Plate chiller

[Red Raven Brewery]

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.

Thanks for that. Ordered myself some fittings. Your setup sounds very similar to what I'm after. Cheers.

 

[AdeDunn]

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

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?
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Into buckets on that particular day, as I was too far away from the drain for the waste pipe to reach, that's how I knew how much water I went through that time, and it left me gobsmacked and horrified. Previous to that I hadn't a clue how much water I was using, as I was just running it straight into the drain.... I used the hot water from the start of cooling to clean up at the end, so that was something at least. But still, so much water literally down the drain.... It was a very hot day.... You're question would seem to suggest you're not asking about an immersion chiller though? As the wort never left the kettle, the chiller just got dipped in, moved around, with the wort stirred around it/pumped around it, whilst cold water ran through it. You don't usually pass wort through an immersion chiller.

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.

Pretty much yeah. I ended up with a setup where I'd pump wort around my IC, in addition to stirring, and this helped a fair bit. Still took considerably longer to cool than my big plate chiller does. Once you get the hang of using, and cleaning, a good plate chiller, well I know that I wouldn't go back... I use pellet hops these days (back then I used to use whole hops though, as I found I got clearer wort into my FV, as they form a nice filter bed on a bazooka filter, where pellet hops will clog one), basically as they take up less room in the freezer, plus I'm using a stainless steel hop spider anyway.

Thanks for that. Ordered myself some fittings. Your setup sounds very similar to what I'm after. Cheers.

Good luck, hope it works well for you. As I am sure I have hinted, I couldn't be happier with mine. You may find it a bit of a PITA the first couple of times you use it all, but honestly, it will just click eventually, and you'll develop a smoother process as part of your brew day.

 

[Red Raven Brewery]

Good luck, hope it works well for you. As I am sure I have hinted, I couldn't be happier with mine. You may find it a bit of a PITA the first couple of times you use it all, but honestly, it will just click eventually, and you'll develop a smoother process as part of your brew day.

Cheers. I was hoping to have a go this weekend but I'm still waiting on bits and haven't even got the ingredients yet. Life just gets in the way sometimes