Recirculating Wort Chiller: A DIY Project
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- Опубликовано: 7 янв 2017
- Learn how to make a better wort chiller that chills freshly boiled wort quicker and colder than a regular immersion chiller while saving a lot of water.
Using a Recirculating Wort Chiller: • Video
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Parts List:
immersion chiller with garden hose adapters
submersible circulation pump (500+ GPH fountain pump)
10' of 1/2" ID clear vinyl tubing
3/4" MHT x 1/2" FIP adapter
1/2" hose barb x 1/2" MIP adapter
3 3/8"-7/8" dia hose clamps
thread sealing tape
cooler or bucket
lots of ice 
Хобби
Thanks Larry, chilled 10 gallons of beer on a 50’ wort chiller in about 20 minutes with 25lbs ice on an 85 degree day. I had to run off about 15 gallons of hot water first, but my kids were able to wash the dog and cars with that. The 300-500 gpm pump cost me 45 bucks, still cheaper than a plate chiller and in my opinion, more efficient.
The underlying bad feeling most of we brewers have when chilling our wort..... all the wasted water. Great video, sir!
Yes ! I agree! I hate to waste so much water I am new to home brew but I am glad I found this
Thanks, got mine all built and ready to go for brew day tomorrow. This is very handy for a home brewer living in a severe drought area, so thank you for making the video.
Definitely a water saver.
Excellent video! Thank you! I got a submersible pump, attached to my wort chiller and cooled my 6 gal. of BOILING hot wort to lager pitching temp in less than 25 min! Saving the first few gallons of hot water was a great idea. Not only did I save time and LOTS of water, it’s so much more sanitary when the wort cools so quickly. Microbes have no time to grow. Thank you Thank you Thank you!!!!
Built and used this with the immersion chiller I made following instructions from another of your videos, this week; worked well and saved a bunch of water. Thank you, great idea.
Just did this with my Hydra and a utility pump (1/3HP, 2450GPH), and holy crap was it fast. AZ ground water is far too warm to do any meaningful chilling and I got sick of wasting so much water, so decided to try this. I saved the few few gallons for cleaning before I started recirculating and got down to pitching temps within a few minutes. Then I gave the garden the leftover water. Only downside is buying ice, but I feel much better about brewing now. Thanks Larry!
You’re welcome. I also upgraded to a utility pump since this video. Much faster indeed.
Larry, I am new to home brewing. And i love your page. You are the best to watch for all things home brew. Keep up the content. Love it!!!
Great video Larry, thanks for putting it out there. I'm going to use this idea myself.
Thanks for this. I live in a unincorporated part of my city, so we don’t have city sewer and It makes a giant mess. Our groundwater is also scalding hot for most of the year. This makes it so much easier for me to chill my Wort, and It’s done in half the time. Great video! This one got me to subscribe.
Good video Larry. I've been doing a lot of research (your videos included) before I get started with brewing. This was the method I planned to use. I just haven't begun yet.
And thank you for your other informative videos!
I’m a new subscriber Larry and this is simply a brilliant idea. In the spring and summer months I have the other end of my wort chiller connect to my sprinkler and water the lawn. I’m going to make one of these for the colder months.
Hey Larry. Can't thank you enough for your videos and commitment to the hobby. It truly was your videos that got me started. I enjoy your videos on the technical aspects and diy builds with regards to brewing. With brewing there are so many variables and every one has some sort of impact on the final product. So for me I'd love more videos about different technical aspects of brewing and the effects on the final product i.e. Recipe formulation, times, temperatures, equiptment, diy builds etc. Cheers to 2017!
Thank you for this. I recently brewed two batches and decided to give this a try. It worked so well. It cut down on the water wasted, and allowed me to cool my wort so much faster. Thumbs up.
Nice Solid Work. Big Fan of your work.
Super helpful and I like your presentation a lot. Glad I found your channel!
I just did this with a 1/6 hp pump and a stainless steel chiller. I was blown away! I’m luck(?) to live in Canada. I just grabbed some snow from outside to keep things cold. In 5 min it went from 100 C (212f) to 70 c ( 158f). It seemed every few seconds it dropped 2 degrees. Most exciting part of my brew day.
Excellent! Glad it worked well for you.
This is a great idea. Trying to chill wort in Florida during the summer is a real hassle when the tap water is 80+F. I used different fittings to suit my chiller and I still need to source a fountain pump, but I can't wait to see how this setup performs compared to tap water.
Thank you Larry, based on your idea I built my very own recirculating wort chiller, saves a ton on water, gives me some hot water to clean my equipment (again saving energy/money). I also used frozen re-filled bottles of water and reusable frozen bricks.
Nice! Great job Larry.
Larry, awesome idea! Currently I use one of those expanding hoses from the tap to the chiller and a shorter 6' rubber hose to the drain. I'm contemplating starting with this same setup with my 500-gph fountain pump (which I use in keg and carboy washer) initially. Given that the draw is going to be fairly quick and the water takes time to circulate through the chiller's coils, the output should be longer than the return so the pump doesn't suck the container dry.
Great idea! It always breaks my heart to see a bunch of water wasted when I run my immersion chiller off of the kitchen tap!
This video is so helpful sincerely thank you 🙏
Nice video, one of my projects is to get this done. Now you show me how, it will be more easy for me. Very helpful.
Great idea for reducing wasted water. Keep in mind, though, that garden hose fittings are straight threads and should be sealed with a flat rubber o-ring that usually sticks in the female side of the fitting. Adding thread tape won't help seal that joint and might actually cause a leak in the long run.
Great video! Headed to the store now to throw this thing together. I just hate all the water waste the brewing process goes through. Cheers!
I usually reuse the water from chilling for cleaning at the end of the brew session, or use it to fill up the hot tub! :) I'm looking forward to seeing how quickly this chills down your wort.
You always have great instructional videos. I've been using this method for 7 years, and if you get the ice from a outdoor machine it is only $1.50 for 20# I've. I chop $3 to fill mine up every batch. Cheers!
Nice work mate, water wastage is a real issue here in Australia. Most homebrewers here use the "No-Chill" method, Im yet to try it but I am contemplating it to save water and time! Cheers.
I love DIY projects
you beat me to it larry.. i just built one of these no more then 3 days ago and was gonna make a video and post it. guess I can save myself a day of editing and just have a few home brews.. Thanks
Now you have made a bigger wort chiller for the bigger kettle, you should use the small one to put in the ice and recirculate the water through it as well and see how it goes.
Subscribed because I was searching for Big Joe info... Complete forgot you do home brewing too! I'm going to do my first homebrew in four years this weekend and this is Awesome!!! The wife is understandably concerned about me wasting water.
Great idea!
Larry, love the video. I am going to make one of these. You kind of skimmed over the hardware part of it. could you say more about the garden hose adapter with compression fittings that attach to the 3/8" copper tubing? I see nothing like that on HD's website. thanks!
Hi Larry , your channel is great and I already subscribed to it , I m Amarildo from Brazil and this idea is great , so I intend to make it for my brewings , once my first brew was a catastrophe because the chilling time was to long and here in my town is too hot
thnx again larry
That's exactly what I want to build. Thanks for sharing this video.
Larry, I love this wort chiller idea. The only question I have is how do you connect the fittings on the copper coil input and outputs?
By the way the video was clearly informative. I just want to know how you got the hardware on to the chiller itself. Thanks.
You are the Boss, sir.
I made one of these after watching this.Worked great,I'm on tank water and apart from my water being quite warm in the summer(Australia) I didn't want to waste any.Thanks for the idea,I really appreciate it.
Thanks. Great video. How much faster were you chilling your wort with this system/ice vs the regular way?
Also is that a 25' 3/8" wort chiller? I'll go back up to look at list thx
My thought for this would be to prevent having to use my outdoor faucet on cold-weather days. Have you tried this method in the winter? Does it freeze up? I figure it ought to be okay for the half hour or so that it takes to cool down the wort.
Great idea, Larry. I'm going to try this for my next batch. Have you ever run into an issue with ice cubes blocking the flow through your pump? Thanks for sharing.
Great video...I have been doing something like this for a while, but still discharging the water to the lawn and not recirculating the discharge water. My concern is that it comes out so hot in the beginning that it would significantly raise the water temp and slow slow the cooling process. I know I've used close to 20 gallons of water with 10 pound bag of ice. I'll give your method a try and use less water but more ice.
Just what I was looking for! Water is SoCal (San Diego) is expensive, you definitely don't want to be dumping that water at the end of the day.
Thanks for this video. I always hated having to waste all that water
Hey Larry, how often do you need to replenish the ice?
Any suggestions how to upgrade a shower such that you can get near ice-cold water out?
I've seen some water chillers (ex. ExoKon), but they either seem to be a large-scale use, or for barrels... I'd like to have it chill it as it goes (2gallons per minute).
Hi larry, will the hot water from from the wort will get the water in the tub hot after 15 mnts ?
Could you do this with an Anvil brewing pump and a counter flow chiller ?
I wanna make this, but have a question on the pump size. Is the pump a 500 gallon per hour or 50 gallon per hour pump? I caught that it took just over a minute to do a gallon which would figure closer to 60 gallons per hour Love the videos and lessons. Thanks in advance.
I’ve done this since day one but since moving up to a larger kettle I decided to recirculate swimming pool water for my future batches. The hot water return eats up ice faster than I can put it in the ice chest.
BEER-N-BBQ by Larry Good idea!
Excellent video, Larry. I just found this video and decided this is the way to go rather than a counterflow unit. I would rather recirculate my water than the wort. I also found that it was much cheaper to go with an aquarium pump from Amazon rather than getting a fountain submersible pump at my local Home Depot. I have placed an order for a 1050 GPM unit that costs about $21. Hope it works better than the 425 GPM unit from HD.
I am an engineer also and am aware of this. FWIW, yesterday I received my pump from Amazon (www.amazon.com/1050-GPH-Submersible-Fountains-Hydroponic/dp/B06XK8X2DJ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1520705664&sr=8-1&keywords=1050+gph+aquarium+pump). I tested it today and it was sick. I didn’t time the first one as it was so sick. This one took 1 minute 28 seconds to pump 1 gallon of water, about the same as the first setup. This was coming out of the 1/2” pump outlet through a 3/8” adapter into my 3/8” x 50 foot home built immersion chiller (per your video) and out through a 3/8” hose back to the ice bucket. Basically, identical to the first setup. I went back to Menard’s today and bought a 1/2” x 50 foot roll of copper refrigerator tubing. I tested this version coming out the 1/2” pump outlet through a 1/2” hose to the future chiller and out the roll through a 1/2” tube back to the ice bucket. This one filled the gallon jug in 38 seconds!!! So it matters what size your immersion chiller is. I know this time might change when I bend it into a chiller, but would not expect a huge change. I think the restriction of the 3/8” tubing on the first two chiller setups is what slowed the flow. However, this pump was $21 versus $ 45 for the one from Menard’s, I will keep this setup. (I see I referred to Home Depot in the first comment, but meant Menard’s, which is a Home Depot competitor.) Thanks again for the video(s).
P.S. The reason I didn't bend the 1/2" tubing today was I wanted to return it if there was no difference.
How long did it take to cool the wort compared to regular tap water?
You should add salt Table salt to the ice water bath, the salt acts like a insulator so it chills faster. From Mythbusters fastest way to chill a can of soda segment..
Larry, super video! Have just moved to the desert and no longer have grass to water. Need to procure a chest freezer to use as a fermentation chamber. Have you considered using a chest freezer as a water repository (being chilled by the freezer) rather than using the cooler?
I have not considered that. Interesting idea. Not sure how waterproof they are.
@@BEERNBBQBYLARRY I've used an old POS chest freezer picked up cheap (Montgomery Ward) as a fermentation chamber. Fool thing died (R12, so no easy fix), and out of desparation filled it with water and ice. It worked, no loss of water (this was done in the midwest before I moved). Have picked up another freezer and plan to give this a try. I use a counterflow wort chiller, and based upon comments, will get a utility pump. I'll let you know how it works.
How big's the cool box?
Hi there! I know this is an old video, but i'm currently writting a paper about heat exchangers. Do you have any source I can look up for how to calculate the water volume used to chill a 5 gallon batch? thanks!
I had done my own calcs in a spreadsheet once many years ago when I built my first chiller, but I don’t know where that fully went.
As long as you have a background or knowledge of heat transfer and or a engineering text book on the topic, you can calculate a number.
I too use a recirculating wort chiller and get great coldbreak. My question I'd how to keep the coldbreak material out of my fermentor? Do you just let it sit? Does whirlpooling work??
I just leave coldbreak behind in the kettle; racking from above the tub or from the side of kettle after whirlpooling.
In the old days, I used a mesh in a funnel to filter out most trub on the way into the fermenter. PITA though.
Hey Larry. This is exactly what I needed. I used over 50 gallons of water on my first brew from wort chilling. Thank you for the video. Could you kindly tell me the exact recirculating pump you used?
@@BEERNBBQBYLARRY Thanks!!
i just bought a immersion chiller,being delivered ,anyway the setup in my place is awkward,i can make it work but i am wondering what would be the the longest distance of hose to use,is over tem feet to long from the faucet to the chiller,
well it would be about 10 feet,and i was thinking maybe i might try your setup,but not right away thanks for your response
Use dry ice, would it make the water colder? Why can't you just submerge what ever you have the wort in, into a ice bath?
What were the temperatures of the water going in and coming out?
Or the link to your beer video?
Depends on the time, the chiller used, the chilling water temperature, and the wort temperature, the flow rate, and whether the wort is whirlpooled/stirred.
The followup video was the very next one made: ruclips.net/video/qpoo1T6G42E/видео.html
There are a number of videos where I use this method.
Why would you need a 500+ GPH fountain pump? Isn't the idea supposed to be a slow flow so it becomes more efficient? With the immersion coils wort cooler you need to slow down the flow so it becomes more efficient , I had used a high flow on mine and wondered why the water coming out cold when it should have been warm - hot. I reduced the flow until the water turned hot -
warm coming out. Why not use something like a Jebao PP-333LV Submersible Fountain Pond Water Pump with a Flow Rate of: 66 GPH - flow control dial adjustable?
good work Larry, i gotta ask... how many people DONT use this method?? that scares me LOL
People with ice cold free well water
Do you need a high temp tubing or will any vinyl tubing work? Thanks in advance
Any.
ty
@@BEERNBBQBYLARRY
How did the pump hold up? Would you still recommend that pump or something else?
I have since upgraded twice; ultimately to a submersible utility pump with garden hose hose connections to keep up with my collection of triple coil chillers.
I have a submersible pump (light duty sump pump). Does the flow rate really matter? And if so, why? Thanks.
Thanks Larry. I'm hoping a sump pump will work and that the resistance doesn't burn out the motor?
There has to be a balance. You don't want the rate that the pump draws water out of the container to be faster than it returns.
@@BEERNBBQBYLARRY I was told at a very young age by a grade school teacher that if there was a way to F- something up, I would figure out how; and I imagine this would include defying the laws of physics. :) Science was never my strong suit and I only starting taking an interest insofar as it applies to smoking meat or brewing beer.
What is the motor capacity (power output, if the right terminology). I was looking at 55 watts, please do share your inputs.
@@BEERNBBQBYLARRY hey Larry, thank you so much for even responding to me. I was asking for just that. It says the pump is about 50 watts and has lift capacity of 2.5 meters. Will that do?
Also, I love your channel, i just watched the diy magnetic stir video, it would save about 80% of the actual cost to buy it. Amazing.
Would it chill even quicker if you had a copper coil submersed in the ice for more surface area?
Not really. They longer the tubing the slower the flow rate which works against chilling.
@@BEERNBBQBYLARRY why is the flow rate slower, the pump will be working at the same rate, it just means there will be more water in the pipe work meaning it will have more time to draw the heat from the extra surface area.
@@brewster2188 maximizing heat transfer into the water is not the same goal as chilling quickly. They are opposite goals.
seems like a lot of unnecessary connections. I connect hose directly to copper tubing of chiller which saves a lot of connectors. Works like a charm. I also use a $20 12v pump in stead of submersible. Chilling by ice water is the way to go. I can chill 6 gallons of wort to 20C in about 20 minutes. I reuse the water and pour back into 2L pop bottles to freeze for the next brew day.
I wander if you use a higher flow rate pump in a styrofoam cooler so you can drill holes for your pump lines to come out of the lid ( styrofoam for a cheaper proto typing material). Better yet maybe you can add a (brand new of course) automotive oil, or transmission cooler on the return side. With the addition of a household fan to chill the radiator fins so the water doesn't return as warm. Also please be cautious using teflon on those type of brass fitting that can sometime for leaks. I'm not trying to be a Dick or a Troll. Just sharing some knowledge and ideas with ya! Awesome work man! Thanks for sharing!
You could go to such extremes. I’m more about simplicity and reuse. I use that cooler (or bucket) for multiple purposes than just this and it only takes up one spot on my garage.
I also now use a more powerful utility pump and garden hose.
Do you add Ice cream Salt to make the water colder?
I do not. Salt is corrosive to the metal chiller and a mess to dispose of and clean up after.
Hey Larry nice idea I know this is an old video and maybe you do this now, why not freeze some bottles of water and use those instead of ice, bottles can just go back in the freezer after
BEER-N-BBQ by Larry ahhh my week just got better, I love your detailed engineering explanations. Cool, that’s really good to know actually as I was thinking of using bottles when I did this, cheers
Is there a list off all needed parts?
@@BEERNBBQBYLARRY thank you man. I appreciate it . Also I appreciate your videos. Very helpful and easy to understand. Me and my buddy brew and always are looking for better brewing practices. THANKS AGAIN. . now back to my Milkshake ipa.. dry hop day!
I do have one other question.. do I have to get garden hose attachments for my wort chiller.. or could I use hse clamps.
@@BEERNBBQBYLARRY awesome, thank you!
Awesome video, I hate wasting all that water too. I'm doing this for my next brew day. What do you think about using a 10gal igloo cooler converted to be a mash tun for this? You could use a chugger/riptide/steelhead pump out of the bottom spigot and have flow control via the valve, through the immersion chiller and back into the top of the igloo with ice.
What brand pump is that?
I don’t recall now. I’ve upgraded pumps twice since then. Now use a submersible utility pump instead.
A++++
Any chance you wish to sell one of these? ;)
Im going to try to fabricate one but my mechanical skills are beyond weak! Lol...well done my friend and keep the videos coming...perhaps a new one with Brew In A Bag?
First, what is that in your intro in the bag with the onions? Are you brewing (I can't imagine an onion beer, but that doesn't mean that someone couldn't) or cooking or what? It's kinda bothering me that I don't know. Second, is the tubing you buy from the hardware store food grade? I always buy my tubing at the brew shop (presumably at a mark up) because I'm wary about what the hardware store has. The only brewing supply I get there is propane. Third, Teflon tape is great shit. I hate doing plumbing, but every plumbing task I've ever had to do was made better by Teflon tape. Didn't realize it had brewing applications. Fourth, I watched this video with some heavy skepticism. But I'm halfway convinced that this is a worthwhile project. I kinda hate my current immersion chiller that just floods everything and takes a couple hours to get anywhere near pitching temperature. I'm half convinced to use the method my friend does, which is "put it in the fermenter, cover it, say fuck it and pitch the yeast tomorrow", but this is an intriguing alternative.
Hey Larry. I do a similar thing with a minor addition. I add rock salt to the water too help cool it further. I also capture the water to be used for cleaning my equipment when I'm done. You seem to know and understand science and engineering. Does the salt really help? I brew using the Grainfather system and chill with their counter-flow chiller. By pre-chilling the cold water I can get my hot wort to under 60 degrees very easily. I think you are right on!
If you have snow in the yard, you could use it to cool the water and/or chill packs. I would have concern about using salt as it can corrode the copper pipe.
I meant to say to take snow from the yard and put it into the cooler to keep your water cool.
How has this held up over the years?
Still around, but I've since upgraded my pump to a 1/3 HP submersible utility pump. Works much faster.
@@BEERNBBQBYLARRY Is there a brand and model you would recommend?
I have whatever Menards was selling at the time.
@@BEERNBBQBYLARRY Thanks for the reply. I'll check around and see what I can find. One last thing. What would you recommend I keep an eye out for when it comes to how many GPM or GPH the pump can transfer? Thanks again.
Just note that claims around those numbers are extremely exaggerated on imported pumps making comparisons hard to do without real testing.
i don't think he knows how long a foot is
Pond pump is not recommended...
It worked well enough for a while, but I’ve since upgraded to a 1/3 HP submersible utility pump for faster flow rate.