Plate Chiller Setup

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Jeebas

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Here is my setup with the plate chiller (it is much like the one pictured here - https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/plate-chiller-w-thermometer-311479/ but with some different garden fittings) -


Water In: Garden Hose Fitting (shipped with the Plate Chiller) -> Gooseneck Shutoff -> Male Quick-Connect (Female Quick-Connect hooked up to garden hose)
Water Out: Spare 1/2" Female NPT to Barb (I had this laying around from my brewstand fittings but the Hose Barbs shipped with the Plate Chiller would work as well) -> Spare Siphon Tubing
Wort In: Camlock Type A
Wort Out: Camlock Type A (thermocouple attaches to this)
Thermocouple: Camlock Type B -> 1/2" NPT Tee -> Thermometer -> Camlock Type F

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Nice. There are many different configurations that I pondered when I put my plate chiller together. My goals were to provide flexibility to connect the water in to either a garden hose or submersible pump with ice water, use the same connectors as my water filter setup, and be able to reverse flow easily to clean and sanitize. Here is what I came up with:

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Very nice idea using the Camlock A directly on the chiller. I put a Tee on the output, then a Camlock F on the Tee. Yours is a better solution, I'll be switching mine to match.

The nice thing about the Camlocks is that it makes back flushing trivial.
 
Very nice. Thanks for sharing this. ONLY thing I would do different is not use a cam lock on the water exhaust. But I will use the rest of this setup for my own system. I was thinking standard garden hose QD's from HD or Lowe's for that. Will consider the elbows, but my system is still not defined. Thanks again! Very informative post Sir!
 
You're welcome!

I think you might be referring to rack04's post about the camlock on water out, i use a hose barb with some siphon tubing.
 
You're welcome!

I think you might be referring to rack04's post about the camlock on water out, i use a hose barb with some siphon tubing.

That's actually the water in. I use it that way because I can use the same adapter piece that I use for my water filter. It has a male garden hose quick disconnect on one side and a barbed female cam lock on the other.
 
Nice looking chillers guys. I've been using an immersible for years and I've had a DudaDiesel chiller in my ebay watch list for a year now...I just keep renewing it. I may pull the trigger this year. I watched Lonnie's Brutus video on youtube and I liked how he chilled using a 2-step process.
 
The only thing I'd change is using a digital on the output rather than a slow bimetal. It's really hard to dial flow in when you have a reaction delay.

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Please explain how you connected the digital thermometer to the 1/2" NPT. Never mind I found it on your website. Good idea.
 
Bobby, nice idea with the digital. I think I may just order one from your site when I get my plate chiller.
 
X2 on the digital. When I initially did mine in the post above, I had an extra bi-metal thermo so I used it. Now it is on my HLT and I use the digital for my chiller.
 
I'm finally getting away from the old IC and have ordered a 40 plate chiller from Keg Cowboy. I also ordered a few things from Bobby M to set it up.
 
So that 5" stem is a good length?

Can any digital thermometer that is similar work or is there something particular about that brand?

Thanks for the idea on this!
 
Bobby confirmed that a Thermapen would also work in his setup which is what I'm going to use. Everything else will be just like the OP has. I'm still waiting for the Keg Cowboy chiller which has been on backorder for over a month.
 
Hey guys, I have decided to just use standard garden hose connectors on my 40-plate chiller. Who has those for purchase? I see that Bobby_M has his chillers already setup that way but I did not see the connectors on his site. I think Keg Cowboy has them...but are they in stock.
 
Hey guys, I have decided to just use standard garden hose connectors on my 40-plate chiller. Who has those for purchase? I see that Bobby_M has his chillers already setup that way but I did not see the connectors on his site. I think Keg Cowboy has them...but are they in stock.

I have purchased 1/2" to garden hose brass connectors at common big box retail hardware stores.
 
I replaced the water out fitting with a Garden Hose Fitting (shipped with the Plate Chiller) plus a 75 foot hose that I picked up on the cheap. I needed to get all of the chiller water from (an outside) room near the front left of my house to the only outside drain near the back right of my house - Filling up various pots with water (and then lifting those pots of water) using the old setup just wasn't cutting it for me.

I didn't time it exactly but brewing last Saturday - 1/20 - I got boiling wort down to 60 (TOO COLD!) in about 3 minutes - gotta love January ground water!
 
Thought I would revive this for an update: I have been using this setup for a few months now. Yesterday was the first time I think I have ever brewed in mid July. It was in the mid 80s and humid yesterday. I ran my IC for a few minutes and got my wort down to ~ 135F IIRC. I have two 10gal Coleman upright beverage coolers. I use one as a CLT and I filled it with three bags of ice and water. I recirculated the ice water through my 40-plate chiller and back to the CLT. My chiller has fittings I bought from Bobby M. I chilled 10-gallons of my Vienna Blonde that I call Wolfgang's *****. If you look closely, you can see the beer running through the silicone hose. The braided stuff is cold water. Check out this photo:

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I have the same setup from Bobby M with the digital thermometer and the camlocks. It's an excellent setup that is easy to deal with and works great! He even sells the full setup now with the plate chiller and all the fittings so you don't have to go multiple places or worry about getting all the right parts.

:rockin:
 
yeah, I bought my plate chiller and fittings from Bobby_M. His prices were good and I like one stop shopping when possible. Although my setup is a little different since I thought about replicating the Sabco chill wizard but didn't add the O2 stone at this time. I have achieved 60F wort out temps in the winter here in SW Ohio but in the summer I use a pre-chiller on my cooling water and get about 72F. Good enough for most beers I brew in the summer. I like recircing ice water through the chiller though. What pump do you use?

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Not to be a smart ass, but what is the point of a temp probe on the wort out? I recirculate my wort out back into my kettle until the temp gauge on my kettle reads the desired temps. Are you all going directly into a fermenter?
 
Not to be a smart ass, but what is the point of a temp probe on the wort out? I recirculate my wort out back into my kettle until the temp gauge on my kettle reads the desired temps. Are you all going directly into a fermenter?

I do, I roll my biab stand right up to my conical in my ferm chamber, turn on the water, then turn on my pump and adjust the flow, I can usually transfer right Into the conical at around 78ish, saves a good amount of time.
 
Not to be a smart ass, but what is the point of a temp probe on the wort out? I recirculate my wort out back into my kettle until the temp gauge on my kettle reads the desired temps. Are you all going directly into a fermenter?

The photo I posted above is the temp coming out of the chiller and into the fermenter. That is 1st pass. I just adjust the flow rate and temp goes down. Three pound of ice and water chilled 10 gallons of wort.
 
The photo I posted above is the temp coming out of the chiller and into the fermenter. That is 1st pass. I just adjust the flow rate and temp goes down. Three pound of ice and water chilled 10 gallons of wort.

Ahh, I never thought of slowing down the flow rate to increase chilling, thats a good idea.
 
Yep, flow rate is the key. Also, i meant To say three bags of ice, not three pounds.
 
Before I figured out the inline temp probe, I would constantly pull the hose out of the carboy and hold the thermometer in the stream to make sure the temp wasn't creeping up or down. Most people that go to an external chiller setup do so for one pass chilling. If you're going to recirc back to the kettle, I actually think an IC is the better choice.
 
Before I figured out the inline temp probe, I would constantly pull the hose out of the carboy and hold the thermometer in the stream to make sure the temp wasn't creeping up or down. Most people that go to an external chiller setup do so for one pass chilling. If you're going to recirc back to the kettle, I actually think an IC is the better choice.

I started recirculating because my BK was the only thing with a temp probe. I've never tested to see how well my chiller chills in one pass but I guess I should figure that out.
 
I'm bringing this thread back to life because a while back I bought a 40 plate chiller from someone on HBT that's one of the short ones. Not the elongated one with more surface area that Bobby sells and would love to have....damnit.

At any rate it's got the 1/2 hose attachment's for the water in and out and the 1/2 barbs for the wort (barbs aren't removable). Because of this my questions is for checking the wort temp am I stuck with using the blichmann thrumometer? Like Bobby said above, I only want to do one pass otherwise might as well go IC.
 
I'm bringing this thread back to life because a while back I bought a 40 plate chiller from someone on HBT that's one of the short ones. Not the elongated one with more surface area that Bobby sells and would love to have....damnit.

At any rate it's got the 1/2 hose attachment's for the water in and out and the 1/2 barbs for the wort (barbs aren't removable). Because of this my questions is for checking the wort temp am I stuck with using the blichmann thrumometer? Like Bobby said above, I only want to do one pass otherwise might as well go IC.

You could still use the T and digital thermo that Bobby sells, but it would just be a little down the line from the wort out end. You could chose which direction you want the thermometer pointing and all that good stuff too. Such as having the wort flow in a straight line through the Tee and coming in from the Tee part with the thermo or just like you'd have it on a chiller and have the wort make a turn and exit the Tee part so you can stick the thermometer further down into the hose (better set up). Either way, there's still a way to go digital :D
 
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