New Equipment clogged

[Bluechulappa]

Hello everyone,

I'm semi new here and have mainly lurked but I recently upgraded my brewing equipment and yesterday was the first time I was able to brew on it! I had a bit of a problem though. My new plate chiller worked great when I tested it with boiling water but when I ran my first batch of wort through it, it clogged about half way through. I think the ball valve on my kettle also clogged from hops?!
I have limited space to brew being as I live in an apartment currently but here is my setup!

The new plate chiller that clogged on me!

So I have a couple of question from you experts on here. Firstly what do I need so that my plate chiller and ball valve stay free of any debris and never ever clog again. Second, what do I need to do to brew 10 gallon batches? I have not made the step to all grain yet as space is my worry. Can I extract brew 10gallon batches? Worries or thoughts? Thanks everyone

 

[bnmir]

Pellet or leaf hops? Is there any sort of straining device inside the kettle? Post a picture of the I side ofthe kettle.

 

[Bluechulappa]

No filters at all. I guess I missed that when I pieced together my equipement. I use pellet hops right now

 

[Bobby_M]

Just get yourself some 5 gallon nylon paint strainer bags at Lowes and put all your hops in them. Hang them in the kettle so that they don't rest on the bottom of the pot.

 

[schematix]

Search 'Hop Spider'.

 

[dfess1]

Just get yourself some 5 gallon nylon paint strainer bags at Lowes and put all your hops in them. Hang them in the kettle so that they don't rest on the bottom of the pot.

if you find them, hoard them. last time i was in Lowes they told me they were going to stop carrying them!

 

[Bluechulappa]

If i get the 4x10 300 micron filter from Chad will that filter out most of all my pellet hops alone? I don't want to clog my plate chiller again but I have no other filters? Just making sure this will solve my problem...

 

[norsk]

All good advice. Might try sticking on a street elbow on the inside adjusted to a 1/4'' or so above the bottom of the pot. That, and cant the kettle away from the spigot just a skosh so trub and hops settle away from the inlet...

 

[bnmir]

I''ve also heard of people using stainless mesh scrubbers as a coarse filter in the kettle.

 

[IslandLizard]

If i get the 4x10 300 micron filter from Chad will that filter out most of all my pellet hops alone? I don't want to clog my plate chiller again but I have no other filters? Just making sure this will solve my problem...

I gather you read the thread(s) on those hop baskets, and the 300 micron seems to be the optimal aperture to keep most hop sludge in. Some very fine dust still gets through, but from what I heard it becomes very manageable. I think the hop basket is the way to go, and seems better than bags or a hop spider. You can easily stir the content of the basket, unlike bags.

I'm probably going to buy one of those from Chad or Stainless Brewing who has a similar product. On SB's basket it is easy to replace the screen, but I tend to like Chads hooked brackets better than the SB's spider arms. I was thinking of something wider than 4" though. More like 6-8", since my 8 gal kettle is not very deep (14" wide by 12" deep).

I think the 4x10 is way too small for 10 gallon batches.

For illustration, 2 weeks ago I brewed a Fresh Squeezed IPA (5 gal batch) and ended up with 2 quarts of hop pulp from 6oz of pellets.

Just to give you an idea of the volume needed for 6 oz of hop pellets. Place 2 quart take-out soup containers on top of each other, you'll get the picture why 4x10 is way too small to get good circulation inside the basket.

How deep is your kettle? If you keep the basket 1 inch off the bottom, you can maximize the basket height to that depth. Do you always boil 10 gallons?

On another note, although you could use gravity to drain through your plate chiller, a pump is almost a necessity. The added pressure from the pump will push small hop debris through instead of it slowly clogging your chiller. I use my March pump with a valved "feedback loop" to prevent cavitating.

 

[Bluechulappa]

I gather you read the thread(s) on those hop baskets, and the 300 micron seems to be the optimal aperture to keep most hop sludge in. Some very fine dust still gets through, but from what I heard it becomes very manageable. I think the hop basket is the way to go, and seems better than bags or a hop spider. You can easily stir the content of the basket, unlike bags.

I'm probably going to buy one of those from Chad or Stainless Brewing who has a similar product. On SB's basket it is easy to replace the screen, but I tend to like Chads hooked brackets better than the SB's spider arms. I was thinking of something wider than 4" though. More like 6-8", since my 8 gal kettle is not very deep (14" wide by 12" deep).

I think the 4x10 is way too small for 10 gallon batches.

For illustration, 2 weeks ago I brewed a Fresh Squeezed IPA (5 gal batch) and ended up with 2 quarts of hop pulp from 6oz of pellets.

Just to give you an idea of the volume needed for 6 oz of hop pellets. Place 2 quart take-out soup containers on top of each other, you'll get the picture why 4x10 is way too small to get good circulation inside the basket.

How deep is your kettle? If you keep the basket 1 inch off the bottom, you can maximize the basket height to that depth. Do you always boil 10 gallons?

On another note, although you could use gravity to drain through your plate chiller, a pump is almost a necessity. The added pressure from the pump will push small hop debris through instead of it slowly clogging your chiller. I use my March pump with a valved "feedback loop" to prevent cavitating.

I have a 15 gallon brew pot that I got so I can move to 10 gallon batches comfortably. Have yet to do more than a five gallon batch so far. My kettle is about 14 inches deep so I figured the 6x14 filter would be to deep in the pot. I should be receiving my 4x10 filter on Friday and I think it will serve me well preventing clogging of my new plate chiller in the future. I will buy a pump when I get some more funds but I am going to try gravity for awhile but having a pump would really put my mind at ease knowing its gonna flow!

I know this is kind of off topic but can anyone help a fellow newbie brewer out? I am still doing semi extract brewing since I live in an apt and don't want the all grain equipment yet. My question however; How do I go about doing a full 5 gallon extract boil? I can't seem to find much info on the process and since I have a brew pot plenty of big to brew 10 gallons I figure why not start off with a 5 gallon full boil?!

 

[IslandLizard]

What kind of semi-extract are you doing? Just steeping specialty grains followed by liquid or dry malt extract? Or do you do partial or mini mashes, using some mash-able grain and some extract?

There is a ton of information on all these processes here already, do a search.

"Brew in a Bag (BIAB) maybe a suitable "next step" for you, giving you the all grain experience without any extra equipment, aside from the voile bag. 3-5 gallons is about the limit without using a pulley system to hoist the bag out. And even at 5 gallons size it becomes a tricky proposition and needs some careful planning. You don't want to tip anything over that balcony edge. Again, there are plenty of very useful threads on BIAB already.

 

[Bluechulappa]

Yea I'm doing extract with grain steeping and liquid malt extract