Plate Chiller or new immersion

Hi everyone,

I need a more efficient chiller. I made my old immersion chiller out 25ft of 3/8 in copper tubing. I'm not very good at building things. It works but I really need something more efficient. I do 5 gallon full boil batches. Would you recommend a plate chiller or a new immersion chiller of 50ft of 1/2 in copper tubing and why? Thanks for any input you can give!

I went with the 50' x 1/2" after reading Jamil's article at Mr Malty.com and am completely satisfied with the decision. I used Bobbie M's instructions on YouTube.

Plate chiller can't be beat for locking in hop flavor/aroma.

It also depends on what you define as "efficient". Plate chillers are a heck of a lot more efficient at transferring heat (much more surface area) and using less water in the process. So in those terms - a lot more efficient than an immersion chiller.

Aside from that: copper is pretty expensive these days. Most of the time it's cheaper to buy an immersion chiller than make one.

Plate chiller... Faster chill times, far less work (you don't need to move it like you do an IC to get better chill times) and far more compact. I chill 6.5-7 gallons of boiling hot wort fast. That's even with a ~5 minute recirculation while still boiling (to sterilize the chiller's insides). I recirculate the chilling wort back into the keggle for the first 5 minutes (currently) before sending it into the fermenter. I easily hit 55-60F into primary this way. I'm using the ChillHog 4000 from Rebel Brewer currently, but have my eyes on a larger 30-60 plate chiller from Duda Diesel... The longer chiller should seriously shorten my chill times for all my batches.

If you do get a plate chiller, I would plan on getting a pump ASAP. Unless you already have one, or have planned to get one at the same time.

Golddiggie said:

Plate chiller... Faster chill times, far less work (you don't need to move it like you do an IC to get better chill times) and far more compact. I chill 6.5-7 gallons of boiling hot wort fast. That's even with a ~5 minute recirculation while still boiling (to sterilize the chiller's insides). I recirculate the chilling wort back into the keggle for the first 5 minutes (currently) before sending it into the fermenter. I easily hit 55-60F into primary this way. I'm using the ChillHog 4000 from Rebel Brewer currently, but have my eyes on a larger 30-60 plate chiller from Duda Diesel... The longer chiller should seriously shorten my chill times for all my batches.

If you do get a plate chiller, I would plan on getting a pump ASAP. Unless you already have one, or have planned to get one at the same time.

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right on. i use gravity with my plate chiller but i have to make sure to use hop bags or it does slow down near the end.

I use a hop spider (stainless steel of course) to keep the hop matter out of my plate chiller. The bag I use is large enough that the hops have really good wort flow. Utilization is exactly as I expect/wish from the batches so I have no issues there. I just have to make sure the bag is long enough to reach deep enough in the keggle so that it works as I designed it. Basically, I have three different hop bags now. One custom made, one from William's (14" long bag I believe) and another that's normally use to hold grain in buckets for BIAB. With the worm clamp holding the bag to the ring, it's easy to set the depth. I just make sure the bag won't touch the bottom of the keggle/kettle during the boil.

With the spider, I don't have any flow issues at any point. I also use gravity (for the most part) once I'm done recirculating. I do have to pulse the pump once every so often to make sure the wort doesn't get chilled too far. :rockin:

BTW, I've upgraded the impeller in my 809 pumps to the one in the 815 model...

I ended up buying a heavy duty 1/2'' by 50' immersion chiller. It's more than double what I have now and I'm only doing 5 gallon batches. I don't have the cash for a pump at this time and wanted something simple to use/clean. I'll stick with the immersions for now. Thanks for the advice!

MacGruber said:

I ended up buying a heavy duty 1/2'' by 50' immersion chiller. It's more than double what I have now and I'm only doing 5 gallon batches. I don't have the cash for a pump at this time and wanted something simple to use/clean. I'll stick with the immersions for now. Thanks for the advice!

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good choice, i have one of those in addition a plate chiler and it's good for 10 gallon batches too. i have pretty cold tap water and i could get 10 gallons down to pitching temps in 15-25 min depending on how hard i stirred.

I have been facing a similar decision when my last chiller broke. After reading the Mr Malty article, and knowing a few people who have had issues with their plate chillers I decided to stay with an immersion chiller as well.

I am planning on building a 50' whirlpool IC... like this one! :rockin:

http://www.mrmalty.com/chiller.php

of course it helps that during my prime brew months, the chill water comes out of my well at about 45 degrees!

I also plan on building the Whirlpool attachment someday. I need to take baby steps because I'm married, so I can't go crazy buying equipment all t once. the equipment I have is good enough, but in most cases better equipment= better beer.

A 1/2" x 50' IC with the whirlpool attachment gets my 6 gallons of wort from boiling to under 70 in about 10 minutes. Once the wort is under 140 the hop aromas are pretty well stabilized and my total volume is there in less than 2 minutes. For me, I prefer that advantage over plate or counterflow chillers. Hot wort isn't sitting in the kettle waiting to go through the chiller.

MacGruber said:

I also plan on building the Whirlpool attachment someday. I need to take baby steps because I'm married, so I can't go crazy buying equipment all t once. the equipment I have is good enough, but in most cases better equipment= better beer.

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You can use a spoon to make a whirlpool. Cheap and effective.

people make wort, yeast makes beer.

Better fermentation = better beer

Paul07293 said:

A 1/2" x 50' IC with the whirlpool attachment gets my 6 gallons of wort from boiling to under 70 in about 10 minutes. Once the wort is under 140 the hop aromas are pretty well stabilized and my total volume is there in less than 2 minutes. For me, I prefer that advantage over plate or counterflow chillers. Hot wort isn't sitting in the kettle waiting to go through the chiller.

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I completely agree. I prefer immersion chillers for homebrew scale batches. A plate chiller makes more sense for brewery sized batches simply because building an immersion chiller that size would be silly.

But to get an immersion chiller to really work good you need some way to move the wort around. Stir with a spoon, recirc with a pump, etc... People who are disappointed with their immersion chiller are usually skipping this detail.

The biggest problem in my mind with IC's are the sheer amount of water they waste. One could make the argument water is cheap - but I still hate just wasting it and you can only recapture but so much of it if you're going to use it for cleaning.

That said - there really isn't a bad decision here. They'll all work.

jcaudill said:

The biggest problem in my mind with IC's are the sheer amount of water they waste. One could make the argument water is cheap - but I still hate just wasting it and you can only recapture but so much of it if you're going to use it for cleaning.

That said - there really isn't a bad decision here. They'll all work.

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I brew in my garage and hook the output up to a 50ft garden hose. The hose goes to flowers beds in the front and side of the house. I found by the time the water makes it through the 50ft length of hose its pretty close to ambient temperature.

Its great for the wife factor too. "Honey don't worry I'll take care of water to the plants today."

So I can just start the whirlpool with a sanitized spoon then? I have been afraid of oxidizing the wort. No need to worry?

Smells a debate coming

Put the spoon into the wort the same time you put the I/C in (about 15 minutes of boil remaining). Sanitize done.

Start a strong rotation, pull the spoon, put the lid on and let it rest. There's no need to stir it long - it's much more important to let it settle. Get in, get out.

MacGruber said:

So I can just start the whirlpool with a sanitized spoon then? I have been afraid of oxidizing the wort. No need to worry?

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You want to introduce oxygen into the wort prior to pitching yeast. It's once the beer is fermting/fermented that you want to be careful about oxidization.

I aerate like crazy with my drill paddle once it's cooled. I didn't know it was okay while it was chilling though. I have a feeling that my new chiller and knowing that I can whirlpool with a spoon is going to chill my boils down WAY faster. Thanks!
Also, I try to keep my yeast as happy as possible too, to respond to another post.

I have a 50 foot 1/2 inch immersion and love it. The best part is they can handle 10 gallon batches great too. I built the jamil whirpool setup with the march pump and it is freakin awesome. Its crazy but my wort is actually cooling faster now that I am doing 9-10 gallons batches instead of 5. I can get the wort to 80 degrees in around 10 minutes or less even in the hot summers out here. I don't see how a plate chiller could be quicker. I really like the jamil setup because you have a closed system at that point. You can put the lid on, cool the wort, and transfer exposing the wort to as little open air as possible.

Well that's a pretty easy one - my plate chiller cools at the rate of 2.5GPM. So 10 gallons = 4 minutes.

Just for the fun of it: Hot Side Aeration.

jcaudill said:

Just for the fun of it: Hot Side Aeration.

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Sure, if you're motorized whirlpooling at high speeds I guess. I'd say that for the other 99.8% of us that whirlpool manually with common sense that HSA is hardly worth worrying about.

You can whirlpool to introduce wort movement without adding an excessive amount of oxygen into the mix.

jcaudill said:

That said - there really isn't a bad decision here. They'll all work.

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Agreed

I think it's safe to say my wort will chill down much faster with the new chiller, ice bath, and whirlpooling

i'll have to go back on my previous claim of using a plate chiller without a pump. the other day i made a berliner weisse and of course with .5oz of hops in the batch it flew through the chiller without a pump, subsequent batches have not been as easy so i'll be buying a pump tomorrow on the way to work.

You guys mus whirlpool constantly. I have a 50' 3/8's chiller and it takes me 20-25 mins to cool to pitching temps when the water from the tap is 40 degrees. Much longer in the summer when it hits 55+

estoppel said:

You guys mus whirlpool constantly. I have a 50' 3/8's chiller and it takes me 20-25 mins to cool to pitching temps when the water from the tap is 40 degrees. Much longer in the summer when it hits 55+

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How big of a batch? I can get into the mid 70's in about 14 minutes using just tap water temp on a 50' chiller on a 6 gal batch. Since I use campden tablets for chloramine and don't normally pitch yeast to the next day I don't normally worry about chilling down to pitching temps, instead just getting it down to the 70's.

I do 11 Gallon batches. I find after about 80 degrees, my chill rate slows down dramatically. The last ten degrees takes as long as the first 40!

Plate without question. Ease of use, speed, and low profile in the brew setup. Can't get any better than that. Just gotta monitor temperature closely, cause you generally only get one pass

Jukas said:

How big of a batch? I can get into the mid 70's in about 14 minutes using just tap water temp on a 50' chiller on a 6 gal batch. Since I use campden tablets for chloramine and don't normally pitch yeast to the next day I don't normally worry about chilling down to pitching temps, instead just getting it down to the 70's.

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Why do you wait until the next day to pitch? Also, how do you keep the wort sanitary before pitching? Do you put it in the fermentor, put an airlock on, wait, then pitch the next day? What benefits do you get from this method?

The new chiller took my wort down to 63 degrees in under ten minutes while the kettle sat in an ice bath! Crazy.

For those of you only doing 5 gallon batches and considering an immersion chiller:

I went from 50' 1/2" copper to 50' 3/8" copper with no change in cooling time - about 10 mins.