Plate Chiller Tips and Tricks

[bryngelbrau]

I whirlpool chill through a plate chiller using pellet hops and a hop blocker. I find that the cold break tends to buildup on the hop blocker and restrict the flow on the inlet side somewhat but it is still able to get the job done in a reasonable time. The whirlpool does not need to be whipping around enough to sink a ship. I brew 10 gal batches and so far the most hops I have used in the boil is about 11 oz so far. I chill with the recirc valves wide open until I get to pitching temperature, shut the pump down for 30 min, and draw the wort off to the fermenter at a much slower rate giving a pretty sediment free wort. I clean afterwards with 180 degree PBW recirculating and get a small pile of hop debris in the center of the kettle out of the chiller.

The picture is a porter brewed with 5 oz of hops.

[mobrewer]

I won't use a plate chiller that I can't take apart.

Shite that costs a lot!

What brand and model of chiller do you use that's able to come apart? I still use an immersion chiller but I'm considering upgrading in the near future.

The only plate chiller I have found that is consumer level that can be disassembled (insert Short Circuit reference here) is the [url=https://brewmagic.com/product/plate-pro-sanitary-wort-chiller/]SABCO plate chiller[/url].

[dstar26t]

I use my plate chiller (40 plate duda) in conjunction with a hop stopper and a march 809-PL-HS-C. During the last 30 minutes of the boil, I recirc the kettle wort through the chiller to sanitize. At knock out, I can immediately start pumping through the chiller if desired. For large hop bills, the hop stopper works better if there is a percentage of whole hops included. After the last drop has gone through, I back flush with water until clear and then recirc 200F caustic (NaOH) for 15 minutes then rinse with about 2 gallons of water (until the effluent isn't slick from the causic) then recirc saniclean and store. When starting the caustic recirc, 1 gallon of the caustic goes through the chiller (lots of gunk, even after the back flush) and collected and then another gallon is recirc'd. Same goes for the saniclean recirc, collect first gallon and recirc an additional gallon. I've done about 100 batches this way. The only issue is large pellet only hop bills where the hop stopped would start to clog.

Nate

[Ozwald]

I won't use a plate chiller that I can't take apart.

What brand and model of chiller do you use that's able to come apart? I still use an immersion chiller but I'm considering upgrading in the near future.

I don't. I use a counterflow & plan on upgrading to a dual counterflow when the funds are there. The only ones I've seen that I would consider using are a bit to pricey for my budget. Maybe if I was running a 3bbl system instead of just 1, I'd think about it a little harder.