I had a couple goals for the day with regards to preparing for my next batch.
1. Read up on all grain brewing and partial mashing from the following books.
- The Brew-Master’s Bible – Stephen Snyder
- The Complete Joy of Homebrewing – Charlie Papazian
- Homebrewing Guide – Dave Miller
2. Buy a 5-gallon water cooler to act as a mash/lauter tun and some copper tubing to construct a wort chiller.
Since I’m trying to accelerate paying off my student loans (curses!), it seemed more cost effective to buy materials and then assemble everything myself. The spool of copper tubing was under $12 which is much cheaper than buying a pre-made wort chiller. The water cooler cost around $18, but considering it’s multifunctional use I’ll probably use it for something other than brewing at some point. Here are some pictures of what I put together:
[nggallery id=303]
ps that screen on the inside of the cooler did not work at all. It fell off and the spout got clogged (should have seen it coming). I’ll need to find something that works better and has a ‘false bottom’ which allows for easier sparging.
I have an idea for something we could make that would make the sparging a lot easier, methinks.
Here’s the wort cooler I made.
http://www.beesource.com/imgs/wortcooler.jpg
Wow…that is perfection! Well done!
Barry, do you remember the specs on the chiller? it looks great, and i may want to upgrade. whats the diameter of the copper, and how many feet of copper did you buy?
Looks great as usual, Uncle Barry; you could probably start a side business selling those to homebrewers…
The homebrew suppliers want $75 to $95 for a 50′ copper cooler. I bought 50′ of 3/8″ copper tubing from Home Depot, a couple fittings and some tubing for around $35. I first tried wrapping the coil around a 2 gallon bucket but the diameter was too big. I found a 1 gallon paint can was the perfect size. Once I tightened the coiled copper around it, using a spring tubing bender ($2.50) I bent the ends to go over the lip of a 5 gallon bucket, wrapped two strands of copper wire around the two ends and soldered it. This keeps the tubing tight together when lifting it and moving it around. With 50′, you have a lot of surface area working for you to cool rapidly. With the cost of water, save the water you run through it into another bucket and use it. Mine will go in the washing machine.
Awesome Barry! I believe a gallon paint can was the perfect size for me as well. I read that it is helpful to fill the tubing with water to reduce crimping while bending. I’m sure a bender works just fine if not better. Thanks for the tips and info…I’ll be looking to upgrade at some point and will consult your advice.
Tom –
I tried to bend the copper without the bender, as I didn’t have one for 3/8″ tubing, but soon realized the risk of kinking it was too great given the radius of the bends. When you decided to upgrade, I can come there or you here and I’d be happy to help in any way. I’ve got a bender you can use. 🙂