Plate Chillers - EH?

[Darcey]

Hello everyone!

Like most people I have a springy thing copper chiller I made by wrapping some 8mm copper around a cornie keg. Every time I use it it looks less like a spring and more like a shiny knot!.. thats knot the point!

I am looking at getting a plate chiller heat exchange instead of a new immersion chiller but I am unsure of a few things. I know they are good and I would be using it via gravity for now, but..
-What happens to the 'cold break' material if your chilling in this manor?
-I assume you'll have to sanitize the hell out of it every time you use it as well?
-Does anyone actually have one?
-Should I be bothering?

Thanks again

D

 

[Swift Pint]

I got a 12 plate SS chiller from Brouwland (item 018.263.1234).
€ 79,94 + P&P. I got mine from the store when I was on holiday in Belgium, and when the exchange rate was more favourable.

I don't worry about the cold break, so it ends up in the fermenter. I don't think there are any issues with this. If you were worried about cold break you could use a pump to recirculate back into the boiler & let the hop matter filter out the cold break as you drain into the FV. Or I you could use a whirlpool (never used one, so not sure how that works!)

I make sure it gets a good clean after each brew - usually just by flushing it with PBW solution & plenty of cold water. Prior to using it I give it a quick sterilise with some iodophor & then flush with boiled water.

I think the main issue is making sure you don't get hop leaves in it. My use a Hop&Grape boiler which has a copper manifold with slits in it. This is quite good, however the occasional leaf does get through. So far I've had no issues with the chiller getting blocked though.

Personally I love it. Its quick and easy. Small for easy storage - and you don't need to worry about kinking any piping when you're trying to ram all your brewing gear back into the cupboard... :evil:

I'd recommend one!

 

[snail59]

I have one. Takes a little setting up with flow speeds. I will be getting a pump to re circ the wort as I think it will work better that way. I give it a dam good rince through and back flush after use then put it in a pressure cooker for 20mins. Fill with boiling water and place the caps back on and store till needed again.

 

[MikeB]

I've often wondered - is cold break in the FV a problem? I use an immersion chiller but I've always been taken with the idea of a plate chiller from a speed point of view...

My thoughts are that as cold break naturally drops to the bottom of the copper when chilling, it won't be an issue in terms of clarity. But can it affect flavour? Does yeast munch on cold break?

 

[Darcey]

My thoughts are that as cold break naturally drops to the bottom of the copper when chilling, it won't be an issue in terms of clarity. But can it affect flavour? Does yeast munch on cold break?

My local micros use plate chillers... so I guest its common practice. However they also use cold conditioning to remove the yeast...

I suspect some of the boffins on here may have the answer?

 

[Vossy1]

Plate chillers are a fantastic addition to the brewery IMO. As far as I'm aware they are the only choice for cooling (large volume) apart from some micros that have cooling circuits in the copper. They can be found very reasonably on e-bay, just type in 'heat exchanger' and you'll see them in droves :grin: The are a little more awkward to use, it really isn't a good idea to let hops get in them, though it's fairly easy to clean them if they do.
Micros/breweries don't tend to use sealed heat exchangers, they use gasketed phe's, which are regularly stripped down and cleaned (which is a chore :grin: )
It's far quicker to cool via a PHE to the fv, then dropping the break material once settle out, naturally a conical fv helps here. Recircing wort back to the kettle via a PHE is really slow IME, no better then using a IC. The problem with recircing for me was that to get the speeds of flow necessary to chill quickly, it stirred up all the hops on the bottom of the copper making it difficult to keep them out of the PHE. A way round this is to whirlpool, which I haven't tried yet, though I suspect this will be difficult with elements in the way, I bet it's better with gas heated coppers with no 'intrusions' into the wort flow.

There are things you can do to 'help' when using a PHE but you need to really consider if you want to go down that route. I've decided it's do or die with my system. I have one of the GPHE's as used in micros/breweries and I've adapted my gear to suit. If of interest see my blog below, keep scrolling to older posts for info on the GPHE :thumb:

 

[Darcey]

I think my problem is that I am doing 2-3 kit/speciality grain kits a month and doing an AG a month that I just NEED soo much I am learning too fast.. I have read about 4 books in the last 5 months and learnt so much more form this forum...

I would love a plate chiller but I think I need to focus on buying quality kit from the start such as boiler parts and HERMS etc . No point quickly chilling a poorly mashed beer..?
d

 

[prolix]

Get the plate chiller now! right this minute! :twisted: this is the one I have, you will need a pump and some of Vossys silicone tubing and some connectors this post discusses them. here is a solar water pump as used by many, it will work your HERMs aswell when you get one, this one is threaded so the connectors fit

I would have saved what it cost to get the plate chiller, the silicone tubing and the pump on the rolls of copper and pumping fittings I bought to make various IC's. I spent a large fortune on the connectors though but they are beautiful (I have cams on the hoses and grooves on the pump HE and vessels) for £30 inc pnp I could have done them in aluminium