Copper cooling coil / heat exchange for 55 gal drum?

[JustAndy]

I've got a 55 gallon steel drum on wheels that I'd like to turn into a wine preheater / heat exchange tank. I pump the hot wine stillage into the drum, then pumping/gravity flow wine through the coil and into the still, cooling the stillage and preheating the wine.  

I need a probably 1/2" copper coil with 1.5" tri-clamp ends that I could drop into the drum. Similar to a worm tub condenser just inverse. I know it's out there somewhere but most of my googling turns up undersized, overpriced homebrew immersion coolers
 

[Jedd Haas]

There is another way to preheat. Fill the preheater with the next run. Then use the hot condenser output water to run through the coil during the first run. Repeat as needed for multiple runs. If you use 100' of 1/2" copper you can get a nice preheat. Try 2 of the 50' x1/2" copper beer immersion coils in series. Or you can get soft copper tubing from an AC supply house. More size options and generally more money.

[JustAndy]

That's a thought but we use the hot condenser water for cleaning and mashing. I also dont want the wine to spend any appreciable time above room temperature and i need to cool the stillage before disposal anyways. AC supply house is a good idea

[glisade]

On 3/18/2024 at 4:57 PM, JustAndy said:

I've got a 55 gallon steel drum on wheels that I'd like to turn into a wine preheater / heat exchange tank. I pump the hot wine stillage into the drum, then pumping/gravity flow wine through the coil and into the still, cooling the stillage and preheating the wine.  

I need a probably 1/2" copper coil with 1.5" tri-clamp ends that I could drop into the drum. Similar to a worm tub condenser just inverse. I know it's out there somewhere but most of my googling turns up undersized, overpriced homebrew immersion coolers
 

You can buy these online, just search for a 1/2" copper cooling coil. You can also buy coiled copper pipe at Lowe's and make on yourself pretty cheaply. I've done this a few times before to fit into a 55 gallon drum.

[Silk City Distillers]

Go to your local plumbing supply and ask for a roll or two of soft copper tubing in the diameter you like, 1/2, 3/4, 1", etc.

Get some space out your coils using the rod as a support.

It's soft enough to bend and shape by hand, feed the input and output over the top of the drum to keep things easy.

If you need to join lengths, just use push fit fittings, you aren't talking about any appreciable pressure.