Blichmann Therminator question

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Hi Everyone,
My apologies if this is answered elsewhere on this site. I couldnt find any answers so I thought I would post a question.

Sanitizing and cleaning my therminator seems pretty easy, but I have one concern. Like many plate chillers after you have finished cleaning/sanitizing, there is always some access water/sanitizer that I cannot get out of the chiller. This seems normal, but I am concerned that this will lead to bacterial/mold growth.

How do people get there therminator completely dry? Is this even possible? I do not run hot wort thru my system: it is gravity fed. Maybe this just isnt a big deal.

Thanks
 
Soak in Starsan, let gravity drain for a couple days. Should be dry and cap it off. Resanitize at next use. I've done it this way for a couple years now with no issues. You might need to tip it back and forth a couple time to help push the Starsan out.
 
Resurrection/hijack;

I recently got a 10 gal kettle with a valve and dip-tube. I whirlpool after i chill with my IC and am loving the clear wort that results.
I just got a Therminator but I'm not exactly sure of the best approach to use it. If I whirlpool the hot wort and then tap - wont I get DMS issues? If I immediately knock out through the Therminator won't I plug it or at least carry a lot of trub and hops?

How are you using yours?
 
Brewskii said:
Resurrection/hijack;

I recently got a 10 gal kettle with a valve and dip-tube. I whirlpool after i chill with my IC and am loving the clear wort that results.
I just got a Therminator but I'm not exactly sure of the best approach to use it. If I whirlpool the hot wort and then tap - wont I get DMS issues? If I immediately knock out through the Therminator won't I plug it or at least carry a lot of trub and hops?

How are you using yours?
Click to expand...

DMS is driven off during the boil and does not have much to do with wort cooling. if you don't have your hops contained it may clog the chiller with hops and break material unless you have a really good cone and a side pickup.
 
I rinse after use, then do a pbw soak, and then a good rinse. Boil before next use, and cool off in starsan. I wouldn't bake it. You'll just bake on any gunk left. Pump users can recirc boiling wort, and that's great too. I gravity drain to my fermenter, so I always boil the therminator with my coldside hoses and O2 hose/stone.
 
eastoak said:
DMS is driven off during the boil and does not have much to do with wort cooling. if you don't have your hops contained it may clog the chiller with hops and break material unless you have a really good cone and a side pickup.
Click to expand...

So your saying using a kettle screen is the way to go? Is that how you do it?
 
Brewskii said:
So your saying using a kettle screen is the way to go? Is that how you do it?
Click to expand...

i have 2 screens: a HopStopper on my diptube and a stainless steel hop spider

i had the hopstopper first but still had trouble with pellet hops, leaf hops worked great with the screen. when i bought the hop spider it worked great with pellet hops. i decided to leave the screen on the dip tube since there was no reason to take it off and i could throw leaf hops into the boil at any time. when i flush out my plate chiller (after every brew) with boiling water i do get some bits of stuff out of the chiller but there is never enough in there to clog the chiller. a pump is key to getting the chiller really clean inside, recirculating boiling water backwards through the chiller is where you will see most of the grain, hop material come out. when i recirculate the regular way for 5-10 min i'm always impressed at how much more comes out in the back flush. if all you are doing is baking that will sanitize the chiller but i imagine the crud will be building up inside over time. at the very least you can back flush with a water hose.
 
Used a hopstopper for years with a keg boiler. Worked very well. Now I use a flat bottom kettle and whirlpool with my mash paddle for about a minute. Always leaves a nice cone. Angled pickup tube with a very small piece of stainless mesh over the end.
 
I fill with starsan cap tight and store filled.
On brewday hook up run wort through into a bucket until it looks like clean wort, move output into fermentor. What little starsan if any that gets into fermentor isn't going to hurt anything.
 
I pretty much follow the procedures outlined in the manual. I use a pump to clean and run sanitizer through after use. I use the boil method before use as outlined in the manual.

It specifically says not to store with Star San in the Therminator due to "potential galvanic corrosion issues".
 
NMG318 said:
I pretty much follow the procedures outlined in the manual. I use a pump to clean and run sanitizer through after use. I use the boil method before use as outlined in the manual.

It specifically says not to store with Star San in the Therminator due to "potential galvanic corrosion issues".
Click to expand...

good point.
 
Digging this thread out from the grave.

I purchased a blichmann therminator a few months ago when I upgraded to 10g batches and have used it 3 times. After each use, I rinse it out I with about 5 gallons of water and back flush the same amount. Then I submerge the terminator in a few gallons of pbw for about 30 minutes, flushing it around to get the air bubbles out. Then I run about 5 gallons of water through it and back flush with the same amount of water again. I have been reading on a couple of techniques that I have not done yet.

1) circulate the boiling wart through it for 15 minutes before flame out

2) flame out and still circulate while running cold water in the chiller until the wart ten is 140 degrees.

I really wish i would have done the 2 steps. Now i am concerned that the 2nd batch that was kegged yesterday is going to have off flavors and the 3rd batch could be even worste.
The hops were just dumped into the keggle for the first 2 brews so hops are all in the chiller. Even after good cleaning, some small hops shoot out when the pump is first turned on. Will this chiller ever be completely clean or have I screwed it up really good by running hops through it during the first two batches? Any other cleaning suggestions?
 
acroporabrewer said:
Digging this thread out from the grave.

I purchased a blichmann therminator a few months ago when I upgraded to 10g batches and have used it 3 times. After each use, I rinse it out I with about 5 gallons of water and back flush the same amount. Then I submerge the terminator in a few gallons of pbw for about 30 minutes, flushing it around to get the air bubbles out. Then I run about 5 gallons of water through it and back flush with the same amount of water again. I have been reading on a couple of techniques that I have not done yet.

1) circulate the boiling wart through it for 15 minutes before flame out

2) flame out and still circulate while running cold water in the chiller until the wart ten is 140 degrees.

I really wish i would have done the 2 steps. Now i am concerned that the 2nd batch that was kegged yesterday is going to have off flavors and the 3rd batch could be even worste.
The hops were just dumped into the keggle for the first 2 brews so hops are all in the chiller. Even after good cleaning, some small hops shoot out when the pump is first turned on. Will this chiller ever be completely clean or have I screwed it up really good by running hops through it during the first two batches? Any other cleaning suggestions?
Click to expand...

With 15 minutes left during the boil, I turn on the pump and circulate boiling wort through the plate chiller. I did this for years and I'm certain it sufficiently sanitized the chiller. If you can't do that, you shouldn't use a plate chiller of any model. If you really want it clean, you probably need to run hot PBW through it for a while, probably in both directions, and I'd guess that still won't completely clean it.

I wouldn't recommend the oven. Once you turn the organic material in there into carbon, the normal cleaners like oxyclean and PBW won't do anything. Carbon chunks larger than the internal orifices will be in there forever.

I used lye one time, but apparently that's not a good idea as it will dissolve the brazes that hold the plates together.

For the record, I abandoned the plate chiller for a coaxial CFC. Not as efficient, but less worries.
 
In addition to cleaning after you brew, also before you brew again, make sure to rinse it both directions with clean water. I always find undesirable stuff comes out even though I clean with pbw and a pump.
 

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