Wort Chiller for 5 Gallon batches

Beauty of an immersion chiller is that the cooling wort never comes in contact with the inside of the chiller and the outside can easily be sanitized and cleaned. Regular counterflow chillers are easier to clean/flush and less likely to foul than plate chillers if you feel the need to pull your wort out of the kettle for cooling, imho.

 

There are pros and cons to PC's, CFC's, and IC's. With the PC's there is the cleaning issue, and I'd never want to do an extract beer with a plate chiller (you would clog it for sure if you don't filter somehow). Also, unless you are re-circulating, the plate chiller gets one pass. According to the data sheet @InVitoVeritas provided, the coldest he got his wort was 79.x degrees. Counter flow CFC's have the same con of cleaning and single pass. IC's are not as fast, easier to clean, and you can cool the wort to what temp you want before moving it to your fermenter. They do take longer by about 10-15 minutes.

 

I've not had my plate chiller for long, only done two brew days thus far, so I'm by no means an expert. I do two things to keep the chiller clean. First, as preventative, I keep the wort that the chillers sees as clean as possible with both a fine mesh hop spider and a secondary strainer at the valve. Second, I cycle both PBW and a nice rinse, each for 30 mins or so, right away at the end of the brew day.

 

Naw, it's not that bad. I use a hop spider/bazooka-filter, so the kettle is going to get a PBW soak to clean that filter. Just circulate the PBW solution with your pump for a while, then reverse the flow (back-flow) to attack the most stubborn hop particles. I usually do a 48 hour PBW soak (no pumps, just soak) sometime before the next brewday for good measure. On brew day a simple fresh water rinse to remove any spider webs . . . no need to sanitize, the boiling wort will take care of that.

For all posters: it's nice to read how fast your ICs or plate chillers work but unless you post the inlet water temperature it really doesn't mean much. In my area the 90° tap water followed by some ice slurry (with pump) will get five gallons down to the mid 60s in 20 - 25 minutes.

 

I just like keeping people on their toes calculating inlet water temp from the information I provide haha 57ish F

 

No need to calculate...it is what it is (usually not low enough in the summer) cheers

 

My ground water is typically around 80-85 F here lately. I use a 50' immersion wort chiller as a pre-chiller soaking in a 10 gallon home depot cooler filled with water. I normally use about 30-40 pounds of ice and then run that cold water through the plate chiller while I recirculate the wort. I can normally get the wort down to 80 F in 1-2 minutes with my setup. After brewing, just like others have mentioned, I immediately run ground water through the plate chiller and then do a back flush on it. After the water comes out pretty clear, I then make a PBW solution at 180 F and cycle through for 30 minutes one way and then back flush for another 30 minutes. Maybe a little overkill, but I'd bet my plate chiller is pretty darn clean. At least no gunks of crap are lingering around, (none that I've ever seen or notice). I've done this exact process about 10 times now with the plate chiller.

 

@PortLargo , your post is noted and as of last night, my spring water temp is 59.

 

There's no problem with this as long as your water source is cold. I'm blessed to live in PA and I also have well water. My well is ~200 feet below ground. It doesn't matter whether it's summer or winter, my well water is always in the 40's I would guess (never actually measured it but maybe I will this weekend to see). I can drop 5 gal of wort to pitching temp in 5 minutes, so there's no need for more than one pass. I use a Blichmann Thrumometer and most of the time I have to either slow down the cold water flow or speed up my wort flow out of the kettle to prevent the wort from chilling too much. It's not uncommon after I initially get it going to see the wort outflow measure 60-62F immediately.

 

I'm so jealous of people with cold ground water. 75-78 for me in the summer.

 

Most of the time, because I whirlpool, water my trees with effluent, and have to wait for dry yeast to rehydrate, I don't see the advantage of cooling wort down in < 5 minutes...just say'in