Build a HomeBrew Pre Water Chiller for a Plate Chiller
Brewing beer in Florida has a number of challenges due to the heat wave know as summer. A couple of these challenges include Fermentation temperatures and wort temperature for yeast pitching. To combat against the wort temperature for yeast pitching I purchased a
Therminator from Blichmann Engineering. However, my purchase had one fatal flaw. I did not take into account the high ground water temperature in Florida.
After my first use of the Terminator the wort temperature was at 79 degrees. This temperature was higher than my target temp and this was not even the hottest time of the year. This is when I decided to build a pre water chiller for the Terminator. I took a run down to my local hardware store and ended up with the following parts to hack together the pre water chiller
Parts for Pre Water Chiller
1 x 50′ hose (Already had) 1 x Cooler (Already had) 1 x 2′ 1/2″ tubing2 x female hose repair ends
2 x 3/4″ male to 1/2″ Bard 2 x 1/4′”- 3/8″ hose clamps 1 x 50′ 3/8″ copper tubing
I planed on coiling the copper tubing and placing it in a cooler full of ice water. First I needed to coil the copper tubing to it would fit in the cooler. Luckily I had a leftover piece of PVC tubing from making a carboy dryer stand. Wrapping the copper tubing around the PVC pipe was easier than I expected it would be.
I then attached the the the 3/4″ male to 1/2″ Bard to the 1/2″ tubing using the hose clap. I then attached the 1/2″ tubing to the copper tubing with another hose clamp. I know this isn’t ideal but works for me.
Here is a finished picture of quick hack job. One end of the hose is connected to my garage sink facet. While the other end is connected to my Therminator water inlet.
Currently I don’t have any tempture difference results yet. However. after my next brew day I’ll post my results. I have high hops this will solve my wort chilling woes.
