Making a counterflow wort chiller

Bending the pipes

I like making things myself, so why not attempt to make a counterflow wort chiller.

It works by having one pipe inside another. The outer pipe will flow with cold water, while the inner pipe will have wort flowing in the opposite direction. This is quite smart because it will maximize the temperature difference the hole way through the the pipe.

Coiling done

So what did I do. I got hold of two normal copper pipes used for pluming. One 15 mm and one 10 mm. The pipes I got was 2 meter long. I would have liked to use longer ones, but I couldn't get find any, unless I was willing to buy 25 or 50 meters glowed copper pipes.

Then take one pipe and put it inside the other. Then comes the tricky part. Make a coil out of them. The only reason for doing this is to save space. And also if you want to sterilise/sanitize it using your oven.

End piece soldered on

I had to make a contraption to hold it down so I could force it around a mould. This was not easy. Two stiff copper pipes like this is NOT easy to bend.

One end fitted with a stopper,
this is just for testing it.

Then you will have to fit a t junction on the end, so you can lead the water out and leave the inner tube sticking out on the end. The wort will then go through one clean copper pipe, and nothing else.