Duda plate chiller

[jeddog]

Is this chill plate going overboard for my 60lt batches I do.

Linky


Moneys not a problem as I've finally had a win and want to buy the best for my rig...
I currently use a **** immersion chiller i made years ago. It takes about 45min to chill to 20C and i do run my water through a pre chiller first..
I also use a March pump for all my wort transferring and plan to use my 'Hop Rocket" to filter the wort before chilling whilst adding some ripper hoppy goodness to my beers..


jeddog

 

[djar007]

I looked at these , but settled on a Blichmann. All reports on them are great. Quality product and materials. Will cool your wort in one pass to two degrees warmer than your flowing water. I cool my 22ish litres in one pass that takes about four minutes and I can pitch about ten minutes after that. And my Blichmann is nowhere near the spec of your bad boy.

 

[jeddog]

What did the bilchmann cost you including postage?

 

[djar007]

100 bucks. Scored it on gumtree. Including hoses and backflush fittings. Pretty sure they are available from Ibrew though.

 

[jeddog]

yeah they have them but $70 less than the bad boy from duda and that's delivered from the USA..

 

[djar007]

I know. I was set to buy the same one you are getting. Found them discounted on amazon. But the blichmann turned up. Must say that the chill master does a very good job and you can spend your pennies on something shinier

 

[jeddog]

I've just ordered it. I'll let ya know how it is....

Thanks for the reply

 

[djar007]

Love it. Nice work.

 

[JaseH]

You don't need one that big. I have the 30 plate DD and it works great. The more plates it has the less flow restriction, the longer the length the better the cooling rate. The same size but 30 plate is plenty for a home brewery. I gravity feed through mine and have the all wort cooled to 20c into the fermenter in under 5min.

 

[jeddog]

Thanks Frothie your about 16 and a half hour to late. I sort of knew it was going way overboard but thought i might as well...
So I guess if I'm pumping through this thing I'll have it chilled in no time...

Any tips on cleaning?

:icon_offtopic:
I was thinking once I have drained my kettle of wort I could run boiling water through the hop rocket though my chill plate.. Basically
flushing the system of wort.

any thoughts?

 

[djar007]

Best tips for cleaning a plate chiller can be found in the Blichmann manual.

:super: here is the link

 

[jeddog]

Nice work.

 

[JaseH]

It'll work great, probably just could have saved some cash.

I firstly try to keep as much gunk out of mine as I can, I use a hop sock in the boil and whirlpool(not that well) before I drain the kettle through the chiller. As I'm chilling the wort I run the hot waste water into my HLT and some into a 20L bucket. Then after I've finished I throw some sodium perc into HLT, reverse the hoses on the chiller and back flush it for a few minutes with the hot sodium perc solution, this also cleans out all my hoses/pump etc. Then give it all a quick flush through with fresh water from the bucket.

 

[pk.sax]

I got their 30 plate from the dd website, great product and I believe better pricing/shipping was had from the store directly. This seems a bit excessive.

Cleaning, I just used to pressure blow in reverse and hang to dry out then tilt it this way and that a few times to remove the rest of the liquid.

 

[Malted]

Look at the bright side. Trying to keep gunk out of the chiller to stop it clogging does not always work. With 60 plates it won't be as much of a problem for you!

 

[Malted]

Nice one Jeddog, since your questions I have been pondering my equipment some more. This thread tipped me over the edge. I too have decided to upgrade my chiller and dropped the hammer on the B3-23a 40 plate jobyy with garden hose fittings on the water side (we'll see what size those are when it gets here) and 1/2" MPT fittings on the wort side. Shipping from the dudadiesel website was $69.60 USD, versus $75.95 USD on eBay.
I probably should have waited until the AUD was looking better against the USD. I blame you for my purchase.

 

[jeddog]

Good to see Malted. I didn't think to order from the web site but did communicate with them to get all 1/2" MTP fitting on the chiller. Don't know why I didn't go the garden hose. I hope a garden fitting will fit the MTP water side..

anyhow its in transit as we speak.

 

[Malted]

I hope a garden fitting will fit the MTP water side..

So there are heaps of ways to go about plumbing a plate chiller, this is just one way. This one I had 1/2" FPT all round.


On the wort inlet you can see a 1/2" male threaded barb fitting. On the wort outlet a 1/2" male-male nipple, 1/2" t piece, 1/2" threaded thermo with 2 or 3" probe, to another 1/2" male threaded barb fitting.

What would make it better would be a valve on the wort outlet to control the flow of wort whilst keeping the chiller full of wort. If you control the flow from the kettle tap then you are reducing the amount of wort in the chiller and the effectiveness.

On the cooling water side I have a 1/2" male to female elbow, a 1/2" to 3/4" male bushing, 3/4" female quick connect hose fitting.

Hope this gives you some ideas.

 

[rude]

How does the Aussie chillout mk111 30 plate chiller (just looked at craft brew site) rate to the US chillers ?
cross sectionional area & price wise ?

 

[technobabble66]

Hey Malted (& others),

I'm newish to this, so i thought i'd shoot you a quick gear question as i'm starting to look at scouring eBay, etc, to acquire brewing bling (30L birko coming soon... i know, but it was a lot cheaper than the 40L).

Why would you choose to chill (via a plate chiller) rather than do the No Chill thing??

I know lots of people do both quite happily, i was just wondering what the main benefits there were that caused you (or others reading this) to choose the chiller method?

Thanks!