Wort chilling

[baphomite51]

Coming into the summer now it's getting a little harder to cool wort I usually make a ice bath I used over 6 bags of ice the weekend which is a bit much. Has anyone experience with leaving wort to cool naturally over night and then pitching yeast? Or any other cheap methods of cooling don't wanna fork out 60€ for a chiller

[Tom]

You'll have a flood of posts about why leaving it isn't a good idea. Chiefly increasing the likelyhood of infection and DMS.

I'm right tight, so I made my chiller for £20, and probably could have got it for cheaper. OFCH oil pipe (that's covered in white plastic) is what I used (about €2 / yd), and just ran a blade across it to remove the plastic, leaving shiny copper. Then I coiled it around something. Two worm clamps and some 1/2"-odd PVC tubing sorts the in-and-out, leaving you only needing a genius way to connect it to the tap, for which I use a hosepipe thing, or sometimes I just hold it against the tap.

B&Q sell the same copper for £30, and you've seen what they go for online.

[John_C]

I do an overnight chill. The main thing is to do a 90 minute boil to make sure there's no DMS produced during the start of the chill.

[baphomite51]

I like the idea of leaving it over night so handy and fuss free but could be expensive doing a 90 minute boil. The home made chiller is a great idea didn know you could get tubing that cheap, is the copper stiff or pliable?

[Tom]

I bent it free-hand no problem. Go easy because it can kink, but you'll feel it as you work it. You can do your Incredible Hulk impressions as you work that metal.

I didn't realise that a 90 minute boil eliminated most of the DMS. I don't fancy going back to the dark old days of DMS, but nice to know.

[SB]

I picked up some copper for €30 in Woodies.  it was already coiled so only had to bend the in and out parts at each end.  I put a length of garden hose at each end and secured with worm clamps.  I used to connect it to the tap but it kept falling off so I just connect one end to the garden hose using a repair connector and let the out run into and empty fermentor/bucket to use the hot water for cleaning up after.  works perfectly

[Dr Horrible]

You can get a copper pipe bender in Woodies for 7 or 8 EU.  It looks like an elongated spring  - you need to pick one with a diameter just larger than the copper pipe you'll be bending.  You slide over the section you want to bend and you can bend it without any worries about kinking the pipe.  If you use an old bucket approx the diameter you want to have your coil at and bend the pipe around that as you work, it makes things a little easier.  There's a bit of work in it, but it's very simple to do.

[Eoink]

I too used one of those Woodies copper pipes - Just make sure the pipe is bent at the ends so that the join to the hose is below the level of the kettle lip - that way small leaks don't drip into the wort.
It works well but I wonder if I needed so much coiled copper pipe - would a shorter pipe (costing less) and just big enough for 3 or 4 coils in the kettle have worked just as well ?

I read somewhere that you should have some copper in the brewing process as minute amounts are beneficial to yeast as they evolved in an environment that always used copper (copper kettles)

[ferg]

You can get a copper pipe bender in Woodies for 7 or 8 EU.  It looks like an elongated spring  - you need to pick one with a diameter just larger than the copper pipe you'll be bending.  You slide over the section you want to bend and you can bend it without any worries about kinking the pipe.  If you use an old bucket approx the diameter you want to have your coil at and bend the pipe around that as you work, it makes things a little easier.  There's a bit of work in it, but it's very simple to do.

If you can fill the section with sand and it wont kink also. Quite hard with 7mm diameter but with 10mm it should be doable.

[LordEoin]

first coil it around a keg. bend close to the keg by hand, only a couple of inches or it will kink.
Once it's all coiled around the keg, pull it off and do the same around a cornie.

The diagram below shows where to bend (green) and where it will kink if you bend too far out (red)

[LordEoin]

Watch all of this video from about a minute on
He pulls from further out, but he has the knack and thicker copper pipe that's already in a coil
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=AbDMITAMLio#t=69

[baphomite51]

thats very handy cheers ill tackle this next weekend and keep you posted

[Will_D]

Thats not a water heater

Its the biggest 'shine worm I have ever seen

However a bit of info:

Copper can be prouced in varying states of hardness: Soft, half-hard, hard and the like.

Soft bends easily without fracturing, hard is springy and will fracture if bent too tightly.

Copper coil pipe comes in a semi-soft state called half-hard.

It is probably the best the best condition for coiling and bending like in the video.

However, once its bent once or at most twice it becomes work hardened. This means it no longer bends easily, is harder to bend and will start to kink and fracture.

Copper may be softened by gentle heating to dull red-heat and allowing it to cool. This is called annealing.

The reason he got a kink:

He had to solder the two lenghths together and so he inadvertantly annealed the pipe at the point of the joint. The joint was obviously strong (double thickness) but either side the copper was now softer than the adjacent pipe.

HTH

[Beerbuddha]

Pyrex fermenter just pop into water butt and wait till it chills.....Will save cash when water rates come in....I think aleax has Pyrex fermenter but costs a bit more than normal one.

[alealex]

to bloody expensive.. not recommended