Home of the BrewNosers

I had to call up the local refrigeration guys today after one of our freezers crapped out at work. I know the technician they sent out pretty well and we got shooting the shit and ended up talking about beer I asked him if he knew how much soft copper tubing was through his wholesaler as the price here for copper tubing is crazy ($30 for 20 feet of 1/4 inch at Home Depot!!!). He asked me what I needed it for and I told him I really wanted to make an immersion chiller to cool down my wort after boiling but didn't want to break the bank doing it. He went out to his truck and brought back a coil of 1/2 inch soft copper tubing and asked if that was what I was interested in. I said ya that is exactly what I am looking for. He hands it to me and says drop me off a case of your homebrew and its yours! He said it was a 50 foot roll that he used something like 10 feet from so there should be still around 40 feet there! Should be plenty to cool down my 5 gallon batches especially with my 7-8°C well water! Going to start fabricating and hopefully it will be ready for my next brewday! Stoked!

Sweeeet.

Sent from my Nexus S

Yes, that is a sweet score! I dunno how fancy you plan to get, but not much "fabricating" is needed. I simply jammed it down tightly into my plastic bucket, and it made nice tight coils, perfectly shaped when I pulled it out. Bent the ends over the top & done. Maybe 10 minutes?
Damn!! 7-8 C well water? Must be nice....Last time I checked mine was 22....

Ya it was a little easier than I thought it would be! I wrapped it around the outside of a bucket but the coils were a little too big, so I tightened them up around the butt end of a nice round birch log. I almost kinked it a couple of times but it turned out pretty good. Not much to look at, but I hooked the hose up to it and the water flows through really well. In under 2 minutes it was beading up with sweat. I am out in the country with my own well and our ground water is coming up from 110 feet below the surface so it is crazy cold! Can't wait to try it out!

Stusbrews wrote: 7-8 C well water? Must be nice....Last time I checked mine was 22....

Mine is possibly a degree or two warmer, but I had to go down 265' for it. I'd take a dug well and 22C any day.

Good score, Ladd!

I don't think we're getting whole story... admit it, he took you out to the back of his truck

bluenose wrote:I don't think we're getting whole story... admit it, he took you out to the back of his truck

Took me all the way done to the puddin' pond... lol