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Home Photo Galleries Equipment Galleries Jeff Hall and Adam Berg • Aurora, Colorado

I (Jeff) noticed a wort cooler my friends were using, and I was surprised at the inefficient design. As a gift, I designed and built this 5-gal. (19-L) “Frankenchiller.”

I (Jeff) noticed a wort cooler my friends were using, and I was surprised at the inefficient design. As a gift, I designed and built this 5-gal. (19-L) “Frankenchiller.”

Frankenchiller
I used 1 faucet connect (1” diam. pipe fitting), 1 copper pipe (1” diam. by 3’ long), 1 T-fitting (1” diam.), 2 elbow connectors (1” diam.), 2 reducers (1” to ½”), 2 copper pipes (1/2” diam. by 3’ long), 1 12-g copper wire ~40’, 6 ¼” by 20’ copper tube.

Parts
Cardboard tubes were used to form the coils. For the 8” section, I formed each coil separately, the intertwined them by rotating one into the other while on the tubes.

Forming Coils
12-g wire was used to separate the coils. They are used to provide support and increase efficiency by maintaining a separation between the coil loops.

Wire Support
The wire support was turned onto the copper coils as the coils were removed from the cardboard tubes. For the 12” ring, I braced the loops and supports to prevent the copper pipe from being kinked.

Combined Rings
To ensure a leak-free solder joint, each ½” pipe has half its length shaped to form a triangular pattern using three ¼” steel rods and a shaping hammer. Here is the ½” pipe prior to shaping.

Inlet
I placed the 4” coil in the 8” coil assembly and sued the extra lengths from the support wire to connect the two. Then I placed that inside the 12” coil the same way.

Combined Rings
Based on tests performed in March, in Colorado, we were able to chill 5 gallons (19 L) from 200 °F (93 °C) to 70 °F (12 °C) in 3 minutes, 40 seconds.

Testing


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