Shirron Plate Chiller......Fail!

I purchased the Shirron plate chiller back in September and have done about 6-7 brews with it. The first 3 worked like a charm. After every brew I back flush it immediately and then recirculate a PBW solution through it for 10-15 mins. The last 3 brews it has been a total fail in terms of the plate chiller. Each time I start my brew day by heating up 2 gal of water/PBW mix and I clean my kettles, pump, line, and plate chiller by letting it recirculate for 20-30 mins, then I rinse. This time I also ran BLC through everything for 30 mins.

Now in the cleaning stages the water/PBW solution was flowing great through the Shirron, no problems. And just like the last 3 brews days I got to recirculate the work in the last 15mins of the boil to sanatize and I got a trickle coming out the Shirron. I disconnect my hose from the Shirron and turn the pump valve on and I have full flow rate, hook it back up to shirron and I got nothing. After the brew I was done I clean out my kettles again with water and sure enough the Shirron is flowing again with just water.

So the only logical explanation is that the viscosity of the wort, mixed with the obvious sediment in more than the Shirron can handle?

I'm thinking of moving to a counter-flow chiller, it has got to be easier than this.

Are you using clear hoses? Are you sure you're not getting cavitation (air/steam bubbles) into the pump when you're trying to recirculate boiling wort? Kill the heat first, then try puming it through the Shirron. There is no way in hell the viscosity difference of wort is going to stop flow. Try pumping the wort back into the kettle bypassing the chiller. I bet it would be a trickle too.

I have clear hoses and quick disconnects. If I remove the hose from the PC it flows at full rate. (I have brew cloves and I've done this will boiling wort) as soon as I connect it back to the PT it comes out as a trickle. Like I said I have used this for 3 brews with great results. The only thing that has changes is the additions of quick disconnects from Mcmaster. I am going to bake the PT today for 2hrs at 400* and see if that helps dislodge something.


The frustrating part is that when start my brew day and I am recirculating my PBW/Water mix to clean everything, the PC works just fine with a stream of about 6-8" out of the Wort Out side. Run it with wort and it trickles.

I even hook a water hose up to it and I get a 12-15" stream coming out.

It sounds like the new QD is letting in air. Make sure you're getting a solid seal when setting the QD.

I would agree except it doesn't explain this:

"The frustrating part is that when start my brew day and I am recirculating my PBW/Water mix to clean everything, the PC works just fine with a stream of about 6-8" out of the Wort Out side. Run it with wort and it trickles."

Ranger9913 said:

So the only logical explanation is that the viscosity of the wort, mixed with the obvious sediment in more than the Shirron can handle?

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Just curious... what kind of hops are you using, and are you doing something to filter the hops out? I use a Shirron chiller, gravity fed, and works fine. Don't have a pump. I use a mix of whole and pellet hops, in fine-mesh hop bags. The viscosity of the wort isn't a problem... but organic material from hops will plug any plate chiller up. A false bottom isn't enough to stop pellet hops... you need a hop bag or hop stopper.

I use mostly pellet hops, and I do not filter through my dip tube. However, last brew I used whole leaf with a hop bag and still had the same problem. In fact last brew I was able to able to get a good flow rate while recirculating the last 15 mins of the boil but once I brought the wort chiller down it's spot on the brew rig I got much less. Last brew I was able to still use the PC but it took 45 mins. This time however it would have taken hours I'm sure. I'm going to invest in a hop screen or something similar and see if that helps.

Ranger9913 said:

I use mostly pellet hops, and I do not filter through my dip tube.

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Your plate chiller is plugged with hops. One of the downsides of the Shirron chiller is fewer channels = more susceptible to plugging. But ALL plate chillers have this problem. That is why the professional brewery plate chillers can be disassembled and cleaned, but the Shirron and Therminator are welded closed. It is also why many brewers on this site prefer immersion or homemade counterflow chillers.

You need to backflow with some serious pressure, flush/soak repeatedly with a cleaner like PBW/Oxyclean, then try an acid wash. I know some friends who have baked their chillers in hot oven for several hours to turn the hops into ash, but I worry about the residue that might be left. But if you can't get it out with methods above... it may be your last-resort. Search "plate chiller cleaning" on this site for several threads that might help.

Good luck!

I am baking right now for 2hrs and then I am going to flush it with PBW see how that works.

Ranger9913 said:

I am baking right now for 2hrs and then I am going to flush it with PBW see how that works.

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How did it come out?

well I haven't tried it yet on a brew day but I believe it's good as new. While baking it my entire kitchen smelt of hops so I figure there must be a lot of hop crap in there. Also, a brownish liquid came out of the "out" side and caramelized on the plate chiller. From the oven I went strait into the PBW and boiled it for 30 mins and let it soak in the PBW for the next 3-4hrs. When I pulled it out and let it drain I got a stream of dark green algae looking water coming out with lots of particles now floating in the boil kettle. I then back flushed it with a hose and it seems to be just fine.

What QD are you using?? We've had a similar problem, but different stage in brewing - lautering. We HAD the QD with check valves built in. Everything hooked up and running water no problem.... as soon as the wort hit them, they clogged. We even tried lautering first "by hand" (draining straight from the male QD into a pitcher and dumping back in - the female QD has the check valve), then reconnecting and flowing through the QD connection again.... immediate clog. And that was with a relatively clear wort stream.

If you have the QD with check valves, I suspect you are clogging the QDs with hop material. Try switching out the QDs for just hose barbs if you have them. If that works, then switch to the high flow QDs. That was our solution.

I do not have the check valves on my QD's.

I'm off for spring break after today so I am going to brew tomorrow and I will see how it goes. I am also going to be using a bag for my hops

Yup. You clogged it! Your QD's aren't the problem. You need to use a hopstopper, scrubbie, or even a hopback to filter before the wort gets to the chiller....

i vote on leaky QD at the plate chiller

A bit of a bump, but how'd it turn out?

Atl300zx said:

i vote on leaky QD at the plate chiller

Click to expand...

OP said he baked and cleaned and all kinds of hoppy matter came out of the chiller it NOT a leaky QD. it was clogged with HOPS.

-=Jason=-

As a new brewer I also jammed my Shirron plate chiller with leaf hops. Thanks for giving the idea on cleaning in the oven. I will give it a try. Does straight A work as well as PBW?

After spending way too much time drinking beer and reading threads here I went forth to experiment with new ways to plug (or hopefully NOT plug) my Shirron.

My goal is to run boiling water/wort from my keggle to the chiller and back to the keggle. All this so that when flame out comes, I can turn on the already connected cold water and drop the temp to pitching temp as fast as possible. When the chiller doesn't clog, it takes about 5 minutes to get 10 gallons below 140F and 22 minutes to pitching temp.

I still use whole hops and pellet hops and also am as stubborn as a mule crossed with an engineer's brain. I will solve this problem or clog my chiller trying. (a couple times now)

I made some mods that seem to have solved this problem....

1) The first was to take advantage of hops in a bag. Yes, I know...we expect lower utilization. I also run the return line into the hops bag so that the flow has to go through it.
2) I also moved the dip tube to pull from the side wall and set up a wort return connection that will make the wort whirlpool while chilling. I remove the hop bag at flame out and reconnect the return to the whirlpool connection.

Sure, I leave more in the keg....but I haven't jammed the chiller since.

A side benefit is that I am leaving a lot in the keggle of sediment that I may not want in the fermenter.

4 batches in and no clogs.

Also my Shirron cleans up nicely with PBW through the lines followed by rinse and some time in the oven at 450F. Nothing is alive in there after 2 hours.