Wort chiller disappointment

chezhed · 04-11-2011, 02:24 AM

I just got a 20 plate chiller. Used it for the first time today and I must be doing something wrong since my wort only cooled to 84 and I used a pre chiller ice bath with 25' of copper tubing. My old immersion chiller of 50' did better than this. I had to put my wort in my mini fridge for hours to get it down to pitching temp. I thought this was supposed to be my cure to summertime wort chilling....................... What did I do wrong?

ndoe22 · 04-11-2011, 02:38 AM

Your wort out flow rate must be to fast. That's my guess

**P-J** · 04-11-2011, 02:38 AM

I think you connected the two circuits wrong. The wort flows in one direction and the cooling water is opposite that. In other words - Counter Flow. Swap the input and output of your cooling water and see if that makes a difference.

That is my guess.

budrockdiesel · 04-11-2011, 03:05 PM

I use a ice bath and a submersible pump. I fill the ice bath with water and pump the water through my plate chiller. I get it too clod sometimes.

chezhed · 04-11-2011, 06:10 PM

Flow of wort was very slow. In review I don't think I set it up for counterflow. So that is what I will correct. Thanks...I feel really stupid

**Cpt_Kirks** · 04-12-2011, 02:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by P-J

I think you connected the two circuits wrong. The wort flows in one direction and the cooling water is opposite that. In other words - Counter Flow. Swap the input and output of your cooling water and see if that makes a difference.

That is my guess.

You know, I think my water and wort flow in the same direction, I need to check that. Never occurred to me that the flow should be in opposite directions, though that makes perfect sense.

onthekeg · 04-12-2011, 02:09 PM

What was the temp of your cool water? You will only get withing 7-10 degrees of that with any reasonable flow rate.

Captain_Bigelow · 04-12-2011, 02:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by onthekeg

What was the temp of your cool water? You will only get withing 7-10 degrees of that with any reasonable flow rate.

+1 I bet your faucet water is too warm. That is the problem I found when I tried one. I could not get the cooling water cool enough and was forced to run the wort through it at a trickle. So I ended up selling and going back to an IC.

**Brewmasters Warehouse** · 04-12-2011, 02:34 PM

Here is what I do to beat the ATL heat in the summer.

1. Start the flow to the plate chiller using tap water and recirculating the wort back into the kettle until the temp is 100-125. That temp is easy and quick to reach even in the summer time.

2. I switch the garden hose water over to a submersible pump that is in a tub of ice water.

3. Using the ice water and submersible pump I begin chilling the wort and taking the wort directly to the fermenter. I run the ice water back into the tub so I do not run out of cold water.

Using these steps I can get to lager temps even in the summer. With ales I can run the wort through my pump at full blast and get mid 60s pretty easily.

Hope this helps,

Ed

**Cpt_Kirks** · 04-12-2011, 03:21 PM

I'm going to go ahead and convert my old IC to a pre-chiller and do some comparisons to regular hose water -vs- hose water pre-chilled this weekend.

Easy enough to do with my plate chiller, I added a thermometer to it.