Counter Flow Plate Chiller

http://www.austinhomebrew.com/Counter-Flow-Wort-Chiller-Kit.html

http://www.austinhomebrew.com/Illustration-Counterflow-Chiller-Diagram.html
I bought mine several years ago for $75 already assembled

 

DIY doesn't count.

 

One of my best brewing investments was a therminator. I added quick disconnects to the wort in and out, and I flush and back flush with a connected hose from my tap water to clean it. I'm able to keep the chiller clean by only using whole leaf hops in a hop bag. I won't use pellet hops in the boil because I don't want my chiller to get clogged or infected. I find that I only need to flush and back flush a few times to get the chiller cleaned. I always sanatize the chiller before I send wort through it. Also, I have well water so my water gets pretty cold! I pump the wort into the chiller at a fast rate and can chill down to low 50's. I love it!

 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0..._m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0RK0YYYASXY9GEPZTZXW

 

My happy day was the first brew day with my new 50' 1/2" IC after using a 30 plate chiller for quite some time...The IC is almost as fast to cool but super simple to clean. The plate chiller clogged on me once,,,and oh what a joy that was in the middle of draining to the fermenter...I must say...I really did like the plate chiller compared to cooling with frozen vodka bottles...

 

All this plate chiller talk is making me apprehensive about using my therminator soon. Good thing I got the hop rocket.

 

He's very desperate to prove me wrong somehow. I expect to see a link to a cheap CFC sold by an unknown Chinese vendor on Ebay next.

 

The fact is plate chillers work well and aren't that hard to keep clean.

 

I saw that and posted anyway, the only reviewer was probably a moron (it was leaking from Teflon at threads)
did you look at the pixs?

Can't endorse that particular CFC build, but mine has been working just fine for a number of years and is much easier to clean than a plate chiller (by design), imho.

 

Both the CFC and the Plate Chiller are upgrades from an immersion chiller. Find a good deal and buy it!

 

He is more likely to be jealous of my corset.

 

I think my real point was that new brewers (not you guys) often try to emulate commercial brewers with equipment that works well in a commercial environment, but is either overkill/expensive or not practical for the average homebrewer...that is all.

 

Simple concept; the particles are wedged between the plates…they'll shrink when baked, drying them out and cook them slightly. Then flushing will easily knock them out. They're not already baked/burnt in, just wedged.

 

I would add to that the fact that the crap that's baked on to the oven pans is mostly a combination of fats/oils and sugar (but mostly fat). That doesn't really apply to a plate chiller since there's not a whole lot of fat and the sugars are largely rinsed out with plain water. There's nothing really 'stuck' in that context.

 

There is something I have been wondering and since there is a fair amount of discussion on using the plate chiller I have a question to ask.

Has anyone pumped icewater through the plate chiller as the chilling water? I have to do that year round with my immersion chiller due to high ground water temps. Just curious.

 

then why do we use pbw or oxyclean? I use it for break material and hop particulates that make their way into the chiller that a caustic can help remove…but then baking is to help with any deposits that even the caustic can't seem to remove. I'm not baking it to burn them to a crisp, but to dry the particulates out so that they are less wedged in there…there is a reason that most commercial plate chillers come apart. Shit gets stuck in there…

Edit: Mike I think I took your post the wrong way…sorry if I did...

you planning on recirculating back into the kettle or moving direct to fermenter after the chiller?

 

Yeah. I was actually expanding on your response to Brew_Betty, not contradicting it. My point was that oven pans are a different kind of gunk, so the comparison is not really relevant.