Near the center of this picture is my latest addition to the brewery. It is called a convoluted counterflow chiller. It is made up of a 1/2 inch copper tube that has been slightly crimped in several places down it's entire length then slightly twisted. It is then placed inside a 7/8 inch tube and the whole thing is bent into a coil. The two pipes are sealed from one an other and fittings are attached to allow water to flow in one direction through the bigger pipe while wort travels the opposite direction through the center pipe. It works in a similar way to a plate chiller but the path for the wort is much larger and has nothing for particles to hang up on making it extremely easy to keep clean. The other great thing about this chiller is that it is EXTREMELY efficient! At my last brew day I brought 6 gallons of wort from boiling to 65 degrees in about 9 minutes! Most people use these for single pass chilling from the boil kettle directly into the fermenter. I currently have it set up to recirculate the boil kettle so that a whirlpool is formed as the wort chills. This helps separate the hot and cold break before transfer. So far I am very happy with my purchase!
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