Plate chiller

[AJT]

Can anyone recommend a plate chiller for 10 gallon batches? Never used one so looking for advice.

Cheers

 

[rodabod]

I use this one:

https://www.brewbuilder.co.uk/125kw-30-plate-chiller.html

It's excellent, and chills to less than 20c in a few minutes.

My advice:

Recirculate the chilled wort back into the kettle so that you can monitor temperature change easily. This is lightly slower than doing a single pass (ie. chilled wort straight into the fermenting vessel), but it's easier.

Use a pump like the cheap beige (solar?) pumps you get on eBay.

Do not allow any debris into the chiller. Make sure that hops are filtered out and to some extent any lumpy trub too. Otherwise you will block the chiller.

Rinse well after use.

 

[AJT]

Cheers rodabod

I am getting a 80l thermopot mash tun and a 70l boiler from brew builder. Well 70l or 100l not sure yet. Have you used brew builder a few times? Recommended?

Can you put up a link for the pump you are talking about?

Appreciate it. Cheers

 

[CreweBrewer]

They're just heat exchangers for DHW boiler systems. Loads on eBay:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/ulk/itm/221711894584

 

[rodabod]

They're just heat exchangers for DHW boiler systems. Loads on eBay:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/ulk/itm/221711894584

Absolutely correct. I couldn't find one with the same capacity as the one at brew builder though. This is based on number of plates (you can count them by looking at a side-on photo) and unit volume.

If you are happy to wait slightly longer for chilling then one of these boiler heat exchangers should be ok as long as the gap between the plates isn't too small.

 

[rodabod]

I am getting a 80l thermopot mash tun and a 70l boiler from brew builder. Well 70l or 100l not sure yet. Have you used brew builder a few times? Recommended?

Can you put up a link for the pump you are talking about?

Brew builder were excellent. I've only used them once, but the owner is friendly and kept me up to date with my order.

This is the pump I used, but I ordered on eBay with free hose barbs:

https://www.brewbuilder.co.uk/mini-pump.html

 

[AJT]

Great thanks.

How do you power the pump?

 

[rodabod]

Just a wallwart AC adapter. Stripped connector off the end and wired with terminal block to the pump. I have an adjustable voltage model so can slow it down if need be.