Plate Chiller Mounting on the Brew Stand

Has anyone tried fabricating a non-stationary mount for their plate chiller? Since the directions indicate that cleaning\sanitizing and operation of the chiller require different orientations of the unit, perhaps using a "hitch mount" to attach a plate chiller to the brew stand might be viable. Basically a square tube (or round) sliding inside another piece and using a hitch bolt and cotter pin to secure the two pieces. In this manner, you could just pull the hitch pin and turn the unit 90, 180, etc. degrees to get it in the preferred orientation for the task at hand such as sanitizing, cleaning, etc. This could allocate for a good CIP routine.

Good question....sounds like you've got a good idea there I thought you could use them in any position?

The 'Operate This End Up' and 'Sanitize This End Up' are different orientations on the Blichmann Therminator. So my thought was to mount it on a "tailgate hitch" of sorts so that when I do a CIP, I can just rotate the chiller to the desired position. Also this type of a mount would provide a sturdy mount so that you could use QD's and still have the flexibility to move and remove the chiller as needed. I'll probably order a Blingmann Top Tier stand and incorporate this type of mount. Actually, I'm surprised that Blichmann did not come up with this approach since it is a requirement to orient the chiller based on operation or cleaning\sanitizing. To me, it really makes no sense to mount it in a permanent location. It will be a few months before I have this in place, but I'll take pictures and post here once complete.

I am planning on mounting mine like you said. Gonna get the dudadiesel with back mounting studs. Easy to remove with two wing screws.

Will have to think about positioning it facing downwards (all ports on one side, unlike Therminator). Am I getting that correctly? That what you're saying Didn't know that about plate chillers, but it makes sense. I was just going to blow mine out with CO2 but that + hanging it upside down better.

You could probably still get away with mounting it vertically, and it'd drain fine. What about eye screws? You could have hooks on the stand and simply hook/unhook the chiller.....

ScubaSteve said:

You could probably still get away with mounting it vertically, and it'd drain fine. What about eye screws? You could have hooks on the stand and simply hook/unhook the chiller.....

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Yeah, that's what I meant. And do you mean mounting it horizontally? That's how I was going to do it. Will it drain horizontally or just stagnate?

I was sort of hoping that I could leave it horizontal and then after the boil and the following hot pbw wash, then blowout with CO2.... the residual heat would air dry the whole thing fine without needing to be mounted facing down for gravity drainage.

SankePankey said:

Yeah, that's what I meant. And do you mean mounting it horizontally? That's how I was going to do it. Will it drain horizontally or just stagnate?

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I'm not sure about the DudaDiesel chiller, but the Therminator drains in a vertical position with all outlets on the bottom.

Click the picture below to open the gallery and see other orientations\detail:


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Here's another idea to keep things clean. I have never heard of people doing this and I'm not sure why.

Why not alternate every brew which channel is the wort channel and water channel. Every other brew you would be cleaning the previous wort side with hot filtered water (my chiller comes off of my water filter) for the next time it would be used as the wort channel again.

EDIT: That would also mean that with the resulting pbw wash in the just used wort channel, the following brew's wort channel would 'definitely' be heat dried and no puddling water.

That's a good idea....it might prolong the life of the chiller at least. I just got a plate chiller and am waiting on it to arrive....I'm thinking I don't want to go crazy with my cleaning routine or I'll have wasted my money. I figure a little caustic or acid every 10 brews or so should be fine....no sense in adding time and expense to the brew day for something that chills just a few minutes quicker.

SankePankey said:

Here's another idea to keep things clean. I have never heard of people doing this and I'm not sure why.

Why not alternate every brew which channel is the wort channel and water channel. Every other brew you would be cleaning the previous wort side with hot filtered water (my chiller comes off of my water filter) for the next time it would be used as the wort channel again.

EDIT: That would also mean that with the resulting pbw wash in the just used wort channel, the following brew's wort channel would 'definitely' be heat dried and no puddling water.

Click to expand...

I am not familiar with the internal structure, but there are a couple of things that come to mind with this approach. Make sure to use a drinking water hose and not just a normal garden hose for the water supply. If you're using a Blichmann Therminator, the water and wort fittings are different sizes, so you'll have to adapt.