Plate chillers water savings?

[TBird]

Hi all

For the last few years, I've been using No chill as part of my brewing process.
Previously I used an immersion chiller to cool the wort.
I switched to No chill mainly to save water and have been reasonably happy with the results.

However, I'm thinking of going to a plate chiller. Most advice states that plate chillers use less water (presumably than immersion chillers ).

But my question is, by how much?

Those brewers who have gone down this route, have you found significant savings in water use?

Cheers and thanks

 

[SmallFry]

I was a no chiller for years, before acquiring an immersion chiller.

Now, I'm lucky in that I have a 2000 lt water tank and pump beside the house, so I run the first 20 lt through the chiller into a bucket, this gets used for cleaning, as its pretty hot. The rest goes through another garden hose, back into the top of the water tank.

Net loss, 20 lt per brew. Which can be poured on the garden the following day, if needed.

 

[ajmuzza]

I've been considering the same issue. I'm not sure of the relative efficiency and therefore water usage. I was contemplating getting an immersion chiller (because I can get one cheaper and they seem easier to clean) and just filling an esky with water and frozen coke bottles and recycling the water with a pond pump. Anyone else do this?

 

[SmallFry]

Muzza,
The first 50 lt or so are going to be pretty warm, in fact, your first 2 lt will be near boiling temperature. If your going to use an esky/ice bath, you would want to cycle the water into a different container before starting your ice bath, maybe once your temp gets down to around 50 degrees.

 

[Batz]

All chillers will use water, if you can recycle back to a pool or tank great.

My first chiller 15 years ago was an immersion chiller, it worked well but used a bit of water and I was living in the Pilbara and water temperatures could be well over 35c. I needed an ice bath with another coil in an esky.

Next I bought a Chillus Convolutus Counterflow Wort Chiller from More Beer, we are talking 12 or so years ago.
http://morebeer.com/products/chillus-convolutus-counterflow-wort-chiller.html
I would say these are the most efficient wort chillers made.

OK then my brewery progressed to all stainless and a copper chiller just did not cut it. So a plate chiller it is? 30 plate stainless chiller.
http://www.craftbrewer.com.au/shop/details.asp?PID=3949

I used this thing twice and could not see how after wort after going through 30 plates less than 1mm apart would not leave some nasties in there. I'm a sanitizing freak I admit, but the most important part of your brew is yeast pitching temperature. This is done at chilling time yes? I can imagine little bits of nasties stuck between those plates just waiting for next brew day.

So what now?
https://nationalhomebrew.com.au/beer/brewing-equipment-pots-and-hardware/other-immersion-chiller-14m
I use water from a dam on my property or water use is not a problem for me.

I've done the circuit and use a stainless immersion if I need to chill, that's APA's, IPA's and the like. Apart from that I no chill in cubes and pitch the next day.
If water is a concern and in Australia it can be, try no chill first.


Batz

 

[431neb]

I have a pit in the driveway that houses a submersible pump that pumps to my water tanks so when I use my immersion chiller the "waste" exits via a short hose and drains to the pit. My losses are negligible.

Submersible pumps like the one in my driveway drain are cheap on ebay (maybe 30 bucks) and are extremely handy for transferring water OR reusing water that has been collected for future use.

Having said that I tend to no-chill because by the time I'm whirlpooling I have had a gutfull of brewing and I just wanna clean up and do something else.

 

[Desert Brewer]

Living in the desert i am pretty aware of the amount of water i use for chilling - to get my beers to pitching temp as quick as possiable i use this process, which other than no chill and investing in a pump and returning to my rainwater tank , is the best way i have found thus far.

I generally brew on the weekends and all my water goes onto the garden.

• The week before brewing freeze water in 6 x 1.25 litre plastic bottles.
• 15 mins or so before the end of the boil i will fill a tub with water and ice, place one of my emmersion chillers in it (boiled in water for 30 - 45 mins) and the other in my boiling wort. emerse my emersion chiller in the wort and continue boil.
• Flame out - turn on garden tap - at about half pressure ,in summer the water can be very warm - run this initially through emmersion chillers - via ice water first the wort then to garden.
• take the boil temp down to about 45 - 50 - water is going onto veggie patch and rest of garden via sprinkler - the temp is fine for the garden once it has gone through the sprinkler.
• Reconfigure hoses to run water throgh the emmersion chillers and connect the sterilised plate chiller as the last step with wort through plate chiller being gravity fed into fermenter . The ice water needs to be kept at about 5 - 10 d c. Replenish ice as needed

• Boiling wort to pitching temp in approx 40 mins and a watered garden.

I have done this method approx 20 times and havent had a failed brew.

Not sure if it saves water - but having 3 chillers working at once - with one in ice - is way better than one in no ice.

Cheers.

DB

 

[TheWiggman]

Having said that I tend to no-chill because by the time I'm whirlpooling I have had a gutfull of brewing and I just wanna clean up and do something else.

Blasphemy!

 

[TBird]

Thanks all for the feedback

From what I've gathered, there doesn't seem to be any great advantage in using a plate chiller over an immersion coil chiller when it comes down to water usage.

Even though I now no-chill, I've kept my immersion chiller and will probably use it on the odd occasion rather than coughing up around $120 for something that won't save me much more in terms of water usage.

Thanks again

Cheers