How can I get the most from my new plate chiller?

[Trencher]

I used my new plate chiller for the first time today, and it wasn't quite everything I had hoped for.

For some background, I upgraded from a 5 gallon system to a pair of keggles earlier this year. For my first few batches I used the immersion chiller from my 5 gallon system, starting with water from the garden hose and switching to recirculated ice water once the wort temp reached about 120 degrees. After chilling below 70 degrees, I would whirlpool for 5-10 minutes and then rest for 30-45 minutes before siphoning into my fermenters. This all took 2.5-3 hours after flameout. The wort going into my fermenters was at pitching temp and crystal clear.

Today I finished my boil, threw in the last hop addition, and stirred the wort for about 10 minutes. After letting the wort sit for about an hour (including a run to the hardware store for some hose clamps) I started my runoff through the plate chiller. The wort going into my fermenters was very cloudy, like unfiltered apple cider, and only dropped to about 80 degrees.

I don't have anything on the inside of my kettle valve fitting, it's just pulling wort straight out of the kettle, unfiltered. The valve is positioned high enough to leave about 2.5 gallons of wort in the kettle, which was more than enough to leave all of the trub and hop matter behind when siphoning out of the kettle.

Shouldn't my long wait after the whirlpool let the trub settle below my kettle valve? Is there some hardware I can add inside the kettle to filter out more trub? What can I do to get the wort temperature into my fermenters lower?

Peace to my netWORKS!

[BDawg]

Part of the issue is that you are forming cold break when the wort is chilling. In the older version, it would stay behind because this formed in the kettle by the cooling action of the immersion chiller. Now, it's forming inside of the plate chiller and it's going into the fermenter.

Most folks that use a plate chiller will either let it settle out for a few hours and re-rack into a clean fermenter (or dump the bottom of the conical), then pitch, OR they will go through a hopback on the way to primary to get the cold break trub out.

You can use your old immersion chiller as a pre-chiller by putting it in an ice bath and running your chilling water through it on its way to the plate chiller. This will help to lower the wort temp considerably.

HTH-

[Stinkfist]

A little cold break never hurt anyone it does settle into a tight mass after a few hours...

though you probably should have some type of prefilter to keep out the hops and hot break..I find that whirlpooling hot wort is kinda useless since the convections stir everything back up...

[Trencher]

Oh yeah, cold break... DUH! Thanks for thinkin' for me, guys.

I did consider letting the wort settle and then racking into another pair of fermenters, but after an hour or so it still looked like apple cider so I said fuck it and pitched my yeast. That probably means I won't repitch for my next batch, but I might manage to rinse enough of the cold break out for it to be worth my while.

The pre-chiller option was something I considered but I didn't have the right hoses together. It was very useful to see how much temp drop I would get from water straight from the garden hose, too. Overall I think this is going to be a nice addition to the brewery!

[Cody]

The only thing I would add is to check your flow rates. In order to get your wort temp as low as possible, the flow ratio of cooling water to wort should be 5:1, if I remember right. This comes from a discussion where AJ enlightened the forum on fluid dynamics and heat transfer, so I may have oversimplified. Spider the link master can probably get you that reference.

[spiderwrangler]

Spider the link master can probably get you that reference.

I think this is the one you're looking for... get's a bit "heated" in the middle, but AJ gives a fairly thorough discussion of the topic, and debunks some misinformation.

http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=26991

[Cody]

That's the one.