Controlling wort temps with a plate chiller.

Hi all. Considering moving to a plate chiller after I ran my IC over with the car. Hop clogging can be reserved for another discussion. In regards to controlling wort temps, I have concern. With an IC I can stop chilling when I hit my ideal temp. My ground water is between 55-60F year round. So I can get nice and cold it I need to.

With a plate, that seems less possible. I mean the temp coming out of the plate is what it is right? Is it possible to vary the wort output temps much by controlling the flow of the wort through the plate and the flow of the chilling water as well?

I mean if I want my wort at 78F if I am doing a belgian can I just crank the wort flow and trickle the chilling water flow until I get an output temp of 78ish? I would place a thermo inline with the output for this purpose.

On the contrary if I wanted by wort at 62F could I reduce the flow of the wort through the chiller and crank the chilling water? Again, with an ambient water temp between 55-60F I would think I could get close to 62F.

That may be another question, how many degrees above ambient water can a Shirron and Therminator get? I know I can recirc with ice water, etc but that just adds more steps that's just not worth the hassle. If I can't get to within a few degrees of ambient with a plate chiller I will just go back to an IC.

Thanks all.

Cool idea!

I like it

Just watch out for hops and cold break and stuff - If a misbehaving IC wound up playing in traffic, I would be very concerned for the welfare of your plate chiller!

I'm not saying I had clogging issues with the IC, just that I didn't want to turn the discussion into clogging issues with plates. I know of them and would prepare for it accordingly.

It's definitely all about the flow rates. The more plates you have, the higher the wort:coolant ratio can be and still achieve just about equal temps. Another way to say it is that given the right flow rates, you can get wort coming out that is exactly the same temp as the coolant input. It's a little unrealistic though. Figure on the wort coming out about 5F higher than water input for Full water flow, half wort flow.

I messed around with my CFC and i can control the wort temp by simply controlling the coolant flow rate, which is just a brass ball valve on the end of my garden hose. Full open = 65* wort(with about 60* water), and it goes up fairly steady as i close it. which is spot on to what bobby said.

Cool. Thanks all. So it is safe to assume that near optimal is about 5F above ambient. Can I achieve this with a Shirron or do I need the Therminator or one of those dudedisel 30 plate guys?