Counterflow chiller cleaning and prep

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bmickey

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Here is my plan:

Rinse the chiller after use with One step no rinse cleanser.

On brew day when my wort gets to 190 degrees or so I plan on recirculating wort through the chiller OR I could just run one step sanitizer through the chiller. Which would be best?

Can anyne give me the rundown on how they prep and use there CFC?
 
I'm Lazy....first I blast out my CFC with a quick shot from the hose, then run a quart or so of hot wort through it. Add hot wort back to kettle, turn on CFC water and then start running my wort through. Cleaning is another quick shot of water, followed by me blowing on it end to push water out.
 
I recirculate boiling wort for the last 5 mins of the boil. This should have no problem killing anything in there. Then chill. Once complete I have a second kettle with a few gallons of boiling water that I then run through to rinse everything out.
 
With about 30 minutes left in the boil, I recirculate the boiling wort through my chiller. This is plenty to kill any nasties and sanitize the chiller. After the wort has been cooled and racked to carboy I run some leftover hot water from my HLT through it to flush out any wort. THEN, I run StarSan through it and plug the ends. That is how it sits until next brew day. That way I know it's clean, sanitized, and nothing is growing in there between brew sessions. Overkill, but works for me.

Also, every 4 brew days or so I give it a thorough PBW wash and flush. It's a good way to remove any solids that may have built up.
 
I put some starsan in my boiling pot prior to starting and drain it through my cfc. Then after I'm all done, I just run water through it to flush it out. Haven't had a problem yet
 
I run cold water from the house supply through for a minute or so then run the boiling wort through for the last 15 minutes of the boil. Then clean it out afterwards with two or three minutes of cold water from the house again. I'll shift the in/out connectors halfway through to reverse the flow on both cold water flushes.
 
About 15 mins before flameout I circulate starsan.

Chill the beer, allowing it to push out the starsan before filling the fermenter.

After the chill I rinse thoroughly with tap water.
 
I drop mine in the HLT during the brew, and leave in there (goes through 3
boils ) until ready to chill wort. Only then
do I spritz the in/out wort openings with starsan before mounting hoses.
My fermentor is usually full of starsan until the wort is ready, so all that
starsan goes into the now empty HLT. That's where all the hoses, tri clovers,
and chiller go to sleep for the night.
I run the pump throughout the system sometime the next day and dry everything off until next session.
 
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