Cheap wort chiller/ cooling method

hi people, my first post on the forum. I am just in the process of moving from kits to all grain and have most of the equipment. I have an ACE electric boiler, but I have no means to reduce the temp from boiling to fermentation temp. Wort chillers seem to be very expensive. Is there any methods that you have tried which works effectively without the need for one of these. Or if you know anywhere a wort chiller can be purchased cheaply or made yourself. Thanks in advance

I tried 2 x 2l bottles of frozen water and they called about 5c each quickly then did nothing since using that on my 1st all grain I bout this http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Immersion...pt=UK_Home_Garden_Food_SM&hash=item4d2341865c and its great. Though even at £34 it cost more than my boiler or mash tun. You can make a similar one but to get the copper cheap enough you need to buy enough for 3 otherwise you don't save much.

the ebay offering looks ok.

have you considered the aussie trick of no-chill, where water is scarce the inventive outback brewers hit upon pouring their off the boil wort into clean plastic jerrycans or cubes as they call em capping and rolling so all inner surfaces are covered in hot pasturising wort.

the cube, or jerrycan is then left to chill naturally, tho you could then drop it in a bath of cold water if you wanted to. the result is a pasturised container of ready to ferment wort which can be stored for a few weeks if your so inclined.

Thanks for the response Simon12 and Fil. I will see about that chiller on eBay after I've had a go with the ice bottles. I assume if I was to do the aussie trick the proteins won't escape and the beer will be prone to chill haze.

If you are trying the frozen bottles you need to sterilise them if adding below about 80c and I recommend freezing alot of them 2 just takes to long. I thought the no chill problem was it doesn't get oxygenated so the yeast can't breathe though many people do it without it causing a problem.

my understanding which is both limited and superficial is that the cold break will happen regardless of the speed of chilling, but a fast chill will form it in bigger clumps, when slowly chilled the break is a much finer granularity and forms a lighter sediment more prone to clouding with a disruption.

in my few nochill batches a fine pale sediment dropped in the cans I then fermented on that trub, i wouldnt say they were the clearest pints..

the best cure for a hazy pint tho is to drink from an opaque tankard

Thanks Fil

Hi Dean, I prefer to bodge together equipment as cheaply as possible and I have tried several methods of chilling the boiled wort. The best method I have found so far may not be the absolute cheapest but there isn't much in it if you scrounge parts from ebay etc..
I started off with an immersion chiller coil made from 10m of 8mm copper pipe (ebay or screwfix) - this works fine and is great for aerating the wort once it's cooled by dunking it in and out for a few minutes. But, I was always nervous about it's cleanliness so I decided to change this.
I then mounted the coil inside my HLT (which then actually served as part of the HERMS) which I then filled with cold recirculating water and passed the hot wort through this. This was not very efficient at all - don't bother with this method!
My latest choice is a counter flow chiller (CFC) which is made from the same chiller coil threaded into a garden hose. This is my favourite option by far - easy to store and clean but more importantly, it chills the wort to 24C as quickly as I can pump it through it! It does require some slightly more complicated plumbing on each end but it's not rocket science. Copper pipe changes in price all the time but I reckon it's somewhere between £30 and £35 to build your own CFC - which could be cheaper than buying just an immersion chiller off the shelf anyway. I'd recommend to anyone to spend a little ££ and build your own CFC - they're the best. I know it's not as cheap as frozen bottles but it is more of a permanent solution.
I hope that helps.
Will :-)

The main advantage with an immersion chiller is there is no need to sterilise it as you can add it 15 mins before the end on the boil, a counterflow chiller will chill it much quicker but you need to pump steriliser through it first. A plate chiller is even quicker (a type of counterflow chiller) but cost at least £80.

Is there a guide anywhere on the net for making such a CFC?

Awesome, cheers!

Thanks guys. You have all been a great help

I tried using iced bottles, but I too bought the £34 chiller on Ebay. I find it much easier and I am less concerned about wasting my hard work by cooling with a bottle that may not be completely sterilised. I think the immersion chiller is the way to go. I did price buying the parts and making it myself, no saving.

Hello. Using this type of cooling coil doesnt waste to much water? The coil is connected to the water faucet and them to the drain rigth?

My last 23l batch I used the water from the cooler to clean a fermenter and a bucket and think it used roughly 70-80l of water, you only need it at a very low flow rate though you could cool it quicker and waste loads of water.

Do yourself a favour and start off with no chill. It's so much easier and gives you one less thing to worry about on your first brewday.

I've made several no chill batches, and the only negative I've seen is a chill haze which is only present at fridge temps, which I don't beer at anyway. If it bothers you, perhaps adding a gelatin fining a few days before bottling would clear that up anyway.

If you want a chiller, I think an immersion chiller is the way to go for a beginner. If you don't want to buy one, making them is easy enough, but given the price of copper, I doubt you'd be able to make one for less than 20-25£ anyway, so an ebay jobby might take the hassle out of it if you're not sure.

I have a dual coil wort chiller (bought, not made) which is great, but the main reason I use this is so I can get the brew done in a day, rather than waiting overnight. Doesn't give me noticeably nicer tasting beer than using no chill, and I often use a cube even though I have the chiller.