bb3456

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Hi Everyone,
My apologies if this is answered elsewhere on this site. I couldnt find any answers so I thought I would post a question.

Sanitizing and cleaning my therminator seems pretty easy, but I have one concern. Like many plate chillers after you have finished cleaning/sanitizing, there is always some access water/sanitizer that I cannot get out of the chiller. This seems normal, but I am concerned that this will lead to bacterial/mold growth.

How do people get there therminator completely dry? Is this even possible? I do not run hot wort thru my system: it is gravity fed. Maybe this just isnt a big deal.

Thanks

Primevci

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oven

__________________
Keg 1: No Name IPA
Keg 2: Empty
Keg 3: Cream Soda "Kids"
Primary 1 = Oatmeal Stout
Primary 2 = Alaskan Amber Clone
Primary 3 = ApelfWein

Rob_B

Recipes 

Soak in Starsan, let gravity drain for a couple days. Should be dry and cap it off. Resanitize at next use. I've done it this way for a couple years now with no issues. You might need to tip it back and forth a couple time to help push the Starsan out.

Brewskii

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Resurrection/hijack;

I recently got a 10 gal kettle with a valve and dip-tube. I whirlpool after i chill with my IC and am loving the clear wort that results.
I just got a Therminator but I'm not exactly sure of the best approach to use it. If I whirlpool the hot wort and then tap - wont I get DMS issues? If I immediately knock out through the Therminator won't I plug it or at least carry a lot of trub and hops?

How are you using yours?

eastoak

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DMS is driven off during the boil and does not have much to do with wort cooling. if you don't have your hops contained it may clog the chiller with hops and break material unless you have a really good cone and a side pickup.

StMarcos

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I rinse after use, then do a pbw soak, and then a good rinse. Boil before next use, and cool off in starsan. I wouldn't bake it. You'll just bake on any gunk left. Pump users can recirc boiling wort, and that's great too. I gravity drain to my fermenter, so I always boil the therminator with my coldside hoses and O2 hose/stone.

Brewskii

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So your saying using a kettle screen is the way to go? Is that how you do it?

eastoak

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i have 2 screens: a HopStopper on my diptube and a stainless steel hop spider

i had the hopstopper first but still had trouble with pellet hops, leaf hops worked great with the screen. when i bought the hop spider it worked great with pellet hops. i decided to leave the screen on the dip tube since there was no reason to take it off and i could throw leaf hops into the boil at any time. when i flush out my plate chiller (after every brew) with boiling water i do get some bits of stuff out of the chiller but there is never enough in there to clog the chiller. a pump is key to getting the chiller really clean inside, recirculating boiling water backwards through the chiller is where you will see most of the grain, hop material come out. when i recirculate the regular way for 5-10 min i'm always impressed at how much more comes out in the back flush. if all you are doing is baking that will sanitize the chiller but i imagine the crud will be building up inside over time. at the very least you can back flush with a water hose.

StMarcos

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Used a hopstopper for years with a keg boiler. Worked very well. Now I use a flat bottom kettle and whirlpool with my mash paddle for about a minute. Always leaves a nice cone. Angled pickup tube with a very small piece of stainless mesh over the end.

OldManBrew

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I fill with starsan cap tight and store filled.
On brewday hook up run wort through into a bucket until it looks like clean wort, move output into fermentor. What little starsan if any that gets into fermentor isn't going to hurt anything.