I'm looking to buy one very soon and leaning towards a therminator. How do eBay and keg cowboy chillers stack up against the blichmann. I'm in Chicago so the ground water temp is cool enough. Currently doing five gallon batches, but will be expanding soon to 10 gallon + and I'd like a chiller that can handle my growth.
Plate chillers
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Golddiggie
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Look at what Duda Diesel has to offer as well as what Rebel Brewer has. For ~5 gallon batches a 40 plate chiller will more than handle it quickly. If you ever plan on brewing larger batches you could go with something larger, if you want to spend more. I can get 6-7 gallons to under 60f in maybe 10 minutes with my Chillahog 4000. I do recirculate the wort for about 5 minutes before sending it into the fermenter. That's after the 5-10 minutes of running boiling hot wort through it to sanitize.
IMO plate chillers are a huge asset and you won't regret going with one. I only wish I had gotten mine sooner instead of making the IC's that I went through.
IMO plate chillers are a huge asset and you won't regret going with one. I only wish I had gotten mine sooner instead of making the IC's that I went through.
noreaster40s
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I just purchased a 20 plate chiller from Keg Cowboy and used it for the first time on Saturday. So much better than the immersion chiller I was using. I brew 5 gallon batches and if I had to do it over again I'd get at least a 30 plate chiller. I'm in MA and my water is cool enough but I had it running wide open from my faucet and had the output from the pump cut back quite a bit to keep it at about 70 degrees. Still much better and less water usage than the immersion.
Golddiggie
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noreaster40s, if you have a pump, try running it back into the kettle for 2-5 minutes and then run it into your fermenter. I've found it much easier to get to my target temp with this method as opposed to just running it through the chiller once.
Therminator is a great plate chiller. Many, many batches through mine.
Duda might work just as well, couldn't tell you. Might save a few dollars that way, but I've never worried about the dollars. Cost of doing business.
Duda might work just as well, couldn't tell you. Might save a few dollars that way, but I've never worried about the dollars. Cost of doing business.
Sacdan
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I bought the 12" 30 plate chiller from Dudadiesel. One of the best purchases I have made. See my thread https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/plate-chiller-wow-307329/
I just bought the same model. It's a beast for a lot less money than the little Blichmann chiller. I'll be mounting it vertically with the wort flowing from bottom to top to make sure it fills its side of the plates...
Cheers!
noreaster40s
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Golddiggie, what do you do about the cold break. I whirlpooled before I started running it through the chiller. If I recirculate it I won't be able to separate the cold break, will I?
Golddiggie
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I don't do a damned thing about the cold break. It goes in along with everything else that's in the wort that I can get out of the kettle. I left about a pint behind with the last batch, might be a bit more with the next since I'm thinking of going with one of my other dip tubes. I use a hop spider so I don't worry (at all) about hop matter getting into the chiller.
IMO/IME, using a hop spider means you don't need to whirlpool at all, since you don't need to try to separate things in the kettle/keggle before running them through the chiller.
noreaster40s
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That brings me to another question I was going to post on here but I'll start a different topic so as not to hijack this thread.
I could see that.
Golddiggie
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Going with the same plate count, between a longer vs shorter chiller should take different amounts of time. Obviously, the longer chiller, with more plate surface area, will chill faster.
I'm looking at this chiller now... Since I have my keggle built, and I could be going with 10 gallon batches soon. Or at least ending up with 9 gallons on some batches (into keg) it might make sense to get a longer version of my current chiller. Of course, I'll just HAVE to do a chill comparison using the same amount of wort, in as close to the same conditions as possible to see what the chill time difference is between them... Especially since the chiller I have now is 40 plates. :rockin:
I'm looking at this chiller now... Since I have my keggle built, and I could be going with 10 gallon batches soon. Or at least ending up with 9 gallons on some batches (into keg) it might make sense to get a longer version of my current chiller. Of course, I'll just HAVE to do a chill comparison using the same amount of wort, in as close to the same conditions as possible to see what the chill time difference is between them... Especially since the chiller I have now is 40 plates. :rockin:
Not at higher wort temps when the cooling water is heated to the wort temperature before getting to the end of the chiller. Adding more length will not get you any increase in cooling capacity in this case.
Comparing apples with apples - if you have the same heat transfer area more plates will cool faster than a longer chiller.
Overall yes the longer chiller will be more efficient but most people are looking for speed not efficiency with a plate chiller.
Golddiggie
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stbnj
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How well do these work with gravity feed? I have a screen and use leaf hops so hop material clogging isn't an issue. But for now I would need to use gravity feed as I could spring for the chiller but not the pump right now. I am just looking to greatly reduce the amount of water I am using to cool using my ic.
Ummm...what? The cooling water is flowing in the opposite direction from the wort, so the longer the chiller the closer to the unheated cooling water temperature the wort will get.
Fwiw, dudadiesel's performance numbers show their 40 plate 7" long chiller takes 10 minutes to cool a 10 gallon batch while a 20 plate 12" long chiller only takes 7 minutes and a 30 plate 12" long chiller takes only 5 minutes.
Seems pretty clear where the win would be...
Cheers!
Golddiggie
Well-Known Member
You'll just want a ball valve on the wort out port on the chiller to control how fast it leaves. I did that for my first couple of batches with the plate chiller. But, I chill MUCH faster with a pump, recirculating until it reaches a set temp (or time) and then let it run into fermenter. Last time I let it chill to about 80F before moving to the fermenter. I had to slow the chill water at that point, since it was chilling the wort to about 48F. Running about half of it with the pump brought my pitching temp up to around 56-58F.
day_trippr, the long 40 plate is spec'd out to bring 10 gallons to 75F (their target temp) in 4.5 minutes. My normal target temp is about 60F, so it might be another 30-60 seconds on top of that chill time. :rockin:
I would have mentioned that one as well but I think the point was adequately made without resorting to the nuclear option
With my well water running in the mid-fifties even in the dead of summer, as it is I'll likely have to throttle back the cooling water side of the 12"/30 plate unit I'll be hanging on my single tier lest I chill my yeast to the bone
Cheers!
Arrrrrrrr... yeah... about that... Brain fart, i was not thinking conterflow! I'll just go hide in the corner now
Arrrrrrrr... yeah... about that... Brain fart, i was not thinking conterflow! I'll just go hide in the corner now
It's ok, happens to all of us
Cheers!
Golddiggie
Well-Known Member
I would have mentioned that one as well but I think the point was adequately made without resorting to the nuclear option
With my well water running in the mid-fifties even in the dead of summer, as it is I'll likely have to throttle back the cooling water side of the 12"/30 plate unit I'll be hanging on my single tier lest I chill my yeast to the bone
Cheers!
But it's sooooo much FUN to go nuclear...
When in doubt, toss a nuke down the hole. :rockin: I'm looking at the 40 plate since I already have the short 40 plate chiller. I'll fit it with cam-lock QD's as my other one is, so that I can use all the same hoses and such without issue.
I hope that I get to move someplace with well water like that. I'm hoping to land a new job soon, which means I'll start looking to move [finally] a month or three after that. I know I've been saying that for a while, but it's not easy to move someplace, sign a lease, when you're not sure where you'll be going for the next job. I could get a perm role far enough away that it makes sense to move. Breaking the lease, at that point, could get ugly (and expensive). So, I'll put up with my ******* landlord until that happens... I'm going to take more than a bit of joy out of telling him it's my last month (when it happens)... As I'm carrying the final items out the door, I'll tell him exactly what I think of him as both a person, and landlord (he's not good in either heading). Knowing he was a bully in school explains a LOT of what I see from him.
I bought a thirty plate Frankenstein chiller from duda diesel. I ran 1/2" inlet to a 3/8's outlet straight into the fermenter and gravity fed. Took a bit less then 15 minutes to cool a five gallon batch to 58 degrees. Soon there will be keggles a march pump and more awesome involved.
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