Two weeks ago I brewed several batches of beer outside. Weather was awesome. I left all my equipment outside on the deck because I knew I’d be brewing again.
Today I did a big 10 gal batch to split between two different yeast but when I put my immersion chiller in and turned on the water, my wort erupted. Turned out that it got cold enough in the last week to freeze and split my chiller in 3 spots. I’m gonna assume that the wort was warm enough to kill any bacteria in the water (and I’m sure that there wasn’t much in my tap water). But, I have to leave my wort outside all night to let it cool down. Hope the lid is on tight enough or we’ll see what sort of yeast is floating around my back yard.
And here’s a close up of the blown out corners. 1 is really bad. I need a bigger one anyway, just annoyed that this happened when I had 10 gals all set to cool.
Is it soddered? It looks like all you would have to do is just replace the elbows? But, always an excuse to go bigger and better with a new chiller purchase! ;D
Yes I could fix it but I need a bigger one anyway and soldering it the first time was a pain in the butt so doubling it, or bigger, doesn’t appeal to me. My wife thinks it’s busted so let’s let her keep thinking that.
You’d be surprised how much brewing equipment you can buy/build without tipping off the wife if you buy in bits and pieces at multiple stores while paying with cash once in a while.
It’s frustrating I know and a batch of beer was compromised (maybe), but obviously this is a blessing in disguise. Build/buy that dream chiller. Plan it well…
