I got this wort chiller as a Christmas gift the other year and have been using it in all of my brewing since then. My alternative would have been to use an ice bath and that takes almost forever to cool the wort. My Stainless Wort Chiller came from Midwest Supplies and cost about $50 plus tax and shipping. I know this as I put it on my Christmas List.
The description on the website mentions that it has about 25 feet of tubing and that it should cool a batch of beer down below 80 degrees Fahrenheit in about 12 to 15 minutes. The 25 feet of coiled stainless steel tubing puts the chiller at about a 10 inch diameter, just large enough for a 5 gallon brew pot but a little small for a 10 gallon.
Using the chiller is fairly straightforward. All you have to do is hook it up to your tap, make sure the exit hose it pointed into the drain so water does not spray everywhere, and turn on the cold water. It is advisable to put the chiller in the boiling wort for a few minutes to sanitize it before you cool the wort down. You should always at least rinse it off when you are done so that it does not get sticky and have dust/debris all over it when you go to use it next. But, you will still need to sanitize it before you use it on non-boiling wort. So, it is best to just boil it with the wort for a couple minutes at the end of the boil.
The first few times I used this chiller I noticed it was taking way more than the 12-15 minutes that they say in the description to chill the wort down. After some fiddling around I figured out that if you gently move the chiller in the wort in an elliptical motion, being careful not to splash it around, it decreases the cooling time significantly. If you work the chiller right, you can get the wort down to about 70-75 in about 10-12 minutes! Stirring it around like that also eliminates the hot spots that you may miss with your thermometer and end up shocking your yeast with later on. Never a good thing.My chiller has a garden hose sized attachment for a faucet on its intake. I had to go to Home Depot to get a converter for my kitchen faucet to make it into a garden hose thread faucet but it is removable so I only have it on when I am brewing. Also, there are small stainless steel clamps on the hoses where they connect to the chiller. These don’t seem to be able to tighten enough to stop the hoses from dripping slightly at the point they meet the chiller and if you are not careful, this water could run into your cooled wort and contaminate it. Also not a good thing. I usually wrap a wash cloth around this area of the chiller and it keeps the drippings from going anywhere. Its not super pretty but it works and keeps the water out of my wort.
Final Thoughts:
I would recommend purchasing a stainless steel wort chiller for brewers who would like to chill their wort down quickly, to avoid contamination, and want to save money. These are significantly less expensive than some of the pass-through chillers that I have seen and they are very easy to clean/maintain. I have been using mine for over a year and have had no issues with it beyond the slight dripping that I fixed with a washcloth. The only drawback is that it only has 6 feet of hose on it and I have to pump my wort to the sink in order to use the chiller. I could extend the hose if my stove was closer to the sink but I am fine with the setup the way it is. Overall, it beats an ice bath but is no match for a pass through chiller in terms of ease of use but you can’t beat it for the price.
