Plate Chiller: do you let let trub settle first?

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sideshow_ben

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I have used a plate chiller for the past two brews and it works fantastically, but I have a "fine-tuning" question. I ported a kettle with a 12-inch bazooka screen that is about 1-inch off the bottom. The last two times, I ran the wort through the chiller immediately after boiling. The 2nd time I did it, the screen got pretty gummed up and I lost 3/4 of a gallon of wort. So today I'm wondering if it is worth giving the wort 5-10 minutes for everything solid to settle down, and then start to run the wort slowly through the chiller. That way, most of the solid material has settled to the bottom of the kettle and the top side of my screen will get less material on it.
 
Personally, I stir it for a few minutes and then I let it settle for about 10min. I don't use a bazooka screen, and didn't have much trub.
 
Personally, I stir it for a few minutes and then I let it settle for about 10min. I don't use a bazooka screen, and didn't have much trub.

Are you chilling first?
For me, unless the wort has cooled, I get no settling (unless I wait a really long time), so to answer the OP's question about waiting 5-10 minutes, I don't think it will help.

I'm interested in this question too.
I strain as much grain material as possible during vorlauf/sparge (punched-hole FB), and I use a fine mesh hop spider to try and keep solids to a minimum, which works really well with an IC, but...
I want to switch to a plate chiller because they are faster/more efficient, but I'm concerned with recirculating through a plate chiller prior to whirlpooling. I don't want to plug up a new plate chiller.
Hoping some guys using this process for plate chiller/whirlpooling will chime in.
 
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