Anyone using 2 plate chillers to cool their wort ??

[Toecutter]

Anyone using 2 plate chillers to cool their wort ?? I have a 40 plate, and I like the way it works, but I cant go wide open on the valve otherwise the temp guage will rise past 100 dg. I am only able to crack the valve slightly, and then I can chill to 90 dg. I want to go full open on the valve and into the fermenter. I brew 10 gallon batches

I checked, and my plate chiller is hooked up correctly. I use a garden hose for the feed water. I also turned the feed water on full at the hose connection, no difference

My plan is to use 2 chillers, 1 to pre chill, then pass the wort through the 2nd chiller, and into the fermenter. Both chillers will be independantly fed with feed water.

I tried running the feed water through my old copper coil immersion chiller frozen in a bucket of water, to pre chill the feed water, and it made no difference.

I live in a warm area during the summer, so my tap water is probably 75-80, but I should at least be able to chill down to that

Any ideas ??

 

[Shockerengr]

The local brewery I help with uses two plate chillers, in part because the water this summer got to 85degrees from the tap.

Their setup is two therminators, the first one fed through tap water, the second one has a barrel with ice water in it, and a pump to push water through.

This gets them in the 60's with full wort full.

If you ran two in series, you should be able to get close with higher flow rate, but you won't get as much cooling out of the second plate chiller because the temp differential is lower...but that shouldn't impact you much.

if you need to go colder,you could feed ice water through the second and get even more chilling (without needing as much as water as you would to cool the whole batch)

 

[Bokonon]

I have 2 plate chillers setup in series. Most of the time I just have tap water in series through them but if I am doing a lager in the summer I'll pump ice water through one and tap water through the other.

Works really good, other than the spider of hoses I have going on during chilling

 

[JonW]

Just recirculate back into the BK after the chiller. After the initial quick drop, you'll still get additional temp drop until you hit almost tap temperature. At that point, then start going into the fermenter.

 

[wyzazz]

It won't work like you think it will, you hit the law of diminishing returns once you get close to your tap temperature. As stated above you are better off recircing in to your BK than spending the dough for another plate chiller, unless of course you feed that second one with ice water using a pump.

 

[Toecutter]

It won't work like you think it will, you hit the law of diminishing returns once you get close to your tap temperature. As stated above you are better off recircing in to your BK than spending the dough for another plate chiller, unless of course you feed that second one with ice water using a pump.

yes, thats the other thing I considered. recirc back to my keggle whirlpool fitting until the temp drops considerably then 1 more pass right to the fermenter

thanks for all the advice

 

[HollisBrewCo]

Instead of 2 callers try packing the plate chiller in ice. That's what I do and I chill 20 gallons to pitching temperature in a single pass. I usually like to use 2 or 3 bags with some cold water. I have also frozen the chilled in a block of ice but I don't have the big freezer anymore.

 

[Cpt_Kirks]

I use a cooler full of ice water, and a submersible pump. It works GREAT, but I tend to run out of ice before all the wort is in the fermenters.

Part of the problem is that the tap water is still 85*F. I'm thinking of filling some gallon jugs with water, and letting them chill in the freezer. That way, the ice will be mixed with nearly frozen water.

 

[ne0t0ky0]

I use a cooler full of ice water, and a submersible pump. It works GREAT, but I tend to run out of ice before all the wort is in the fermenters.

Part of the problem is that the tap water is still 85*F. I'm thinking of filling some gallon jugs with water, and letting them chill in the freezer. That way, the ice will be mixed with nearly frozen water.

+1 to this. I just started doing this myself and it makes a huge difference. Before brewday I store about 4 or 5 gallon jugs in my keezer set to 35 or so (just for the brewday). I mix that nearly freezing water with the ice and that keeps it around longer.

The second big tip I read on HBT was to not use the ice water until you've exhausted your ground water capacity. I start with hose water until it doesn't drop much any more, capture this extra hot run off in bucket for cleaning. Then switch to the pumped ice water for the rest. This keeps the extra hot water from the initial cooling from melting your icewater.

 

[Yuri_Rage]

I use a cooler full of ice water, and a submersible pump. It works GREAT, but I tend to run out of ice before all the wort is in the fermenters.

This is what I do. I even submerse the chiller in the ice water bath. It takes about 20 lbs of ice per 5 gallons to get 65º F wort into the fermenter. If I doubled the amount of ice (i.e., had enough that it wouldn't run out toward the end of the transfer), I could get the wort down near 40º F.

 

[ne0t0ky0]

The second big tip I read on HBT was to not use the ice water until you've exhausted your ground water capacity. I start with hose water until it doesn't drop much any more, capture this extra hot run off in bucket for cleaning. Then switch to the pumped ice water for the rest. This keeps the extra hot water from the initial cooling from melting your icewater.

just realized this doesn't help with plate chillers since the remaining wort is still near boiling. I use this technique with my IC right now which helps quite a bit. Once I go plate chiller, I'll still use the pre-chilled water and ice in a cooler with pump though.

 

[clearwaterbrewer]

I agree with the 'recirculate the wort through the chiller until temp not dropping any more', then 'use a $30 harbor freight sump pump in a bucket of ice water' to take from there...' method... I have two therminators to do the series thing with hose water in one and icewater in the other and go straight to fermenter, but if you want the most hop aroma you should crash the temp in the BK ASAP.. that and my coaxial chiller can take hop pellets in stride...

 

[subliminalurge]

just realized this doesn't help with plate chillers since the remaining wort is still near boiling. I use this technique with my IC right now which helps quite a bit. Once I go plate chiller, I'll still use the pre-chilled water and ice in a cooler with pump though.

Of course it would work with a plate chiller. Just recirculate the output of the plate chiller back into the kettle until you're down to tap water temps, then pump ice water through the chiller as you drain into the fermentor. Or you could even continue recirculating at that point if you want to make super-duper sure you're getting all the way down to your target temp....

Would take longer, but hey, there's only so much you can do when you're stuck "chilling" with almost 90 degree tap water....

 

[FishFace]

I have a two pump system. After mash, I clean out the cooler and dump a 20 pound bag of ice into it. Add some water. I recirc with a cooling coil and knock down temp to 120º. Then into the reverse flow with the ice for cooling. O2 is added in-line. The biggest problem I have now, is the keeping it from getting too cold.

Thinking of adding a cooling PID to control pumps so I can set final output temp to pitching temp. This saves a ton of time, I can pitch started immediately, and I am done. Minus of course with all the fun janitorial work!

 

[ne0t0ky0]

Of course it would work with a plate chiller. Just recirculate the output of the plate chiller back into the kettle until you're down to tap water temps, then pump ice water through the chiller as you drain into the fermentor. Or you could even continue recirculating at that point if you want to make super-duper sure you're getting all the way down to your target temp....

Would take longer, but hey, there's only so much you can do when you're stuck "chilling" with almost 90 degree tap water....

Right, that does work if you have a pump and aren't doing gravity-fed one-pass chilling.

 

[subliminalurge]

Right, that does work if you have a pump and aren't doing gravity-fed one-pass chilling.

Hmm... True.

In which case an IC is probably the better bet. This is a controversial opinion, but I'm on the side of the fence that says plate chillers are really only worth the extra cash if you use them with a pump to take full advantage of what they can offer.

With no pump, I'd stick with the IC, and maybe add a second IC as a pre-chiller if necessary.

But that's just me and there are plenty who will chime in soon to disagree with me. And that opinion is probably swayed by the fact that I live in Iowa/Illinois where we have near freezing tap water for a good portion of the year.

 

[ne0t0ky0]

Hmm... True.

In which case an IC is probably the better bet. This is a controversial opinion, but I'm on the side of the fence that says plate chillers are really only worth the extra cash if you use them with a pump to take full advantage of what they can offer.

With no pump, I'd stick with the IC, and maybe add a second IC as a pre-chiller if necessary.

But that's just me and there are plenty who will chime in soon to disagree with me. And that opinion is probably swayed by the fact that I live in Iowa/Illinois where we have near freezing tap water for a good portion of the year.

I'm about to find this out first hand. I have ic and it works ok, about 15 minutes to chill 5 or 6 gallons. I'm going to see what gravity through a 40 plate chiller is like with pumped ice water. If I have to get a pump, so be it but figured I'd give the gravity a try.

 

[subliminalurge]

I'm about to find this out first hand. I have ic and it works ok, about 15 minutes to chill 5 or 6 gallons. I'm going to see what gravity through a 40 plate chiller is like with pumped ice water. If I have to get a pump, so be it but figured I'd give the gravity a try.

Disclaimer: I do not own, and have never used a plate chiller.

Here's the reason I've never bought a plate chiller, even though I really want one and will get one as soon as I can also spring for a pump.

With an IC you're foolproof. Just leave it in and swish it around until you're down to temp and call it good.

With a gravity fed plate chiller, you get one shot and if you come out at too high a temp you have to do damage control.

I like foolproof.

Now, add a pump to a plate chiller so you can recirculate, and we're back to foolproof again.

 

[ne0t0ky0]

Disclaimer: I do not own, and have never used a plate chiller.

Here's the reason I've never bought a plate chiller, even though I really want one and will get one as soon as I can also spring for a pump.

With an IC you're foolproof. Just leave it in and swish it around until you're down to temp and call it good.

With a gravity fed plate chiller, you get one shot and if you come out at too high a temp you have to do damage control.

I like foolproof.

Now, add a pump to a plate chiller so you can recirculate, and we're back to foolproof again.

I hear ya. I've also got a thermocoupler to control out put as well, this let's me slow down the output if its not the right temp yet. May not turn out any faster with out the pump but I'm gonna give it a shot

 

[Henrythe9th]

I use 2 25 plate chillers in wert in series water in parallel I can recirc back to the BK or single pass to fermentors depends on how much hops I used in the batch.
works well and looks like so