Wort Chiller

I use a 25ft copper immersion wort chiller, with a faucet stainless sink adapter. When I received it, the vinyl connections to the copper arms leaked at the stainless clamps. I tightened, but water slowly trickeld at the connection points. WTF. Thinking that I wasn't getting enough focal pressure to create a water tight seal, I pulled the tubing out to the edge of the stainless clamp, and tighened as much as I could muscle. problem solved.

takes about 10-25 minutes to chill work to pitching temps, depending on the time of year. I place the chiller in the kettle at flame out to sanitize, if not doing a flame out hop addition. If doing a flame out hop addition, then I'll add with 5 minutes left in the boil. I wish there was a way for me to use the hot/warm water that is dumped out the other end of the chiller, but I don't have a garden to water (well, not one that's close enough for this to be feasible), I don't have a washing machine to load up. Something I'll do when I get out of the condo.

7.5 Gallon Mash/Lauter Tun, 11 Gallon Brew Kettle

44 quart (11 gallon) Bayou Classic from amazon.com serves as my brew kettle. ships for free with super saver shipping. that's tough to beat. Brought to my uncle's shop to drill a hole for a weldless spigot. He used a hole bit, with a long piece of scrap 2x4 on the workbench, extending in to the inside of the kettle. Worked great. Attached the weldless spigot, and held water, no problem. Able to bring ~8-9 gallons of 165F wort up to a boil in about 40 minutes. suprises me that it would boil at all, but it does.

7.5 gallon stainless turkey fryer serves as my mash/lauter tun (got it for ~$66 bucks, swear to god, now its showing me a price of $189.99) was made in the same way, but with the addition of a bazooka screen. no problems with the screen collapsing at all, and I have LOADED that puppy with up to 18lbs of grain, thus far. I haven't used the burner from the turkey fryer kit, that's packed away, until I can brew outside.

I do wish these had aluminum clad bottoms for better heat distribution, but the heating elements in the electric stove seem to disperse heat pretty well. wonder if scorching will be more of an issue when I finally get to use the outdoor burner...