How I clean my plate chiller

[peas_and_corn]

Just a thread asking how other people clean their plate chillers. Here is my solution in action, attached. Essentially I fill a garden sprayer with pbw and attach it to the beer out. I then pump until I get all the liquid through. After that I rinse.

How do you all clean out your plate chillers?

 

[Fat Bastard]

I'm totally paranoid about mine. I back flush it with hot water (the tap in the laundry closest to the system puts out 77 degrees) then hook it up inline with the March pump and recirculate 90 degree PBW solution for an hour or so, then flush it through with starsan. All this goes through a filter sock to catch any crud that may remain in the system. Afterwards I drain it, seal the wort side with foil and bake it at 160 for an hour and a half.

I've never had an infection yet, and it needs no further attention next time I use it.

It sounds like a lot of work, but in reality it's just sitting around waiting and drinking beers after a brew.

 

[peas_and_corn]

That's... Thorough.

 

[Kingbrownbrewing]

Holy shit!!!!

I clean mine, but I'm not that pedantic.

Just don't turn on the cold water until it's flowing out the plate and the boiling wort will sanitise all the crusties that are hiding.

A good pbw soak here and there won't hurt...

 

[Batz]

You will never clean your plate chiller of all trub and hops, the plates are less than 1mm apart. I'm a sanitizing freak so that drove me to move to another way of chilling.

You can sanitize whatever is in your chiller and all will be good, one day you will get caught.

Apart from that happy chilling.

Batz

 

[AndrewQLD]

Pure sodium perc in mine for a twenty minute hot soak, flush and watch all the green run out and then acidsan to finish, I also back flush which helps although as Batz said there will always be something in there.

 

[squirt in the turns]

You will never clean your plate chiller of all trub and hops, the plates are less than 1mm apart. I'm a sanitizing freak so that drove me to move to another way of chilling.

You can sanitize whatever is in your chiller and all will be good, one day you will get caught.

Apart from that happy chilling.

Batz

Would recirculating hot caustic soda do the trick to remove just about everything? I agree, with the fact that we're unable to disassemble our plate chillers, we can never be certain that they don't harbour all sorts of permanent deposits of trub crap.

My regime is similar to Fat *******'s: rinse it immediately after use (usually just cold mains water, though), then recirculate hot PBW while I'm cleaning the rest of the brewery. Another thorough rinse, wrap the wort in/outs with tight foil and then bake. When I next use it, I hook it up between the march pump and the whirlpool inlet on the kettle and recirculate boiling wort for at least 10 minutes.

There is always an element of uncertainty, but even if there was stuff stuck in there, baking should ensure that that stuff is sanitary. Supposedly botulism only requires 3 minutes at 120°C (although under pressure), so I would expect a 160°C 90 minute bake to take care of just about everything.

 

[Fat Bastard]

You will never clean your plate chiller of all trub and hops, the plates are less than 1mm apart. I'm a sanitizing freak so that drove me to move to another way of chilling.

You can sanitize whatever is in your chiller and all will be good, one day you will get caught.

Apart from that happy chilling.

Batz

It's amazing the amount of crud that comes out of mine after an hour and a half, even after a solid back flush. I didn't realise how much until I started using the filter sock. Ideally I'd like one of those built up plate chillers that clamp together so you can dismantle them to clean it properly, but those are a bit out of scope for my system!

 

[whitegoose]

Hahaha uh oh.... My cleaning routine is running mains water through it backwards straight after a brew... then run starsan through it and let it soak for a minute or two... then rinse it out.

That's it.

Haven't had any problems yet (that I'm aware of) but reading all of your posts I'm going to PBW and bake the shit out of mine right now!!

 

[jlm]

Would recirculating hot caustic soda do the trick to remove just about everything? I agree, with the fact that we're unable to disassemble our plate chillers, we can never be certain that they don't harbour all sorts of permanent deposits of trub crap.

Not a real good idea if your chiller's plates are brazed together with copper (most are from what I've seen....). Caustic will react with the copper and weaken those welds over time.

 

[TidalPete]

This has got me thinking about a change of routine.
Usually sanitise by recirculating the wort through chiller for 20 minutes before end of boil then post boil flushing with boiling water before running 90 deg c PBW through the system, flushing once again with boiling water then with cold water until all traces of PBW have gone. Finally run phos solution through the system before draining & shutting of all ball valves.

Andrew's 100% sodium perc routine will also be used in the future after everything is done & flushed just to be sure. Thanks Andrew.

I concur with the above post & wouldn't consider using caustic on those copper-welded tubes. Copper & brass are particularly vulnerable to caustic.

PS --- Thanks Brad.

 

[adryargument]

I leave mine to build up gunk, bacteria, shit, whatnot.

For the last 20 minutes of the boil i circulate the boiling water. Sure it costs me a few extra cents or something of gas.
Then i flush back with normal hot water temp tap.

Its all about removing 90% of the crap. The 20 minute boil kills the rest.

But it means i can do jack shit the rest of the time.

#No infections from brewing process

 

[Goose]

#No infections from brewing process

Not yet.

Boiling kills most bacteria, but some spores can survive up to 120 deg C.

Won't hurt to bake that puppy once in a while, just to be sure.

 

[Goose]

Sorry to answer OP's question:

- prior to wort transfer I recirc starsan for about 10 mins. Any more I'd risk copper corrosion.
- after transfer, flush with water using mains pressure both ways. I then recirc for 20 mins with PBW solution, and rinse later with hot water and drain as best I can before storage.

This way I figure I get the acid followed by alkaline treatment which should do the trick.

I should add all my boils are with the aid of a hopsock and I have a false bottom in the boiler to catch the hot break.