This has to be about the best character schematic I've seen :-). For anyone
considering this design, another option in lieu of slicing into the hose is to
go out and buy one of those Y type hose adapters for each end of the garden
hose, so that the copper tubing can come out of one of the ports on the Y.
Regardless of the length of copper tubing you use, you'll probably have to
adjust the length of the garden hose (there are adapters for this again at any
hardware store). Make the cut close to one of the ends, so you can already
have the Y screwed into the small piece of hose before joining the hose
together. That way, you don't have to keep bending the copper in a circle to
screw on the Y. Now, the other advantage of using a Y is that you no longer
need to use silicone sealer. Get a hose nipple which has an ID larger than the
OD of the copper and which has hose thread, so it will screw onto the end of
the Y. Then, a small 3" section of vinyl tubing that fits over the hose
nipple. Get successively smaller pieces of vinly tubing that fit in the big
one concentrically until the ID of one matches the OD of your copper. Secure
the whole thing with hose clamps and wa-la, you have a seal that would even
hold up to pressure (sometimes there is pressure in my chiller, since I have
installed a cooling water control valve at the outlet end).
> 1) This thing does NOT need 20' of copper tubing. Maybe an immersion cooler
> might need that length, but I was barely running the tap water, and getting
> wort out at ~60F. I would think 8-10' would suffice. I may split mine into
> two wort chillers.
While certainly true in some cases, this is NOT a good general rule. The
length of tubing needed is greatly dependant on the diameter of the
copper being used. I agree that for 1/4" OD copper, 10' is probably a good
guess, but I think you'll really have to rush the water through if you go with
3/8" OD. Another variable is the ID of the garden hose. The water flow rate
will be either faster or slower depending on this as well. I don't doubt the
measured results of the author, but, as they say, mileage may vary, and I've
had experience now with two of these chillers. Anyone wanting more detailed
descriptions of how I built mine, I can email them to you if you're really
interested. There is no "right" way to build one. My comment about diameters
and flow rates is based on the fact that your flow will most likely be laminar,
with well developed stream-lines. When this is the case, the wort near the
edge of the copper tubing will lose heat quickly, but it must carry heat from
the center streamlines outward, which is not an instantaneous process in
laminar flow. Same goes for the cooling water. And as far as 1/4" tubing,
anyone thinking about it...think hard, because you may run into very long cool
times.
> 2) My question: Everybody I know who uses a device like this uses a
> counterflow, that is, cold tap water running in an opposite direction to the
> wort flow. However, it just made intuitive sense to me to send both in the
> same direction: The hottest wort will exchange the heat with the coldest water> and some sort of equilibrium will be reached by the time you reach the end
> of the chiller. Why would the chiller be more effective with counterflow?
> Which method makes it easier to regulate temperature? Enquiring minds just
> GOTTA know!
If your outlet wort was at 60F, and you were using a mere trickle of cooling
water flow, your water must have been quite cold. If you used parallel flow,
both in the same direction, then the cooling water cannot have exited at a
temperature above that of the wort, that is, as soon as the wort and water come
to the same temperature, the wort can be cooled no further. Unless you have a
very fast flow rate, with such a system, the wort can never reach the
temperature of the water coming out of the tap. However, with counter-flow,
the outlet wort is in "contact" with water at tap temperature, allowing the
wort to reach that temperature (again, depending on lengths, rates, etc).
Again, I am not trying to flame the original author as I'm sure what he/she
measured is fact, but building one of these things is nothing to be totally
blase' about. You can end up wasting a bit of money with a failed attempt... I
know :-). There are a lot of variables to think about.
Mike Zentner zentner@ecn.purdue.edu
------------------------------
HOMEBREW Digest #620 Mon 22 April 1991
Date: Fri, 19 Apr 1991 15:17 EST
From: BAUGHMANKR@CONRAD.APPSTATE.EDU
Subject: Sterilizing, cleaning copper in chillers
Darren Evans-Young hypothesized that the sterilization method he was
using for his counter-current wort chiller was the source of the
recent infection of his beer. This is a subject dear to my heart
because I've been using (and selling) counter-current chillers for
about 8 years. I had always stored my chillers with a mild solution
of clorox and water (1 teaspoon clorox per 1 gallon of water) in the
chiller between brewing sessions. Since this worked for me-never an
infection in 8 years-I recommended the same to my BrewChiller
customers.
Then a friend in the plumbing business pointed out that they use
copper to sterilize swimming pools when they become real funky. It
seems that copper has anti-bacterial properties. Added to that
were the comments that the clorox caused little blue flakes to
form inside the copper tubing. I've never worried about the blue
flakes because even though blue, they were sterile, and didn't seem to
affect the taste of my beer in any way.
Still blue flakes were a recurring comment and I began to consider
doing what Darren did, use boiling water to sterilize my chiller
instead of storing it with the clorox solution in the tubing. And so
far so good, but I still do a quick 30 minute clorox soak prior to
brewing. I'm a paranoid at heart. :-)
To insure that boiling water sterilizes the copper tubing, one must
siphon it through the tubing when the chiller is dry, that is, no water
in the "cooling chamber". This must be done both after a brewing
session and before the next one. So my question to Darren is: Is that
they way you handled your sterilization procedure? If so, given what
my plumber friend said, I'd be surprised that the chiller is the
source of the infection. Still I'm not a chemist and I'd be
interested in what the net has to say about all of this.
While we're on the subject:
A few digests back, someone pointed out that new copper has oils which
must be removed before first use of a chiller. That's absolutely
correct. I think they use silicone oils when extruding the copper
tubing. I've always recommended doing a couple of clorox soaks
(1 Tablespoon clorox to 1 gallon of water, for 30 minutes) before using
copper chillers for the first time. Following up or interspersing it
with a couple boiling hot water rinses is a good idea as well.
Cheers,
Kinney | Beer is my business and
baughmankr@conrad.appstate.edu | I'm late for work.
------------------------------
HOMEBREW Digest #656 Tue 11 June 1991
Date: Mon, 10 Jun 91 09:50:08 PDT
From: keng@ic.MENTORG.COM (Ken Giles)
Subject: Cleaning counter-flow chillers, try TSP
In HBD microsoft!larryba@cs.washington.edu says:
> The bummer with counterflow chillers is cleaning them out. I have never
> figured out a satisfactory solution for the kitchen brewer. Commercial
> microbrewers use nasty corrosive chemicals and lots of very hot water.
I've had good success with TriSodium Phosphate (TSP). TSP is not so corrosive tobe dangerous (gloves are recommended but I often get it on my arms with no ill
effects), but acts like a corrosive cleaner. I tried an experiment. After I
rinsed and ran the usual bleach solution through my counter-flow chiller until
it ran clear, I ran a solution of TSP through, and it came out yellow and
eventually ran clear. The TSP was able to clean beyond the power of the bleach
solution alone. No real surprise. TSP is also great for dissolving the gunk out
of your blow-off hose.
TSP is available in the paint section of most hardware-type stores. It's used
for preparing surfaces for painting. I've heard that some homebrew suppliers sell
a dry bleach/TSP combination called tri-chlor. I don't use this because I'm
typically only cleaning afterword (with TSP) or sanitizing beforehand (with
bleach).
Stay clean,
kg.
------------------------------
HOMEBREW Digest #656 Tue 11 June 1991
Date: Mon, 10 Jun 1991 15:57 EST
From: BAUGHMANKR@CONRAD.APPSTATE.EDU
Subject: Sterilizing chillers; straining hops
Larry from Microsoft writes:
>The bummer with counterflow chillers is cleaning them out. I have never
>figured out a satisfactory solution for the kitchen brewer. Commercial
>microbrewers use nasty corrosive chemicals and lots of very hot water. I
>just rinse well after each use. Before the next use I drain all the bleach
>solution used to sanitize my carboy through the chiller before draining the
>hot wort through it into the carboy. I also toss the first pint of wort to
>make sure no bleach gets into my wort. Probably draining a couple of gallons
>of boiling water through the chiller w/o chilling water would work as well
>as avoiding bleach.
Maybe commercial brewers use nasty corrosive chemicals but many
brewpubs use boiling water or wort just like we do. My technique is
this:
Follow a chilling session with a gallon or so of boiling water through
the coils after draining the chiller body of its water, to cut the
malt sugars from the copper. Usually I follow that up with some of the
sterilant (I use 1 T. clorox per 1 gallon of water) that I've been
using for that session, until the sterilant runs cool from the coil
(since high temperatures destroy the disinfectant effects of clorox).
Drain. Store dry.
Prior to the next session of brewing, I will usually fill the chiller
coils back up with the sterilant solution and let it sit for about 20
minutes. Drain. When I begin the chill routine, I run the boiling hot
wort through the chiller prior to filling the chiller body with water.
The boiling hot wort will sterilize the coils for sure. Toss the first
few ounces of wort that comes through since some clorox will be in it.
Let a quart or so of wort run through then return it to the boiler.
Fill the chiller body with water and let 'er rip.
The boiling wort through the coils is what really does the trick with
this routine just like it does with immersion chillers. So why do I
still use the clorox solution? It's simple. It only takes a minute
and I'm paranoid as hell!
The most effective means for straining wort into the fermenter
discussion has popped back up so here again is my pot-scrubber-in-a-
mesh-bag technique for filtering hops:
I've never been a fan of pouring wort through a filter because filters
clog and you're bound to pour at least some trub into the fermenter.
Buy a copper wound pot scrubber and a fine mesh hop bag. Also get a
rather thick rubber band. It also helps to have a copper pick-up tube
if you're going to siphon hot wort into your fermenter. If you're
cooling it first, one of those plastic pick-up tubes will do the trick.
Tie the pot scrubber around the bottom of the pick-up tube (the end
that's going into the wort). Then tie the fine mesh hop bag around
that, in effect putting the pot scrubber in a bag. (Oh, yes, "No see-
um netting" from a camping store works well, also.)
Tie a small 1/4" overhand loop in one end of the rubber band. Loop the
other big end around and through the handle on your boiling pot. Now
slip the pick-up tube through the small end of the rubber band. If
you've tied the small loop small enough, the rubber band will grab the
pick-up tube at whatever position you want. Suspend the pick-up tube a
couple of inches below the top level of the wort. Start your siphon.
The mesh bag/pot scrubber combo will effectively filter out all the hop
leaves and particles. By siphoning from the top level of the wort,
you'll always be siphoning off the clearest portion of the wort. As
the level of the wort recedes, slowly inch the pick-up tube down
accordingly, always keeping it an inch or two below the surface. This
technique will give you the cleanest possible run-off into the
fermenter without clogging the siphon.
Others have commented on the effect of whirlpooling the wort before
starting the siphon, so I won't comment on that.
Cheers,
Kinney Baughman
baughmankr@conrad.appstate.edu
baughmankr@appstate.bitnet
------------------------------
HOMEBREW Digest #784 Wed 18 December 1991
Date: Tue, 17 Dec 91 08:23:04 EST
From: Tom Dimock <RGG@CORNELLC.cit.cornell.edu>
Subject: Counterflow chiller size
Brian Capouch asks about sizes for the tubing in counterflow chillers...
Everyone I know who has used 1/4" tubing has regretted it. They are just
too slow. 3/8" is better. Now if you're into brewing fast, my
counterflow chiller is made using 25' of 1/2" tubing, and it will take
5 gallons of boiling wort down to 80 F in under five minutes. My boiler
drains from the bottom - it might be difficult to start 1/2" as a
siphon. For general guidelines, I'd say about 16-18' of 3/8". Other
opinions?
------------------------------
HOMEBREW Digest #784 Wed 18 December 1991
Date: Tue, 17 Dec 1991 11:48 EDT
From: BAUGHMANKR@CONRAD.APPSTATE.EDU
Subject: Chillers & Wet Mills
Brian asks:
>So I need to make a "quick-and-dirty' counterflow chiller. My question
>is this: would 1/4" or 3/8" tubing make the better mousetrap? Intuition
>tells me that the 1/4" would allow a much greater wort-to-coolant
>surface area, since there'd be more wort (relatively) on the outsides of
>the tubing than in the center. That would be at the expense of
>throughput, but I'd rather have cool wort exiting slowly than hot wort
>exiting fast.
All the above intuitions are correct. In fact I shared them when I
designed the first version of the counter-flow chiller that I sell. I
chose 5/16" OD tubing for that model. 95% of the time it works fine.
It's a little slower on the siphon (@ 30 minutes) but very efficient.
However, it's too efficient for big, high gravity brews and the cold-
break is so pronounced that some people complained that it clogged the
siphon. Two years ago I switched to using 3/8" tubing. With a strong
water flow it works fine. From my kitchen sink, I found that on the
average the water exiting the chiller was about 10 degrees warmer than
the smaller pipe. If the wort coming out is too warm there are two
things you can do. (1) Use a pinch clamp on the end of the exit hose
to slow down the flow of wort. (2) Try to connect to an outside
faucet. The outside faucet at my house generates about three times the
flow of water than does my kitchen sink. No one has yet to complain
of a clogged chiller with the larger tubing, BTW.
The other thing to remember is to keep the water housing of the
chiller as small as possible. Heat exchangers are more efficient the
more the coolant turns over.
...
Kinney Baughman | Beer is my business and
baughmankr@conrad.appstate.edu | I'm late for work.
------------------------------
HOMEBREW Digest #784 Wed 18 December 1991
Date: Tue, 17 Dec 91 10:49:49 CST
From: dyer@marble.rtsg.mot.com (Bill Dyer)
Subject: RE: Best size for counterflow chiller
In HBD #783 Brian says:
>So I need to make a "quick-and-dirty' counterflow chiller. My question
>is this: would 1/4" or 3/8" tubing make the better mousetrap? Intuition
>tells me that the 1/4" would allow a much greater wort-to-coolant
>surface area, since there'd be more wort (relatively) on the outsides of
>the tubing than in the center. That would be at the expense of
>throughput, but I'd rather have cool wort exiting slowly than hot wort
>exiting fast.
>Is that logic good?
Well, I thought it was good logic too but I was wrong. I made a wort chiller
from 1/4" tubing immersed in ice water. It worked great as far as cooling the
wort goes, but it had several other problems, namely the throughput was way too
slow and on top of that it clogged. It took about an hour to cool the first
3 or so gallons of a 5 gallon batch. At that point the thing clogged and I had
to run some boiling water through to clean the clog and finish the cooling.
A slow throughput is one thing but over an hour is too long for me. I tried
increasing the flow by raising the bucket (I sat it on top of the fridge)
but that didn't help much. I am going to do one of two things to solve this
problem, either shorten the length of my current copper coil or go out and buy
some bigger stuff, I havn't decided yet which is better. From feeling the wort
coller as it is now, the wort seemed to be cool about half way through the tubing
so I can probably cut down the length by about 1/3 (it is about 30' now I think).
This should increase the flow by 50% if I remember correctly. Of course to solve the
clogging problem, I may keep the length and go to the 3/8 tube. Or as a third
alternative I could cut the tube I have now in half a connect a Y to it. This
should double the flow. Actually if I could remember all the fluid dynamics
and thermodynamics I learned in college I could figure out exactly how long and how big my tube needs to be, but that is too much work so I will just guess.
11) Coil this using your favorite round object as a form. I used my
old 5 gallon brewpot. Zip tie the coils together.
I attached 3/8" id plastic tubing to each end of the chiller. For
the "in" end, I attached a 3/8" od copper racking cane. I hose
clamped a copper Chore Boy scrubber to the end of the racking cane, to
filter out hop particles.
To sanitize, I siphon iodophor solution through the chiller into the
carboy. To start the siphon, put a female garden hose to 3/8" hose
barb fitting on the "out" end and attach it to a water source, Place
the "racking cane" into a bucket filled with sanitizer. Then run the
water until all the air is removed from the system, disconnect the
water source, and place the "out end" lower than the "in end" immersed
in sanitizer. I use this same method to start the siphon from the hot
wort (remember not to blow bubbles into the hot wort though).
This design works very well. I was able to drop boiling wort to
within 5 degrees F of the tap water temperature. I found three
drawbacks: 1) The flow is very slow. It took about 20 minutes to
siphon 5 gallons through the system. 2) a fair amount of wort is left
in the tubing then the siphon quits. 3) a fair amount of wort is left
amongst the hops in the bottom of the brew kettle. I have a small
food grade pump which I may attach to the outflow of the chiller next
time I use it, which should solve #1 & #2 and help #3.
I may also add another, bare copper coil between the outflow of the
CF chiller and the carboy. This coil will be immersed in a small ice
bucket. This will minimize the amount of ice needed, and get that
final, desireable drop in temperature.
Drew Lynch
Chronologic Simulation, Los Altos, Ca.
(415)965-3312 x18
drew@chronologic.com
------------------------------
HOMEBREW Digest #1255 Tue 26 October 1993
Date: Fri, 22 Oct 93 01:09:00 +0300
From: ari.jarmala@mpoli.fi (Ari Jarmala)
Subject: Slow CF chiller
drose@husc.harvard.edu writes about slow CF wort chillers:
HO>I bought 50ft of garden hose (a lot
HO>cheaper than tygon tubing), 50 ft of 1/4" copper tubing, and built
HO>a 40 ft chiller (10 feet of the hose going to the connecting lines).
1/4" tube is very thin. Try larger diameter tube. The gain:
* the cross section area of the tube is the _square_ of the
diameter
* the flow is the cross section area times the speed of wort in the tube
* the resistance to flow is reduced by increasing diameters =>
faster flow
Increase the diameter by a factor of 2 and you get about 6 to 8
times faster volume flow. Maintain the length of the chiller.
The other possibility is to increase the driving force: increase
the height difference.
- Ari J{rm{l{
------------------------------
HOMEBREW Digest #1258 Fri 29 October 1993
Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1993 10:54:14 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Robert H. Reed" <rhreed@icdc.delcoelect.com>
Subject: CF Chiller Effects on Hop Character
Norm Pyle writes:
> With the counter-flow chiller the wort and hops remain near 100C the entire
> time the wort is being chilled. From experience I know the kettle is still
> extremely hot 20 minutes after turning off the flame. I would bet that
> finishing hops act more like flavoring hops and that flavoring hops act more
> like bittering hops with a counter-flow. Can anyone verify these assumptions? <snip>
> I may alter my procedure a little bit to compensate for this. I haven't yet
> decided how. Suggestions?
I noticed a similar change in late hop character when I changed to using a CF
chiller: I found that to obtain the same hop flavor and aroma, I had to add
*more* hops *later* in the process as compared to my previous process that
used an immersion chiller. One technique that I have found useful is to add
hops *during* the runoff. After my boil is complete, I stir the wort vigorouslyand wait 15 min for the trub and hops to settle. During the runoff - about
25 min for 5.5 gal - I typically add whole hops in one or two additions. This
has improved the intensity of my late hop character. I use a slotted pick-up
tube in the boiler to avoid clogging the chiller.
I feel the CF chiller has pros and cons: I get a much better cold break with
my CF unit using well water. My wort exit temp is ~55-60F. Another
benefit is that, given that my chiller and settling tank are disinfected, there
is very little risk of infection because the wort in my boiler is still above
160F at the end of runoff. On the downside, one must deal with the cold break
in the fermentor and the late hop character is decreased in the 30-40 min.
the wort remains in the boiler.
Rob Reed
------------------------------
HOMEBREW Digest #1260 Mon 01 November 1993
Date: Wed, 27 Oct 93 11:37:01 -0700
From: "Stephen E. Hansen" <hansen@Sierra.Stanford.EDU>
Subject: YACFC, Yet Another Counter Flow Chiller.
Last week I decided to build a counterflow chiller (I had been
using an immersion unit previously). I debated whether to use a garden
hose or a piece of large diameter PVC pipe to enclose the copper tubing
and went with the hose for simplicity's sake. I have seen one or two
commercial versions of counterflow chillers that use something that
looks like coiled copper in a section of PVC pipe but I couldn't find
end caps that looked like they would work without more work than I
wanted to put in.
What I did was buy a 50' 5/8" ID garden hose and 50' of 3/8" OD
copper tubing. In addition I bought two hose end replacement connectors,
one male and one female, and two of those Y hose connectors with the
the built in ball shutoff on each leg of the Y.
I took the hose and cut it in two with 30' left on the piece with
the male connector. I slid the copper tubing through the hose from the
cut-off end until about 12" stuck through past the other end. Then I
cut the copper tubing leaving about 12" on both ends. The male hose
repair connector went on the cut end. Getting the last ten feet or so
of tubing through the hose took some elbow grease but persistence paid
off.
Next I took the Y adapters and slid the copper tubing up the trunk
of the Y and out through one of the legs until I could screw the Y onto
the hose end. This was a bit tricky but if you counter-twist the hose
before mating the ends it works pretty well. The hard part was getting
the copper tubing past the ball valves in the Y. One fit perfectly but
the other had to be drilled out with a 3/8" bit. The fit of the copper
tubing in the Y is essentially watertight on one of the connectors but
the other leaks a bit. I'll probably put some silicone sealer in that
one. Once the Y connectors were on tight I just recoiled hose to about
a 12" diameter and loosely tied the coils together.
As for the female replacement connector. That goes on the cut off
end of the 20' piece. giving me a short hose with two female connectors
on each end. You need this to connect to the inlet of the chiller.
The remaining copper got turned into a siphon cane and an aerator.
The aerator was build from the description by Spencer Thomas in HBD 1081
and it works great.
The next day I made an IPAR (an IPA with Rye) and the chiller
worked like a champ. Compared to my immersion chiller this is MUCH
easier and faster. The wort outflow wasn't much warmer, if any, than
the tap water inflow. The tap water flow rate is your temperature
adjustment in this setup and I was able to use a fairly slow flow of
water. Obviously, with my current water temperature I could have
gotten away with a shorter chiller but the water temp will warm up a
bit in the summer.
I siphoned the hot wort off the hops and hot break material in the
kettle and into a plastic bucket with a tap valve at the bottom. The
copper scruber in a mesh bag tied to the end of the copper siphon wand
did a good job of keeping things clear. I took the bucket full of hot
wort and set it on top of the washing machine. The chiller sat just
below it on a stool, a 5 gallon carboy sat on the floor. Plastic
tubing went from the outlet of the tap valve to the inlet of the
chiller. More plastic tubing went from the outflow to the aerator wand
