Plate chiller

[Red Raven Brewery]

Hi,

I need a wort cooler and was thinking about getting this Plate heat exchanger BEER & WORT CHILLER cooler HOME BREWERY Brewing | eBay I was wondering if anyone knew it it was any good and would work well on a 25-30l setup?
Thanks.

 

[Mrobson]

I was literally just looking at these! They seem cheap in my eyes, which is a bit of a red flag. There's no mention of how many plates it has either. Upon looking over at MM their 30 plater looks loads better. I think I know where my money is going

 

[Red Raven Brewery]

I was literally just looking at these! They seem cheap in my eyes, which is a bit of a red flag.

Yeah that's part of why I wanted to ask here. Seems a little ok the cheap side. I thought I saw it mention 20 plates but might have been imagining that

 

[Mrobson]

Probably another 'buy cheap, buy twice' jobby

 

[The Baron]

I think it says 12 plates on the advert.
I don't use them as they use too much water and are well known for being difficult to clean fully

 

[Leon103]

Says 12 plates. Looks rather small

 

[Red Raven Brewery]

Ah. Seems like I'd be better spending more to get something that'll actually last me. Thanks all!!

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

A counterflow chiller of either type (plate or tube-in-tube) is well worth having IMHO but as others have said, the plate type is difficult to clean properly so I prefer the tubular ones - which also have the advantage of being easy to make: have a look here or on google for ‘DIY counterflow’; really all you need is 8-10m of 8mm or 10mm soft copper tubing, a similar length of hosepipe and some plumbing fittings.

 

[eyuptm]

Says 12 plates in seller's description...

 

[AdeDunn]

I have a big plate chiller from brew builder (50 plate, 100KW), it uses less water than my copper immersion chiller used to, and cools a LOT faster. I would never go back now.


(pic to break up wall of text a bit)

As to cleaning, yeah bit harder than with immersion chillers, but not that hard. The main thing is, don't let solids get into them in the first place. So talking putting hops into a hop spider, make sure no grain makes it into your wort... If hops or grain get into your chiller, then yeah you are gonna have some fun (been there, done that... lol). Avoid getting solids in there though, and cleaning is simple, so long as you are using a pump that can handle the heat. Just hook it up to your boiler when you are cleaning that, and pump the same cleaning solution (PBW or whatever) through it at around 40 degrees C or so for a bit. Then rinse with water at the same temperature. Also, it helps if you have the same plumbing size on both sides of it, so you can swap wort side and water side, this allows you to back flush with water at the end of the brew just by swapping your hoses over, I do this before cleaning to flush it out, last brew the water quickly ran clean doing this. Tip it upside down and drain as much water out of there as you can.

When you come to use it next brew day, you handle it in a similar way to an immersion chiller, which is where that heat handling pump comes in. Hook it up and start running the BOILING wort through it 10-15 minutes (I go for 15 minutes to be thorough) before the end of the boil, dump the first bit of liquid that come out though into a bucket or down the drain in order to flush out liquid left over from when you cleaned it out from your previous brew day (ie, any dregs of water left in there). Just take care not to touch the plate chiller until you turn on the cold water at the end of the boil though, as it gets flippin' hot (the whole point... lol).

Don't cheap out on a chiller though. I did that with my copper immersion chiller, bought one off eBay, was garbage.... Used at least 200 litres of water to cool 15 litres of wort during hot weather. Pay more now, save more later, including your back....

I am going to repeat this point, as I think it's the most important part. It's all about stopping gunk getting in in the first place. Hop spider (or bags alternatively), no grain in the wort.... Lots of folks will tell you this impacts utilisation, free the hops, yeah, I put about 10% more hops than I calculate with my software at each stage (I use Beersmith 3), and find my beer comes out tasting spot on for me. :) I always joke with my wife as I do it, as as I weigh I'll go to the weight specified in the software, then as I add 10% more will say "and some to feed the spider".

 

[eyuptm]

I have a big plate chiller from brew builder (50 plate, 100KW), it uses less water than my copper immersion chiller used to, and cools a LOT faster. I would never go back now.

View attachment 54188
(pic to break up wall of text a bit)

As to cleaning, yeah bit harder than with immersion chillers, but not that hard. The main thing is, don't let solids get into them in the first place. So talking putting hops into a hop spider, make sure no grain makes it into your wort... If hops or grain get into your chiller, then yeah you are gonna have some fun (been there, done that... lol). Avoid getting solids in there though, and cleaning is simple, so long as you are using a pump that can handle the heat. Just hook it up to your boiler when you are cleaning that, and pump the same cleaning solution (PBW or whatever) through it at around 40 degrees C or so for a bit. Then rinse with water at the same temperature. Also, it helps if you have the same plumbing size on both sides of it, so you can swap wort side and water side, this allows you to back flush with water at the end of the brew just by swapping your hoses over, I do this before cleaning to flush it out, last brew the water quickly ran clean doing this. Tip it upside down and drain as much water out of there as you can.

When you come to use it next brew day, you handle it in a similar way to an immersion chiller, which is where that heat handling pump comes in. Hook it up and start running the BOILING wort through it 10-15 minutes (I go for 15 minutes to be thorough) before the end of the boil, dump the first bit of liquid that come out though into a bucket or down the drain in order to flush out liquid left over from when you cleaned it out from your previous brew day (ie, any dregs of water left in there). Just take care not to touch the plate chiller until you turn on the cold water at the end of the boil though, as it gets flippin' hot (the whole point... lol).

Don't cheap out on a chiller though. I did that with my copper immersion chiller, bought one off eBay, was garbage.... Used at least 200 litres of water to cool 15 litres of wort during hot weather. Pay more now, save more later, including your back....

I am going to repeat this point, as I think it's the most important part. It's all about stopping gunk getting in in the first place. Hop spider (or bags alternatively), no grain in the wort.... Lots of folks will tell you this impacts utilisation, free the hops, yeah, I put about 10% more hops than I calculate with my software at each stage (I use Beersmith 3), and find my beer comes out tasting spot on for me. :) I always joke with my wife as I do it, as as I weigh I'll go to the weight specified in the software, then as I add 10% more will say "and some to feed the spider".

Where did you buy this?? And how many £? Cheers Tim.

 

[AdeDunn]

Where did you buy this?? And how many £? Cheers Tim.

Hi, got it from brewbuilder, cost me £89.50, plus the cost of the various fittings and shipping. Not cheap by any means, but worth the money IMHO.

 

[Red Raven Brewery]

Update: I've gone and got myself a kegland counterflow chiller so that's on its way.

@AdeDunn - do you recall where you got the fittings and/or sizes. I've got a klarstein 30l system but I'm away with work at the moment so can't easily check but want to be able to connect the AIO brewer to the counter chiller like what you've done there.
At the moment I'm assuming it's just a 1/2" quick fit connector and relavant hoses

Cheers.

 

[AdeDunn]

Update: I've gone and got myself a kegland counterflow chiller so that's on its way.

@AdeDunn - do you recall where you got the fittings and/or sizes. I've got a klarstein 30l system but I'm away with work at the moment so can't easily check but want to be able to connect the AIO brewer to the counter chiller like what you've done there.
At the moment I'm assuming it's just a 1/2" quick fit connector and relavant hoses

Cheers.

They're 1/2" BSP bud, I went with quick disconnects as that was what came fitted to the Klarstein. I could have switched them, but QDs work well enough. Fittings are from Brewbuilder, hose I usually get either from there or Malt miller. Hoses are all platinum cured silicone. To hook up the garden hose, I have a short length with a hozelock fitting on one end (aquastop type) and a QD on the other, then I just use a hoze fitting connector that goes between to hozelock female type fittings to join them. Quick and easy. :) One other tip, buy plenty of PTFE tape, if you don't have it already.

 

[Binkei Huckaback]

[QUOTE="AdeDunn, post: 1073532, member: 19326"
Used at least 200 litres of water to cool 15 litres of wort during hot weather.
[/QUOTE]
200 litres???? I presume you don't live in the UK?

 

[AdeDunn]

[QUOTE="AdeDunn, post: 1073532, member: 19326"
Used at least 200 litres of water to cool 15 litres of wort during hot weather.

200 litres???? I presume you don't live in the UK?
[/QUOTE]
I live in the UK yeah. Really inefficient copper immersion chiller, hot summer day, the water from the outside tap was coming out at about 18 degrees C..... It just had such a rubbish surface area. Even in cooler weather it would take 25 minutes to cool 15 litres of wort down to 20 degrees C. My plate chiller cools to 20 degrees C in a fraction of the time, shaving time off my brew days, and saving water. Willing to bet other folks using counterflow chillers and good sized plate chillers have found similar. I mean, sure if you spend similar money on an immersion chiller you might maybe get similarly good cooling, but I can't comment on this as the only IC I ever used was a £40 one off eBay... lol

 

[foxbat]

[QUOTE="AdeDunn, post: 1073532, member: 19326"
Used at least 200 litres of water to cool 15 litres of wort during hot weather.

200 litres???? I presume you don't live in the UK?
[/QUOTE]
I agree that's huge. My immersion chiller isn't anything special but I'm getting 24 litres down to 20-ish with 60-65 litres with stirring.

 

[the_quick]

Most of the small breweries use plate chillers and very often they reuse the water - going back to hot water tank for the next brew - not easily done at home.
I usually chill my wort to around 30 degrees (immersion) and than leave fermenter in a cool place at home. As I found it takes the longest to chill from 30 to 20.

 

[Binkei Huckaback]

I live in the UK yeah. Really inefficient copper immersion chiller, hot summer day, the water from the outside tap was coming out at about 18 degrees C..... It just had such a rubbish surface area. Even in cooler weather it would take 25 minutes to cool 15 litres of wort down to 20 degrees C. My plate chiller cools to 20 degrees C in a fraction of the time, shaving time off my brew days, and saving water. Willing to bet other folks using counterflow chillers and good sized plate chillers have found similar. I mean, sure if you spend similar money on an immersion chiller you might maybe get similarly good cooling, but I can't comment on this as the only IC I ever used was a £40 one off eBay... lol
[/QUOTE]

Even with a simple 10mm home made single coil copper wort chiller on the hottest day of the year I never used that much water for 25 litres. We you recirculating back into the kettle or running off in to a FV?

 

[dcbrookes]

Immersion chillers are basically inefficient and a pain to clean (specially if you use British leaf hops with their seeds). I have tried counterflow chillers but they are not as efficient as a good big plate chiller, which, as AdeDunn says, save time and water.