Is it Necessary to bake your Plate Chiller

[Will319]

I am desifgning a portable countertop rig and I have a 30 plate chiller from keg cowboy on hand so I would like to use it. Going with the easily portable idea I was thinking about using some JB Stik and mounting the chiller to the side of the Boil kettle. If I do this It will not be removable to be baked. I wanted to see if anyone out there thinks it is necessary to bake a plate chiller to clean it properly or if a recirculation of starsan would do the trick.

 

[stratslinger]

Not sure how you'd best go about _cleaning_ a chiller like that, but assuming it's cleaned, that seems like a decent way to sanitize it.

I asked a slightly similar question recently, and someone suggested to me setting up a valve on the outflow side of the chiller, then running starsan (or sanitizer of your choice) into the chiller and turning off the valve once it started running through. That'd leave you with a chiller full of sanitizer, which you could just let stand for whatever your contact time is, and you're done!

 

[day_trippr]

Star San is not a cleaning agent, it's a sanitizer - that would be ineffective in the presence of organic matter deposits. You can't sanitize something that isn't clean.

I don't understand the point of baking a plate chiller in the first place. Seems to me carbonizing contaminants would just make it a lot harder to remove them...

Cheers!

 

[dfess1]

not sure i'd like the idea of a plate chiller jb welded to my BK. While I only have roughly 10 brews on my plate chiller, I have not baked it. I run PBW through it for 15-30 min, then flush it with water. I have never done a back flush with it though. not sure why I would need to if I'm pumping PBW through it as I would the wort.

 

[dwarven_stout]

Search this forum for some gross descriptors of plate chiller hygiene. There are people on here who would backwash PBW and Starsan every batch before one day baking and flushing, and seeing all sorts of carbonized crap come out. It pretty much goes without saying that your plate chiller is not as clean as you think it is.

 

[wyzazz]

I don't think it's absolutely necessary to bake a plate chiller, but I still remove all my fittings once a year and bake mine anyway. To be honest, I don't get much out of it when I bake it, but I do get something.

On another note, I wouldn't recommend JB-Stik for mounting your chiller to your brew kettle, that just seems silly to me. Make a mount for it out of some angle iron or something and hang it from your kettle if you want, but don't permanently mount it. What happens if you break your chiller or kettle? What if you upgrade your pot or your chiller? Just my $.02,

 

[NTabb]

I bake mine before every brew session. Call me paranoid, but better safe then sorry. Usually while I'm mashing I'll throw it in the oven at 400 for 40 minutes, let it cool, and then run starsan through it. Never had an issue.

 

[Lennie]

Even if theres residual material in the chiller, a nice long bake ought to sterilize everything.

 

[Will319]

Thanks for the input guys I will probably make a bracket or something to get it to be removable

 

[krenshaw]

i have my held on by wing nuts so i can easily remove it after flushing it both ways after brewing.. i've never baked mine, though maybe someday it'll be a good idea.. never had an infection by just rinsing it both directions with oxy then idophor then water..

 

[MNDan]

This thread has reminded me why I'm sticking with my cfc. I don't trust plate chillers.

 

[hatfieldenator]

I can testify that there is no good way to be 100% sure that your plate chiller is ever clean. Mine can be flushed a million times after just one batch with PBW, Boiling Water, doesn't matter, there's always crud coming out each time. I usually let PBW sit for a couple of hours, then flush, backflush, flush again, let it sit in PBW again, repeat over and over again. They work SO well though at chilling beer that I still think they are worth the effort. However, its very important to clean them as much as possible after each and every batch.

 

[IffyG]

This thread has reminded me why I'm sticking with my cfc. I don't trust plate chillers.

I don't trust CFCs either. I like to be able to verify that something is clean and you can't see inside a plate chiller or CFC.

 

[samc]

I've done it all.

Current method:

Garden hose jet nozzle flush both ways right after use
Pour tea kettle worth of boiling water through
PBW or Oxi soak and rinse
Prior to use next time I boil it in a pot of water - just in case kind of thing
Pour some sanitizer in and drain right before use
Recirc boiling wort and then during flame out hops run the wort through it

And the most important thing is hop bags. If you keep it out it can't get in ! Duh.

 

[day_trippr]

I don't trust CFCs either. I like to be able to verify that something is clean and you can't see inside a plate chiller or CFC.

+1

It's threads like this one that keep me using my trusty 50' IC. Drop it (empty) into the BK for the last 5 minutes of the boil, kill the burner, turn on the water, 14 minutes to 68°F (my well runs low 50s all year 'round), pull it out, give it a quick rinsing and drain it dry before putting it away 'til next session.

Hard to beat for worry-free chilling...

Cheers!

 

[jma99]

Don't fear the chiller!
But, treat it with respect

Using a cheap eBay garden pump ($10) I recirc hot oxy for half an hour then soak in starsan before every brew.

It takes longer to clean than it does to chill!

 

[Lennie]

The pump has held up to the oxy solution? How long have you used it this way?

 

[day_trippr]

[...]It takes longer to clean than it does to chill!

Exactly...

Cheers!

 

[Goblism]

Exactly...

Cheers!

mine takes less than 5 minutes to clean, i spend more time turning my garden hose off and on. I hook my tap water into the wort side, run it for 30 seconds, switch the hoses and backflush for 30 seconds.

I run wort through my chiller while boiling and call it good enough.

nothing wrong with the other types of chillers, but i got a plate chiller to save time, it does save time and i am not worried about infections or old organic matter in the least

 

[jma99]

I use this pump to recirc hot oxy all the time, I use it for my plate chiller and to clean my kegs, and to clean my keggarater beer lines.

It is a cheap sealed submersible magnetic pump, and so far it has worked fine with the hot oxy. (I'm just using hot tap water, not boiling water)

One like this:
Alpine Power Head Pumps - 120 GPH - P120

 

[Carter5112]

So.....has anyone ever had an infection from using a plate chiller? I just don't get it. I've seen a bunch of threads where people say they don't trust plate chillers but haven't seen any threads where a dirty plate chiller hurt a brew or anything.

I just got a 12" 20 plate chiller from Duda Diesel last night and I can't wait to use this thing! I for one will be thrilled to not have to drop that big old immersion chiller in my beer anymore!

 

[samc]

I've read of people thinking they got infections from the chiller, but it is pretty tough to prove it one way or another IMO.

 

[IffyG]

but it is pretty tough to prove it one way or another IMO.

That's the problem when trying to figure out a source of infection. There are many places where you can pick one up and I prefer to minimize the potential sources. Items that can't be visually verified as clean are excluded from my home brewery on those grounds alone.

 

[pickles]

I don't think it's absolutely necessary to bake a plate chiller, but I still remove all my fittings once a year and bake mine anyway. To be honest, I don't get much out of it when I bake it, but I do get something.

On another note, I wouldn't recommend JB-Stik for mounting your chiller to your brew kettle, that just seems silly to me. Make a mount for it out of some angle iron or something and hang it from your kettle if you want, but don't permanently mount it. What happens if you break your chiller or kettle? What if you upgrade your pot or your chiller? Just my $.02,

Not to mention heating your plate chiller from radiant heat. I would definately recommend back flushing I you just run cleaner through it. You'd be amazed by what comes out even if it's running clear in the other direction. I've never baked mine however.

 

[jholen]

I haven't made the step from my IC to a plate chiller, but liked the following video as it seems like a pretty thorough process.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yi-Ib0vBnXQ]Shirron Plate Chiller - Cleaning & Sanitizing - YouTube[/ame]

 

[krenshaw]

i think the most important step in "cleaning" your plate chiller is that you have adequate filtering prior to any wort going through the chiller.. i use a hop spider, and a ss braid on my BK pickup tube and i don't get any noticeable break material in my fermenter until after fermentation.. the 2nd most important step is to start cleaning it as soon as you are done chilling to not give anything a chance to dry or cake on inside..

IMHO, as long as you use some common sense in cleaning/sanitizing it there is absolutely no better way to chill your wort :rockin: i have no idea what my groundwater temp is (i live in pennsylvania) i get the wort down to a great pitchable 70 degrees in one quick pass with my plate chiller

 

[yorkbrew]

I've done it all.
And the most important thing is hop bags. If you keep it out it can't get in ! Duh.

I've been researching cleaning methods and this the very best advice I've heard on the subject.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

 

[Randall]

I've had really good success with the hop stopper. Before that mine plugged every time. I do blast mine out with a high pressure water house in both ends then soak overnight in my brew kettle with Pbw. No problems yet and I've had my shirron for 1 1/2 years. Doesn't quite work as well in the So Cal summer.