Wort Filtration Before Plate Chiller

[kcbeersnob]

I have been using a plate chiller for a few years in conjunction with a March pump. I love how ridiculously fast it chills, but I have yet to find a kettle filter that does not also clog frequently and/or reduce hop utilization.

Here is what I've tried:

• Hop Spider
• Hop basket (I've tried various mesh densities)
• Hop Stopper
• Stainless Braid

The stainless braid has actually been the best option, however I've found that it only really works well with whole hops. It clogs too easily with pellets, which restricts flow and causes the pump to cavitate. On the bright side, the wort is always crystal clear in the carboy after cold break settles out.

I don't like whirlpool as an option, because I like being able to recirculate boiling wort to sanitize the pump, lines and chiller before knock out. I prefer mechanical filtration.

Am I missing a viable filtration solution, or do I need to throw in the towl and go back to using an immersion chiller?

 

[atoughram]

I use one of these from Brewers Hardware - Filter Strainer and have good results. Before I brew, I boil about five gallons of water in my BK and circulate it in the filter and chiller to kill any nasties. after that I cap them off to keep them from getting contaminated. I then go about brewing as I normally would, whirlpooling the BK. After most of the hops and trub have settled out by whirlpooling, I connect the strainer/chiller up and pump the wort into my fermenter. I manually clean the strainer and pump hot PBW in reverse through the chiller to clean it.

 

[normonster]

I am using a bazooka tube under a false bottom in the BK and the combo works very well for whole hops and a little less well with pellets. I'm doing the same as you, running to a pump then a plate chiller, but I still whirlpool (through the chiller).

Instead of running boiling wort though the pump/chiller I mix starsan in the BK during mash and then transfer to the fermenters just before sparge - this way, the BK pump and chiller are full of sanitizer which I let the wort flush through the pump/chiller until I see color, then I return the line to the BK and whirlpool.

During whilpool I clean the MT a little and get it set to collect run-off from the chiller while also filling the HLT with ice and water to provide the chilling water, some of which is used to clean the MT and some of which is recirculated to the HLT for later cleaning of the BK.

The bazooka screen does clog with pellets but not completely. I don't get a great whirlpool with a lot of pellets but I always have enough flow to get it through the plate chiller (and I like to run it through pretty slow to minimize the number of passes needed).

Just got a HopRocket for Christmas and I think it could be another awesome solution in terms of filtration from BK to chiller, but man, the deadspace left behind in that thing would be like a half gallon. I'm taking it back.

 

[acidrain]

I'm using a standard household filter body, with a rolled up piece of 300 micron ss mesh in place of the supplied filter. Cost less than $50 to build and works flawlessly.

 

[augiedoggy]

300micron hop basket here as well as a 30" long coiled piece of stainless braid coiled in my kettle attached to dip tube.... This removes just about all the hop residue and I have never had an issue with anything in my plate chiller...its always clean when I flush it out. I use a conical so if I had a lot of yeast trub I would know. Made many brews this way

Do you recirculate during your mash? if not could it be the extra proteins in your beer contributing to your issue?

It would be easy enough to just adjust your recipe for the 1/4 gallon or so you would lose with the hop rocket.... your talking what $1-2 in additional ingredients?

 

[augiedoggy]

I'm using a standard household filter body, with a rolled up piece of 300 micron ss mesh in place of the supplied filter. Cost less than $50 to build and works flawlessly.

My only hesitation with those is the fact that I havent seen one yet thats made of a plastic thats rated safe and stable for boiling liquid..the stainless ones that are, are big$$$
The household ones are made for filtering cold water coming in. It may not be a big deal but its not ideal to me either.... Is yours acrylic? has it started getting all the little cracks that show when held in the light from the hot liquid?

 

[acidrain]

My only hesitation with those is the fact that I havent seen one yet thats made of a plastic thats rated safe and stable for boiling liquid..the stainless ones that are, are big$$$
The household ones are made for filtering cold water coming in. It may not be a big deal but its not ideal to me either.... Is yours acrylic? has it started getting all the little cracks that show when held in the light from the hot liquid?

Yeah, clear acrylic. No spider cracks yet, and I've been using it this way for a few years now with no plastic taste or problems.
I saw one at my local plumbing store that was the same materials and diameter, but was a shorty 1/2-size unit. It would be less volume to fill and use, but the screen would be shorter and less surface area too.

 

[normonster]

...

It would be easy enough to just adjust your recipe for the 1/4 gallon or so you would lose with the hop rocket.... your talking what $1-2 in additional ingredients?

It's not the money...it's the difference between getting 5.5 gallons in each fermenter without adding water. I have a tough time getting 11gallons of wort with my 15 gal Morebeer kettles after pumps, lines, chiller and dead spaces...no more dead space wanted.

 

[augiedoggy]

It's not the money...it's the difference between getting 5.5 gallons in each fermenter without adding water. I have a tough time getting 11gallons of wort with my 15 gal Morebeer kettles after pumps, lines, chiller and dead spaces...no more dead space wanted.

My experience has been a bit different.. Not sure what I do differently in total but I also use 15 gallon boil kettle 15.5 MT and HLT kettles... My mashtun has a whopping 3 gallons of space under the false bottom. My rims tube and pluming holds maybe a little over quart of liquid. I drain and use all the wort from my plate chiller and hoses and never had an infection except a recent incident which happened towards the end of fermentation... I do tip my boil kettle when draining with a pump through my chiller to leave as little as possible behind.
My system is full electric and Im not sure what yours is but that could make a big difference..

I only mention this because I normally brew 11 gallon as well as 6 gallon batches after expecting to loose 1/2 gallon in my system from the boil kettle onward. another 1/2 gallon is lost to sampling and yeast trub in my conical on average..

 

[normonster]

...

I only mention this because I normally brew 11 gallon as well as 6 gallon batches after expecting to lose 1/2 gallon in my system from the boil kettle onward. another 1/2 gallon is lost to sampling and yeast trub in my conical on average..

Yeah, I lose way more than that after boil. If I get 13 post boil I'm lucky to get 5.5 in each fermenter (trub, lines, plate chiller, cooling shrinkage) and I lose another 1/2 or so to those, so the kegs get an even 5 (and a lot of times less because I boil off more than 1g/hr - when I see that coming I'll sometimes flush the lines & chiller with water almost all the way to the fermenters). I'm in the market for a 26 gallon BK with false bottom and sight glass... That'll fix that and I will be able to pull off 90 boils and a rocket if I want.

 

[passedpawn]

Use the hop spider.

At the end of the boil, before you begin pushing wort through your plate chiller, circulate wort from the kettle back into the hop spider for 5 minutes. After that, you can be fairly sure there's no grain particulate and minimal hop crap. Then connect your plate chiller. I do this and my plate chiller runs clear for the entire session (I made 20+ gallons of an IPA this morning, with 26 ounces of hops total; Blichmann Therminator ran full speed no prob).

 

[schematix]

If someone could design and build a highly effective, unpluggable trub separation device for the home brew market, that person would make a fortune.

Screens or other types of filters are not a solution... they just plug.

 

[augiedoggy]

Yeah, I lose way more than that after boil. If I get 13 post boil I'm lucky to get 5.5 in each fermenter (trub, lines, plate chiller, cooling shrinkage) and I lose another 1/2 or so to those, so the kegs get an even 5 (and a lot of times less because I boil off more than 1g/hr - when I see that coming I'll sometimes flush the lines & chiller with water almost all the way to the fermenters). I'm in the market for a 26 gallon BK with false bottom and sight glass... That'll fix that and I will be able to pull off 90 boils and a rocket if I want.

recirculating your mash should eliminate most the trub along with the use of hop basket..
I did not like the smaller hop basket but the bigger 6x 14" one works great as long as I dont try to pump wort into the top of the basket. That caused the basket walls to plug up on me

 

[augiedoggy]

Use the hop spider.

At the end of the boil, before you begin pushing wort through your plate chiller, circulate wort from the kettle back into the hop spider for 5 minutes. ; Blichmann Therminator ran full speed no prob).

See I tried doing just this twice now and each time the basket plugged up quickly and started to overflow. the last time I also had a hell of a time getting the wort to drain out of the basket. I wonder what we are doing differently were its working for you? I only had 1 oz of saaz hops in a lawnmower lager I was making for my sister.

 

[passedpawn]

See I tried doing just this twice now and each time the basket plugged up quickly and started to overflow. the last time I also had a hell of a time getting the wort to drain out of the basket. I wonder what we are doing differently were its working for you? I only had 1 oz of saaz hops in a lawnmower lager I was making for my sister.

You can't leave it running more than a few minutes. I know what you mean about the sack getting clogged. But but a few minutes is fine with me.

I found that it was grains, not hops, that was causing a problem with my plate chiller. I know this because I'd fill the chiller with oxyclean solution and a few days later blow out a bunch of grain. I guess the grains got through the false bottom on my mashtun. I do a pretty decent vorlauf, but nevertheless they got through.

 

[normonster]

recirculating your mash should eliminate most the trub along with the use of hop basket..
I did not like the smaller hop basket but the bigger 6x 14" one works great as long as I dont try to pump wort into the top of the basket. That caused the basket walls to plug up on me

I don't use a hop basket. That would make a tripple filter (hop basket, false bottom, bazooka screen), but maybe that is what's needed because the majority of my trub cone at the end of draining the BK is a ton of hops.

 

[augiedoggy]

I don't use a hop basket. That would make a tripple filter (hop basket, false bottom, bazooka screen), but maybe that is what's needed because the majority of my trub cone at the end of draining the BK is a ton of hops.

Thats kinda what I have... hop basket, and on top of that I use a 30" braided line in my boil kettle.. im my mashtun I have a false bottom, bazooka tube under that and a piece of braided stainless in the bazooka tube.. Because I use small dc pumps I filter it really well to prevent it from possibly clogging the pump. coincidently I have never seen anything pass through my plate chiller.

 

[schematix]

Use the hop spider.

At the end of the boil, before you begin pushing wort through your plate chiller, circulate wort from the kettle back into the hop spider for 5 minutes. After that, you can be fairly sure there's no grain particulate and minimal hop crap. Then connect your plate chiller. I do this and my plate chiller runs clear for the entire session (I made 20+ gallons of an IPA this morning, with 26 ounces of hops total; Blichmann Therminator ran full speed no prob).

I've got the Blichmann Hopfilter, a.k.a, Therminator as well. It is 100% effective at filtering every little hop particle from the wort until there is no more wort flow. I can't do more than 2-3oz of hops in 10G batch without having it plug and require intervenction. I also have the Blichmann Hop Blocker, which is fairly worthless as well. I've tried Kal's Hop Stopper, and well, that was an epic failure too.

I'll hook it up to the house water supply and back flush it 4 times each direction. It is absolutely amazing how much hop gunk comes out. Then after i'll put the filter (sorry chiller), into a PBW recirc loop for an hour. The BK will be loaded with hops and trub afterwards. Then i'll back flush it several more times and it's still loaded.

I'm honestly considering giving up on using this goddamn thing it is such a hassle. I am thinking of giving immersion chilling a chance due to the simplicity of it all.

I have an idea for a significant capacity multistage filter that uses different hole sizes and bypasses a clogged staged automatically. One day i'll build it.

 

[passedpawn]

Haha, yep, I've been there. I almost got rid of it for a chillzilla. Still might. But it's working great for me these days, with my new "process".

I've got the Blichmann Hopfilter, a.k.a, Therminator as well. It is 100% effective at filtering every little hop particle from the wort until there is no more wort flow. I can't do more than 2-3oz of hops in 10G batch without having it plug and require intervenction. I also have the Blichmann Hop Blocker, which is fairly worthless as well. I've tried Kal's Hop Stopper, and well, that was an epic failure too.

I'll hook it up to the house water supply and back flush it 4 times each direction. It is absolutely amazing how much hop gunk comes out. Then after i'll put the filter (sorry chiller), into a PBW recirc loop for an hour. The BK will be loaded with hops and trub afterwards. Then i'll back flush it several more times and it's still loaded.

I'm honestly considering giving up on using this goddamn thing it is such a hassle. I am thinking of giving immersion chilling a chance due to the simplicity of it all.

I have an idea for a significant capacity multistage filter that uses different hole sizes and bypasses a clogged staged automatically. One day i'll build it.

 

[normonster]

Haha, yep, I've been there. I almost got rid of it for a chillzilla. Still might. But it's working great for me these days, with my new "process".

On board with eventually ditching the therminator. The anxiety alone makes it a tough tool to get a long with. You can't drain it....whats going on in there?

I sometimes put a airbed pump to it to try and dry it out but I have never really succeeded. Clean it good before every use...that's my SOP.

 

[schematix]

Some other things I found to help delay the inevitable plugging of the Blichmann Hopfilter....

1. Run both my pumps in series. Additional pump head keeps the velocity up.

2. Before I turn the pumps on I drain the first quart or so into a bucket. This is typically very hop sludgy. See link in my sig for how my pump valves are configured. Makes draining to a bucket really simple. I then dump the hops back into the kettle.

 

[passedpawn]

On board with eventually ditching the therminator. The anxiety alone makes it a tough tool to get a long with. You can't drain it....whats going on in there?

I sometimes put a airbed pump to it to try and dry it out but I have never really succeeded. Clean it good before every use...that's my SOP.

I had maggots shoot out of there once. I guess I left wort in there and flies got in and had sexy time. I kicked my pump on to start circulating hot wort through it and woosh here come a mass of maggots, right into my boiling wort. Feck. I always store with camlock dust caps on it now. I have a bigger problem with florida lizards (anoles) hiding in my ball valves, ending up in the boil or the mash, but that's another story.

 

[kcbeersnob]

Thanks for the responses.

I do not recirculate during the entire mash, but I do recirculate for a while at the end of the mash to ensure I have very clear runnings before I transfer to the kettle.

I have not had any problems getting solids in the chiller. My problem is the filter in the kettle clogging.

I've tried the hop basket and stainless hop spider. Tried the large (8 5/8" I think) 300 and 400 micron versions. I used whole hops ~90% of the time. The main problem I experienced with these: the basket would clog during the boil, which would significantly reduce hop utilization. My hoppy beers improved significantly when I abandoned these. When I used the original basket (non-spider version), the basket would dance around during the boil, splashing wort over the side of the kettle.

I have been tempted to try the trub filter mentioned in atoughram's post, but have hesitated due to the high number of negative reviews citing clogging as a major problem (the problem I'm trying to get away from). On Friday I discussed this with a local nano-brewer who uses this with his 3 barrel system. It has worked well for him, however it clogs when he brews IPAs. In principle, this would be a better option than a kettle filter, because it could be placed between the pump and the chiller--reducing the risk of pump cavitation.

Going back to an immersion chiller has a lot of appeal due to significantly easier sanitation and cleaning, however the tradeoff is chilling time and increased waste water.

 

[normonster]

I'm thinking counter flow, not immersion. Chillzilla?

 

[finsel]

Hi,
I discovered something during last days with my friend. He does this for long time... I'm still didn't tried this yet once I'm waiting the filter from post office...
I would like to help as much I can so my cent, suggestion is:

Note1: whirlpool after boil as usual.
- Put a 10" water filter between kettle and chiller. Use 10um (yes, micron) for ales and 1um for lagers.
- If the gravity does not make the wort flow, you can put a pump after chiller.
- You must do this with hot wort otherwise will not work.
Note2: use a 3/4 tube from kettle to the filter to create the gravity forces and the distance between the kettle to the filter is around 31".

Additional comments:
After my friend explained this to me I was really conerned about that and why this is micron filter is necessary ... then I started to research this in my books and found in Kunze why it is good to filter the trub.

- Kunze, chapter 3.8:
Removal of the coarse break (coarse trub)
<sumirized> Why we must remove the large particles 30 to 80um (in size)?
The coarse break must be removed since it is not only of no value for beer but actually it is detrimental to quality. It hinders clarification, coats the yeast, increase sediments, contain fatty acids, etc.

Note: Many breweries does not archieve this value by poor design of the lauter tun, whirlpool or centrifuge.

Final note: this method does not filter the cold break (cold trub, the small particles). I don´t think we need filter this small pieces.

cheers!

Frank
Insel Beer
youtube channel FINSELBR

 

[Drumminguy81]

I use one of these from Brewers Hardware - Filter Strainer and have good results. Before I brew, I boil about five gallons of water in my BK and circulate it in the filter and chiller to kill any nasties. after that I cap them off to keep them from getting contaminated. I then go about brewing as I normally would, whirlpooling the BK. After most of the hops and trub have settled out by whirlpooling, I connect the strainer/chiller up and pump the wort into my fermenter. I manually clean the strainer and pump hot PBW in reverse through the chiller to clean it.

Im doing almost the exact same method. I use a thermonator with 0 issues plugging. Barely any hop gunk gets into it at all. At the end of my boil I whirlpool for about 10 minutes using a pump then let it sit for 10 minutes to settle then pump it through the bh hop filter straight to the thermonator and to fermenter. Before I had the hop filter I used a hop rocket filled with rice hulls to filter that also worked excellent but I got tired of the half gallon wort loss every brew to it since there isn't really a way to drain it effectively

 

[passedpawn]

To close the loop on my involvement in this thread, I switched to a coaxial CFC (see link below). I've done 4 or 5 brews with it (pale ale and IPA saturday) and have been LOVING just tossing the hops into the kettle without any hanging sack. The new chiller is not as fast as the plate chiller, but really an extra few minutes isn't going to change my world. I haven't been too successful with my whirlpooling, but I've got 6.5g fermentors, so it's not an issue if I transfer hop material.


Lots more info here: Chiller Showdown: Blichmann Therminator vs JaDeD Brewing Cyclone

 

[happyslice]

I use one of these from Brewers Hardware - Filter Strainer and have good results. Before I brew, I boil about five gallons of water in my BK and circulate it in the filter and chiller to kill any nasties. after that I cap them off to keep them from getting contaminated. I then go about brewing as I normally would, whirlpooling the BK. After most of the hops and trub have settled out by whirlpooling, I connect the strainer/chiller up and pump the wort into my fermenter. I manually clean the strainer and pump hot PBW in reverse through the chiller to clean it.

Does anyone know what the volume of wort loss would be when using the Brewers Hardware Filter Strainer? This seems like the way to go to ensure you don't get a clogged plate chiller but the volume loss may not be worth it.

 

[schematix]

Does anyone know what the volume of wort loss would be when using the Brewers Hardware Filter Strainer? This seems like the way to go to ensure you don't get a clogged plate chiller but the volume loss may not be worth it.

Filters are really not the way to go. For the cost of that filter housing you're practically at the price range for an IC or CFC, and neither of those need the filter.

 

[Drumminguy81]

Does anyone know what the volume of wort loss would be when using the Brewers Hardware Filter Strainer? This seems like the way to go to ensure you don't get a clogged plate chiller but the volume loss may not be worth it.

I have almost no wort loss with the brewers hardware filter. I have a fitting that I can hook co2 line up and push all of the wort out and flush my line and chiller. Works great. Before I did that my wort loss was still very minimal. Maybe a pint.