Question for plate chiller users

I got in my 20 plate chiller and used it for a 5 gallon batch last night. I took my old mini wort chiller and placed it in a small cooler with ice water to act as a pre-chiller. The tube from garden hose to pre-chiller is 3/8" and 1/2" from it to the plate chiller. I have 1/2" from kettle to plate chiller and then 1/2" running out into the yard. I opened the valve about half way and let it go. It wasn't a full on stream, but it wasn't a trickle either and the wort ended up in the fermenter at like 95-100 degrees with no real way to cool it more. I don't use a pump, only gravity. Do you think that having the wort at a trickle will have it get cold enough or do I need to look at some other system?

was the chill water wide open?

Not wide open because my hose will put a hurting on the connections of the pre-chiller and it's hose clamps, but it was a good stream.

Put your hose on full blast and make sure the hose flow goes the opposite way of the wort flow. If it's not cold enough, just pour it back into your boil kettle and repeat.

wyzazz said:

Put your hose on full blast and make sure the hose flow goes the opposite way of the wort flow.

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For the Win! (I knew this which is why it irks me more) I think I did have the flows in the same direction! I'll turn down the wort flow, try to up up the chiller flow and make sure they go in opposite directions. Thanks!

wyzazz said:

If it's not cold enough, just pour it back into your boil kettle and repeat.

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all the talk about oxygenation has me paranoid about too much moving/sloshing/splashing around. I always see lots of bubbles in my tubes or have hose that's not quite the right length and I always try to be very gentle and move it around as little as possible. Maybe overkill

HiGravShawn said:

For the Win! (I knew this which is why it irks me more) I think I did have the flows in the same direction! I'll turn down the wort flow, try to up up the chiller flow and make sure they go in opposite directions. Thanks!

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I did this the first time I used mine as well, I've since written on mine in sharpie with arrows so I don't forget.

HiGravShawn said:

all the talk about oxygenation has me paranoid about too much moving/sloshing/splashing around. I always see lots of bubbles in my tubes or have hose that's not quite the right length and I always try to be very gentle and move it around as little as possible. Maybe overkill

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Hot-Side-Aeration has all but been debunked as a myth, I don't worry about it much. Once your beer is cool you want to oxygenate it so the yeast can grow, they eat the O2 and fart out CO2 to replace it with. Just worry about Oxygenating it after fermentation, and know that it'll take a lot more than a few bubbles to ruin your beer.

And if you're seeing bubbles in your siphon while transferring or in your bottling wand, that's probably not O2, it's just CO2 coming out of solution.

Under 140F, no worry about HSA.

Yes, running the plate "counterflow" is extremely important.

Also, jostling around the prechiller coil is also important if you want the water to be cooled by the ice. You can also add a handful of rocksalt to the prechiller bath to drop the temp more. When you use a prechiller, you actually want to rull the water slow so it has a chance to cool.

Maybe try without the pre-chiller as well, I think the restricting flow in the pre-chiller will hurt you more than your water temp. Take that with a grain of salt though because my water comes out of my well at around 56F so I have no need for a pre-chiller.

I'm thinking tap water in LA is up over desired wort temps by now. Maybe.