Plate Chiller Problem

I totally underestimated what putting unfiltered hops in my plate chiller would do. I've tried for the past hour and a half to flush water and cleaner (pbw, LD Carlson, and B-Brite) through both the wort in and out ports. Although the water gradually went from light green to clear, I cannot get the hops out of this thing no matter how many times I flush it. I'm worried the trub in the chiller will cause an infection despite the use of sanitizer. What should I do to fix this problem. Please help.

Try putting it in boiling PBW. I boil it for about 15-20 minutes. I do it to mine every few brews and end up getting a ton more trub out than I do soaking and flushing it. Hope that helps cheers.

Check to see how to bake them. I know with the Blichmann Therminator you can bake them in the oven to sanitize.

May not help with the hop particulate but will kill any bacteria.

Well if I bake it and run some sanitizer through it, then a little trub shouldn't hurt the new batch then right?

BrewMasterGeneral86 said:

Well if I bake it and run some sanitizer through it, then a little trub shouldn't hurt the new batch then right?

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right. i would bake it then run boiling water through it both ways.

Heat sanitizing is the way to avoid contamination. Run boiling wort through it before turning the coolant on.

Ok great. Thanks for the help guys.

Bobby_M said:

Heat sanitizing is the way to avoid contamination. Run boiling wort through it before turning the coolant on.

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I just ordered a Therminator and was thinking about this. With my CFC I normally start running the boiling wort through it a couple minutes before flame out. This was never an issue as I had zero concerns about keeping hop debris out of the fermentor. With the Therminator I figured I'd whirlpool at flame out, then let it rest about 15-20 minutes before pumping through the chiller. Hopefully to keep as much hops out of it as possible. At this point it wouldn't be boiling anymore, but still hot enough to do the trick eh?

Most of the available plate chillers are copper brazed. Some copper alloys start melting around 600F, so be careful about baking the chiller too high.

I'd recommend calling the manufacturer/distributor to determine the proper care.