I normally clean my plate chiller by setting it up to recirculate hot PBW through it for an hour or so, turning the plate around to backflush mid way. I attach a 400 micron filter to the return to remove sediment.
Normally this produces a colored elution presumably from dissolved wort sugar. After which I acid rinse and then flush with copious volumes of water.
I got lazy on the last few batches and have just be flushing it through with cold water untill it runs clear, then again before my next brew as stuff dissolves off in storage.
I have had no off flavors from doing this but I throught its time for a proper clean, especially as my next week is a lager and not a highly hopped pale ale or imperial stout.
So I did my normal clean with PBW followed by and acid rinse.
I also wanted to see if i can empty the plate chiller more than just draining it, so I connected to my make shift line cleaner (garden pump spray) and blasted out the 400ml of water inside under full pressure.
Now I suspect the air in the sprayer is around 45psi, but given this is released all at once and only is required to expel 400ml of water it comes out with quite a force.
And with it quite a lot of hop and grain material and unspeakable sludge.
Now this was way more sludge than 3 batches worth, so I can only think that although the standard recirculation method dissolved sugars and some protein it can't expelled the chunks because they they get caught in between the plates.
So I repeated this process and now I am about 20 repetitions in and material is still being expelled. Basically cleaning just cleans the dirt, a very high flow is what is required to expel the material.
So I am now considering attaching my dads Karcher K3 pressure washer to the plate chiller and running water through it at 120bar! now that is a lot of pressure 1740.45psi to be precise.
Though I think this will do the job and provide enough flow, I am a little hesitant because of the massive pressure. It will be open ended and able to release the pressure but still its a little scary.
Anybody tried anything similar or got any informed insights. I don't want to split my plate chiller in twain.
I also have some enzybrew 10 comming in the post, which hopefully with liquefy a lot of the material but it won't be here for brew day because I had to order it from Belgium.
Pics to follow
Normally this produces a colored elution presumably from dissolved wort sugar. After which I acid rinse and then flush with copious volumes of water.
I got lazy on the last few batches and have just be flushing it through with cold water untill it runs clear, then again before my next brew as stuff dissolves off in storage.
I have had no off flavors from doing this but I throught its time for a proper clean, especially as my next week is a lager and not a highly hopped pale ale or imperial stout.
So I did my normal clean with PBW followed by and acid rinse.
I also wanted to see if i can empty the plate chiller more than just draining it, so I connected to my make shift line cleaner (garden pump spray) and blasted out the 400ml of water inside under full pressure.
Now I suspect the air in the sprayer is around 45psi, but given this is released all at once and only is required to expel 400ml of water it comes out with quite a force.
And with it quite a lot of hop and grain material and unspeakable sludge.
Now this was way more sludge than 3 batches worth, so I can only think that although the standard recirculation method dissolved sugars and some protein it can't expelled the chunks because they they get caught in between the plates.
So I repeated this process and now I am about 20 repetitions in and material is still being expelled. Basically cleaning just cleans the dirt, a very high flow is what is required to expel the material.
So I am now considering attaching my dads Karcher K3 pressure washer to the plate chiller and running water through it at 120bar! now that is a lot of pressure 1740.45psi to be precise.
Though I think this will do the job and provide enough flow, I am a little hesitant because of the massive pressure. It will be open ended and able to release the pressure but still its a little scary.
Anybody tried anything similar or got any informed insights. I don't want to split my plate chiller in twain.
I also have some enzybrew 10 comming in the post, which hopefully with liquefy a lot of the material but it won't be here for brew day because I had to order it from Belgium.
Pics to follow
