I “upgraded” to a plate chiller last year with the thought that I would save time on my brew days. I do save about half an hour each brew day on the chill time, but I find myself spending more time than I’m saving just to make sure that I get all of the trub and gunk out off my PC. Needless to say, I am getting tired of the amount of cleaning involved. I’ve been thinking about switching to a 50’ 1/2" IC for overall ease of use. I started checking around and I found this
now I am not sure what to get. Has anyone used this before?
I “upgraded” to a plate chiller last year with the thought that I would save time on my brew days. I do save about half an hour each brew day on the chill time, but I find myself spending more time than I’m saving just to make sure that I get all of the trub and gunk out off my PC. Needless to say, I am getting tired of the amount of cleaning involved. I’ve been thinking about switching to a 50’ 1/2" IC for overall ease of use. I started checking around and I found this
now I am not sure what to get. Has anyone used this before?[/quote]
hey - I went from a shirron, to a therminator and then finally had it with the same issues you did - I spent so much time cleaning them (not to mention wasted water) that the net was more aggravation than savings in time nor water. So many people that use them a few times spout that its so easy and they’re not worried, but use one for 6-12 months and stick it in a pot of boiling water or give it a high pressure backflush and see what gunk comes out and you’ll think twice.
I switched to a 50’ 1/2" ID immersion chiller and it worked great and is a lot easier to manage. I then enhanced it by going the Jamil Whirlpool route and was able to start chilling down to 50df in less than 45min which living in Fl with 8o degree tap water is difficult at best.
I now use a double ganged CFC but that is because I switched to an electric brewing setup and those are more conducive to my setup.
I’d encourage you to get it and sell the platechiller to someone else…
Hmmm? I’ve never seen one with that design before. I can see how it works cold water enters at three different points on the chiller instead of just starting at the bottom or top and running through the whole thing. I dont think that It would cool much faster then any other immersion chiller without a constant whirlpool.
I just bought a 50’ 1/2" copper chiller and im going to make a Jamil whirlpool chiller out of it after Christmas when I get my new Chugger pump (Which is sitting under the tree…Thanks Chugger pumps for putting it all over the box and ups for delivering it while I was home LOL)
I do not own a chiller, but when you look at their comparison chart on chillers, they want $150 for a chiller that can chill in 3 minutes, but the 3/8" 25’ copper tubing costs $55 and takes just over 5 minutes. Is 2 minutes per batch worth an extra $100 bucks?
This is precisely why I have steered clear of a plate chiller. Everytime I think about pulling the trigger and buying one I get on here and read about all the extra clean up, worries, and possible infections. My IC might take longer, but I don’t have to clean a plate chiller and/or pump…
[quote=“GoldenChild”]This is where I bought my Chiller from http://www.nybrewsupply.com/copper-wort … -x-50.html[/quote]+1 And they sent mine with no connectors and no bends at the inlet side, so I could adjust the height to my kettle.
That’s good to know before buying a plate chiller. I’ve knocked chill time down some by using two, with the extra one sitting in a bucket of ice water pre-chilling the hose water.
You guys are making me sad. I’ve asked for a plate chiller (Shirron) and the backflush assembly for Christmas, and I think my wife just got the package this week. I really wanted the counterflow chiller, but for $100 less, the PC was a better deal.
I’ll be the dissenting voice here. If you use a pump and have to clean it, adding a plate chiller to the equation doesn’t add that much more work. The only necessary additional step is to backflush–maybe 5 minutes effort. If I think about it the night before brewing, I’ll throw it in the oven for an hour and let it cool overnight. 2 minutes effort tops.
One hour in the oven at 335 degrees sterilizes the plate chiller. I put mine in there at the beginning of the mash and take it out to let it cool after an hour. It works great.
[quote=“Steve Breitenbach”]You guys are making me sad. I’ve asked for a plate chiller (Shirron) and the backflush assembly for Christmas, and I think my wife just got the package this week. I really wanted the counterflow chiller, but for $100 less, the PC was a better deal.
Am I really going to regret this Christmas gift?[/quote]You can always return it. I think a guy could pick up some copper, garden hose and fittings and put together a counter flow chiller for cheap.
Steve, I don’t know if you will regret your plate chiller. I have had mine for almost a year and love it. it takes me less then 5 minutes to clean up. all I do is clean out my Keggle the add four gallons of almost boiling water to it. discard the first gallon as it’s mostly wert and water, then run it through the pump and chiller once then reverse the fittings to back flush it with same three gallons of hot water. then I place the chiller in theoven for an hour to let it dry. every five uses I’ll add a PBW cleaning to the process but for the most part it takes me less then 5 minutes to clean up.
as for getting funk from it. I have only had one batch get infected this year but that was from me not sealing the lid on my bucket during the secondary fermentation.
I hate this damn thread. I am pretty sure I have a plate chiller sitting under the winter solstices tree as we speak.
And was hoping to be able to use without a pump for a while. looks like I need to get one sooner than later. But hell I wanted one anyway. Can’t wait to do true whirlpool additions. And sounds like I need to get building a hop spider as well.
I don’t actually own a plate chiller yet, although my grand plan is to get one once I move up to 10 gallon batches.
So, take my inexperienced words with a large grain of salt. I subscribe to the the no worries school of brewing, and in my mind - provided you sterilize in the oven - if a few chunks of left over goo find their way into your beer, its not a big deal. At least its sterile goo, and it should settle out with the rest of the trub. RDWHAHB.
[quote=“Nate42”]I don’t actually own a plate chiller yet, although my grand plan is to get one once I move up to 10 gallon batches.
So, take my inexperienced words with a large grain of salt. I subscribe to the the no worries school of brewing, and in my mind - provided you sterilize in the oven - if a few chunks of left over goo find their way into your beer, its not a big deal. At least its sterile goo, and it should settle out with the rest of the trub. RDWHAHB.[/quote]
I owe a plate chiller and subscribe to this theory exactly. As previous posters said, I circulate hot water with PBW through both ways while I’m cleaning up. Not too much effort as it’s fill and go while I’m putting other things away. Once I’m done cleaning up, I take the chiller to the sink and flush each way with some water and then to the over to dry and sterilze. Just doesn’t seem like that much work for something that cools my wort so fast and efficiently.
If I ever start having infected beer then I’ll start looking at my chiller. So far so good.
Take everyone’s opinion and then make your own decision.
I typically give it a good flush back and forth with the garden hose, then recirculate warm PBW with my pump and place a paint strainer bag over the return to the HLT to catch debris. Works well.
I also added a filter canister before the chillers to catch all but the smallest debris going into the chiller.
All this adds up to a lot of $$ and more effort that truly isn’t making better beer, and the plumbing does waste wort.
All that said I still believe that an immersion chiller is the simple best way and can use the ice water pump methods as well and no danger of contamination and virtually no cleanup other than hitting with the garden hose for a second.
+1, it’s no problem at all. I clean my pumps and hoses after every batch by recirculating hot PBW through them for 30 minutes. Adding the plate chiller into the loop is no added effort whatsoever. And it’s easy to sterilize in the oven.
YMMV
