Counter Flow Plate Chiller

One of the happiest days of my brew-life was when I sent my immersion chiller to the Old-Timey-Brewers Museum. I use the B3-23A (20 plates) and have been pleased. If I were to re-order I might consider the B3-36A (18" versus 12"), but that's because my supplied water only gets down to 65 in the winter. The manufacturer is a serious wort-chillin'-geek . . . just look at this tech data!

Give careful thought to the type fittings . . . you don't get a do-over on this. I settled on 3/4" male NPT fittings and bought barbs for supplied water and QDs for wort. Expect the fittings/tubing set-up to be about half the price of the plate chiller. Economizing here is at the risk of permanently singed fingertips.

Cleaning is a class B PITA. This involves a long PBW flush, back-flush, and usually two or three overnight soakings with PBW. Even then small bits of hops keep popping out.

 

I have a CFC which is easy to clean in place with hot water. I only wish I had bought a 1/2" one instead of 3/8". I still use an immersion chiller also with attached whirlpooler.

 

I have a Blichmann Therminator and love it. Works fast and efficiently even with gravity only. Only drawback as mentioned is cleaning.

 

I have a DudaDiesel, I don't recall which one just now. Best purchase I made in the past two years. Cleaning is an exercise in patience. I alternate between PBW and BLC (think Drano). Trying to decide which works better. I circulate it through for 15-20 mins, reversing the flow a few times, followed by a thorough rinse, again in both directions.

 

I use a fairly simple method for cleaning the plate chiller.

First rinse with hot water from a utility sink with a hose and a spray nozzle. I do this for 1-2 minutes. This flushes out the particulate. Tap water is 60+psi. Pumps are 8psi.

Then hot soak in PBW or 7th Generation. This dissolves malt and hop oils the hot rinse can't remove. When I pull it out of the soak, green or brown liquid drains out of the chiller depending on the type of beer. A second soak has always drained clear, so I only soak it once. No infection problems. Keeping hops out of the chiller makes it easier to maintain.

It's a time saver. I can chill to 50F in the winter or 67F in the summer by simply draining the kettle.

 

Wow I gotta get one do you need to use a hop spider will hop matter plug up the chiller if it's gravity fed?
I guess the cleaning time adds up to the extra chilling time so maybe I'm all set

 

Some method of hop containment is advisable. It takes me 5 minutes to clean the chiller.

 

My pump fed chiller didn't skip a beat when I used 1# of hop pellets using a 5 gal paint strainer based hop spider. A couple ounces in a previous batch without a hop spider found it hopelessly clogged after a gallon or so.

 

I'm guessing you repeat step one after the soak and then sanitize it before use? What model do you have I love the drain and done idea. I also have a jet pump that has less pressure than city supplies so I was thinking a bigger chiller might help. It would suck if it didn't work in a single pass, then what? Do you run it through from boiling or after a whirlpool?

 

I do. I fill my hopback with usually 2 oz of leaf, which sits in line between the kettle and chiller. This works great as a filter bed and I get almost no hop particles into the chiller when using the hopback. In addition, the hopback offers seemingly no increased resistance to flow, even in a gravity fed system like mine.

 

Yes, rinse after soak. Sanitize on brew day. I have a DudaDiesel. Not sure of the model #.

If you have cold ground water, you don't need maximum flow from the hose. I often have to set the hose to a low pressure to avoid chilling to 58F when I want 65F.

I drain from a full boil or after a 150F steep. It always works in a single pass for me.

I don't use a pump and didn't need to buy extra fittings. Just a chiller and silicone tubing. A Blichmann Thrumometer is a good extra to buy. It takes the guesswork out of the wort temp.

 

I've run my duda for about 5 years…I went with the longer 18" version since it's more efficient and so long as you do a good job keeping it clean…it's super fast & efficient. Once it starts getting clogged…you know it in a hurry. I've starting baking it once a year as well to help flush out accumulated crap. The only pre-filter I use at this point is a blichmann hop blocker and it does a pretty good…I've been toying with getting a hop rocket, but haven't bought anything for my system in a couple years and pretty happy that i've kept those urges at bay…cause i had a gear-head addiction there for a bit, always "needing" an upgrade.
Cleaning is a PITA as described…I back-flush then forward flush with PBW after finished brewing (then flush with saniclean), then will once again forward flush & back flush on the next brew day while the boil is going. But chilling 11 g to 65F in maybe 10 minutes is a perk…and so long as the tap water is cold…the effluent water from the chiller gets pretty hot…so I collect that for back flushing.

 

If the chiller gets funked up, another effective way to unfunk it is to fill it with 100% isopropyl alcohol and let it soak for a day or two. I don't think I've ever seen anyone mention that and it's probably the most effective unfunker you can use.

 

Baking a funky chiller for the purpose of cleaning doesn't make much sense to me. It seems like it would make the funk stick harder. The burnt spots on my oven pans aren't getting easier to remove with subsequent bakes.

 

What doesn't make sense, is using a plate chiller at all for homebrewing applications...either for chilling a batch or jockeybox applications. CFCs/coils are much more practical, imho.

 

Hmmm. Let's see here...a plate chiller costs half as much as a CFC and chills just as well or better. Does that make sense?

 

Really? You paid less than $40 for your plate chiller?

 

CFC don't cost $80. They are $200-$300.