next brew!
although if I were to do it again
Mr. Z, welcome to the forum and let me be the first to say that I LOVE your post. In my mind it perfectly exemplifies the the journey almost everyone takes with brewing, and with some selective quotes I think we can all see a bit of ourselves here. I added some labels for clarity.
Congrats, looks like a winner!
How were you able to fill the voids inside those 3-into-1 transitions?
Being an amateur plumber - with all that entails - I actually plumbed a utility sink where there wasn't one today - leak free, even - big gaps are a pita with solder...
Cheers!
How is it cleaning the crud out of the inner and outer coil? seems like it might be a pain...nice job though
Enter your email address to join: