Whirpooling with a plate chiller

[VVbrewery]

I've been brewing for a number of years with a simple system where I used an IC and let a good portion of the break and hops go into the fermenter. I've now acquired a kettle with a whirlpool arm, side pickup, pump and plate chiller. My plan was after the boil to hook the pump to the return on the kettle, whirlpool for a few minutes and shut off the pump. Then put the chiller inline and pump hot wort through to sanitize. After a few minutes turn on the cooling water and cool to pitching temp. I have a hop basket to keep that should keep most of the hops out. I'm concerned about plugging the chiller with break material and I'm wondering how others with a similar system do it.

 

[Dland]

I have one of these; https://www.morebeer.com/products/kettle-tube-screen-stainless-steel.html, bent into a slight curl attached to a 90 degree 1/2 NPT(pipe thread) as a dip tube in bottom of BK.

At end of boil, whirlpool and pump though plate chiller after wort settles. Or I gravity feed into my mash tun vessel, (after I clean the grain out) with post boil hops, then pump though plate chiller, and down to cellar. The post boil hop step, for 10-15 minults, clears wort up well, but straight from BK to chiller also works well if you don't want post boil hops.

I always back flush plate chiller with caustic(PBW) and then sanitizer(5 Star Saniclean) as part of equipment sanitizing process (pump though fermentor, tubing etc.) before each use, and also back flush plate chiller after each use, usually with a no heat iodine sanitizer before I drain and put away. The regular back flushing cleans any sediment out of cooler.

 

[phendog]

Been using a Blickman Therminator plate chiller for a couple years now. I whirlpool my hot wort for 15mins, let it rest for 15mins and then put my plate chiller in line and transfer to my fermenter. I think the trube collects/cones better in the center on a hot whirlpool, I've never had a clog and I've made some seriously hopped up IPAs. I dont use a hop bag, strainer or anything like that - directly into the boil they go!!! During knock out I can usually get 3/4s of my wort into the fermenter with just natural gravity and then use the pump for the rest. I would recommend sanitizing your plate chiller at the start of your brew day vice pumping hot wort on a recirc/whirlpool prior to transfer to your fermenter. If you clean your plate chiller good after the brew day, just put it into a bucket of starsan water as your brewing your next batch.

 

[cmybeer]

A good whirlpool can do wonders for a plate chiller. I used to just stir with a stainless steel spoon and let it settle but now I also just got a new fancy kettle with a whirlpool return valve. That said, make sure to give it proper time to settle out. My last brew day was my first in two years and I skipped over that step and saw no real improvement.... so next time I'll do ten to fifteen.

 

[VVbrewery]

Was thinking of recirculating through the chiller back to the kettle. My problem here is the ridiculously warm water temps. I just moved to AZ from Wisconsin and there our well water temp was about 55º year round. I haven't measured it but the "cold" water here right now feels warm coming out of the tap. I know I'll have to recirculate ice water through the chiller but I'd like to knock it down as far as possible before switching to the ice water. A friend brewed a 5 gallon batch cooling using just ice water and went through over 50 lbs. of ice to get it to 70º! I also don't think I'd be able to control the cooling water temps close enough to do a one pass into the fermenter.
I guess I just have some experimenting to do. Thanks for the input.

 

[cmybeer]

Maybe people from warmer climates can chime in here but I would definitely not want to have to go buy 50lbs of ice ever time I brewed. Get it down to the temp of the "cold" water and let it hangout on it's own for a bit before pitching yeast. Maybe get one 10 or 20lbs bag and put your fermenter in a swamp cooler. You'll end up saving time, water and money that way. A few hours to pitch yeast won't kill you.

 

[VVbrewery]

Maybe people from warmer climates can chime in here but I would definitely not want to have to go buy 50lbs of ice ever time I brewed. Get it down to the temp of the "cold" water and let it hangout on it's own for a bit before pitching yeast. Maybe get one 10 or 20lbs bag and put your fermenter in a swamp cooler. You'll end up saving time, water and money that way. A few hours to pitch yeast won't kill you.

I agree, I don't want to have to spend an extra $15 or more and fart around with it if not necessary. I'll try your idea. I have a chest freezer for fermentation so getting the temp down shouldn't be a problem. Might take a while to get to lager pitching temps though.
Just had a thought. The local super market sells dry ice. THAT would get the temp down in a hurry not to mention giving the brewery a real mad scientist look.

 

[IslandLizard]

When chilling in a single pass, directly from kettle to fermentor, you'd use (waste) a lot of ice.

1. But when recirculating the wort back to your kettle you can rely on your tap water to get it down to say 20-40F above your groundwater's temp.
2. Once it's down to 90-120F, either single pass into your fermentor, or recirculate again, using ice, ice packs, frozen water bottles, etc.

I use a pre-chiller, an old copper IC in a bucket with iced water and ice packs, to get it from 90-120F down to pitching temps. If it's still a little high, I stick the bucket in my ferm chamber set to low for a few hours. Oxygenate and pitch.

You do need to keep hop trub out of your plate chiller. I bag all my hops in roomy fine mesh bags, your basket will provide the same service. Just make sure to refresh the wort inside the bags/spider/basket often, like every 3-5 minutes, so hops get exposed to fresh wort and hopped wort gets back in the kettle for isomerization and other kettle reactions. Remember, wort inside bags/spiders/baskets never boils. And wort needs to have ample access to the hops to extract the goodies.

The hot and cold break won't clog your chiller, it's fine, suspended sludge. I have a fairly course stainless filter over my kettle's exit port, similar to that bazooka tube posted earlier, to make sure any stray leaf or hop flower or a larger chunk of something else remains in the kettle, including the larger Irish Moss flakes.

I recirculate and whirlpool through my plate chiller for an hour without any problems. I'm thinking of using a couple extra valves or a 3-way T-valve to bypass the plate chiller during whirlpooling, although there's a good whirlpool flow the way it stands using 1/2" High Flow Camlocks.

 

[VVbrewery]

That was my concern, the break plugging the chiller. Glad to hear it's not a problem. Why do you recirculate for an hour?

 

[IslandLizard]

Why do you recirculate for an hour

• 10 minutes at 210F, before flameout, to sanitize the recirculation/chilling loop (pump, chiller, hoses, etc.)
• 20-45 minutes whirlpool hops at reduced temps (150-180F)
• 15-30 minutes chilling to pitching temps

 

[VVbrewery]

OK that makes sense

 

[bigdawg86]

I just brewed a hop forward beer with plate chiller and had a good setup for hop stand / whirlpool.

I used a hop spider and sanitized the chiller as everyone else does. For flamout / whirlpool hops I was concerned about them sitting in "stagnant" wort. So to ensure I had the hops actually being agitated, I returned the wort INSIDE the spider. Then when the allotted time was up, I pulled the hop spider and reconnected to the whirlpool inlet. I then chilled while whirlpooling. I have a 1/2ID double helix copper IC that is now on prechiller duty... It fits in 5 gallon bucket which was full of ice. That dropped my ground water to high 50's / low 60's. Seemed to work well. I am not capable of single pass chilling and I am not going to buy more than one 20lbs bag of ice per brew.

 

[Dcpcooks]

I’m a fan of an IC during the whirlpool to knock temps below 160ish. I use a large amount of late addition hops, mostly whirlpool additions. I don’t want my plate chiller in that mix, too much mass for the system.
Once I’ve finished my whirlpool and let it settle I pump wort through the plate chiller to the conical at my desired pitch temp.

I like that process for a few reasons.
I don’t clog the chiller.
I like to whirlpool a ton of hops which will clog a plate chiller.
It I start my final temp run at 160ish and I run through a chiller I’ll be able to hit my pitch temp. Even in the hot summer months when my ground water is in the 60-64 range

 

[VVbrewery]

I just brewed a hop forward beer with plate chiller and had a good setup for hop stand / whirlpool.

I used a hop spider and sanitized the chiller as everyone else does. For flamout / whirlpool hops I was concerned about them sitting in "stagnant" wort. So to ensure I had the hops actually being agitated, I returned the wort INSIDE the spider. Then when the allotted time was up, I pulled the hop spider and reconnected to the whirlpool inlet. I then chilled while whirlpooling. I have a 1/2ID double helix copper IC that is now on prechiller duty... It fits in 5 gallon bucket which was full of ice. That dropped my ground water to high 50's / low 60's. Seemed to work well. I am not capable of single pass chilling and I am not going to buy more than one 20lbs bag of ice per brew.

I think I read somewhere, probably on a forum here, that hop baskets like I have plug when doing that. I would think adjusting the flow would help. I definitely will try that with my next batch that has whirlpool hops. Since I have a ton of hops in the freezer and I'm a hop head myself it probably won't be long.