Plate or immersion chiller

[Secla]

So my brewery is almost complete and the last component to get is a wort chiller, im only going to be aiming for 30l at the end of my boil but I'm still swinging towards the plate chiller
Are they hard to keep sanitised as I've read or for a small capacity like mine am I best to stick to a immersion type chiller for simplicity

[Jocky]

I have both. The plate chiller is a nice bit of shiny, but for me it's a faff and a worry that it's sanitised, which is the most important thing for me. So I've gone to an immersion chiller and I'm much happier with that.

An immersion can be very fast in chilling as long as it's sufficiently big, and you keep the wort moving while chilling.

A plate chiller needs a pump for recirculation of cleaners.

What is most important to you about your brewing?

[Secla]

I think id made my mind up that im going with an immersion, albeit i may pimp it out a bit and recirulate the water with a submersible pump in an ice chilled reservoir to make it a bit more efficient !
As you say that sanatising is an issue thats easily avoided with an immersion system

[Jocky]

Yes, make sure your chiller is clean, and then dump it into the boil 15 minutes before the end to sanitise.

Creating a whirlpool using a pump helps speed up cooling, but for my brew length (20 litres at end of boil) just stirring it works for me. The issue with whirpooling is that you really need to stick with pellet hops, as leaf tends to block your recirculation loop unless you have a giant filter, and you need to sanitise the pumped loop too.

[Dave S]

I think id made my mind up that im going with an immersion, albeit i may pimp it out a bit and recirulate the water with a submersible pump in an ice chilled reservoir to make it a bit more efficient !
As you say that sanatising is an issue thats easily avoided with an immersion system

Why a submersible pump?

[Secla]

Il just stick in a big bucket of ice water and have it recirculate there cheap enough and that way I won't be running hose all the way through the house

[Dave S]

Il just stick in a big bucket of ice water and have it recirculate there cheap enough and that way I won't be running hose all the way through the house

So you're using a tank as your IC water source rather than the mains tap? Have I got that right?

[Secla]

That's the plan if I can keep the water cool enough
If it turns out to be inefficient then il have to rethink ! Don't particularly like the idea of having the tap running continuously for 40 mins or so though. Also left over water can be used for sanatising etc.

[asd]

Have you thought about a Goat chiller?

[Dave S]

That's the plan if I can keep the water cool enough
If it turns out to be inefficient then il have to rethink ! Don't particularly like the idea of having the tap running continuously for 40 mins or so though. Also left over water can be used for sanatising etc.

Unless you have an extremely large tank I think you will find that cooling your wort will take about as long as just leaving it to its own devices. With a smallish tank the water from the initial running will heat the rest of the tank up pretty quickly.

[Jocky]

Il just stick in a big bucket of ice water and have it recirculate there cheap enough and that way I won't be running hose all the way through the house

As others have said - it'll need to be a reservoir much bigger than your boiler. Another option is to use ground water initially and then switch to the ice reservoir once you hit 40C.

[asd]

Goat chiller - water supply probs are universal, but goat chiller easy to build, and clean.

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=72190&p=756221&hili ... er#p756221

[Secla]

Yeh I considered the fact the initial runnings from boiling could be the worst part.
Il put some thought into it