3 Homebrew Chillers that Will Get You To Fermentation Temp in 10 Min or Less

[@Pinchart]

I've been using a plate chiller for 4 years, now, and I'm totally satisfied. It's faster than the other devices, less water used, and easy to clean : I put some sodium percarbonate inside, I add boiling water, I wait 15 mn then I inject fresh water to clear (and the outgoing water is uglish, so it works). When It's time for cooling, I disinfect with hot must for 1 mn. I never had an infection.

[@Leadership_matters]

That's my experience.

[@randallcooper4399]

Two Hot Tips! I was also horrified when I realized that my plate chiller pumped out brown liquid-- even with a decent amount of hot PBW pumped through or even soaked over night. Not trustworthy, right? Right. Tip 1: I learned from a forum that the way to handle this: bake the unit in your oven at 500F for a few hours. Any organic material in the plates gets completely roasted to ash, and you can run your brewery cleaners through that to rinse the ash out. Nothing survives. For piece of mind (and this might be overkill but I won't tolerate a chance of infection), I bake my plate chiller and rinse it on the morning of brew day. And then I submerge in starsan until I need it. Even then, I let boiling wort circulate through it for a few minutes before chill time. And only then do I turn on the hose to chill. Tip 2: For sinks, do not connect to the faucet because it throttles the water pressure. Instead, go under the sink and detach the cold water line. Connect that line to your hose, using a converter line from a hardware store. Your water line should provide all of the pressure you would expect from a garden hose. I had to do this when I lived in an apartment and it worked as well as the outdoor hose I use today. You probably don't need to do this personally since you have equipment that works for you. But for everyone who invested $100 in a plate chiller and wants to make it work, bake the hell out of it in your oven. It's a big hunk of metal. I personally am afraid of immersion because it exposes your wort to open air, but I did do it for 4 years before buying a plate.

[@gurgy3]

You are probably brewing all the time, but for the casual/weekend brewer I recommend dumping your refrigerator icemaker out into a grocery bag and then storing that in your freezer. Do a couple times a week and you will have plenty of ice ready for brew day.

[@boatbuilder1954]

I made my own immersion chiller that is basically like the two on your left. I used 50' 3/8 copper tubing and have a pump sitting in a 28 quart igloo cooler that I fill with Ice that I make from two 2 gallon buckets filled with water that I keep in the freezer for brewing. I recycle the water back into the 28 quart cooler and it take about 15 minutes to get it down to 75 degrees F. I stayed away from plate chillers because of the mold etc. that others have found when cleaning them. Good Video Flora Cheers

[@Iceberg4k1]

For those looking to get into a counter flow chiller, you'll need to account for the dead space loss it introduces into your setup. I used counterflow for years and just got tired of the cleaning and loss. Went to a 50ft immersion chiller and have never looked back.

[@tman9338]

How well goes this work for 20 gal batch???

[@Xyphren]

for dead space. pop the seal and raise it above the Kettle. it will drain the rest (90%) of the Wort

[@TismFishing]

What if you mounted the chiller above your brewery?

[@pastevensonjr]

I love this. I changed back to my plate chiller because now im putting 3 gallons of ice into a bayour bucket with a sump pump to recycle water.

[@westyxc11]

Never had an issue cleaning my plate chiller before. First I rinse with water, then I use a diluted sodium hydroxide solution (1/60) heated to 180 and run it for about 15 minutes. I then do a hot rinse and a cold rinse and it always runs clear

[@sktechkadakkal1632]

I am very happy to introduce this product, big thanks 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

[@Blackoakx2222]

I have the same Clawhammer system you have. after a brew day, I will rinse out the kettle with water, drain it off with the pump still attached to flush the system. then with clean water heat, it back up to about 150F and mix in PBW and let it recirculate through the kettle and plate chiller for about an hour. Then let it sit overnight with the pump off and the kettle and plate chiller full of PBW cleaner. Then run the pump into the drain the next morning and rinse with hot water the store on its side so water collects at one end, then after a few hours ill tilt it and dump the collected water. Then the next brew day when I go to hook the chiller up I will start the pump and have the end dump into a small glass just to be sure nothing was hanging out in there, and the recirculate for 15mins to sterilize. I haven't had an issue with doing it this way.

[@sometimesifly_356]

That sounds like an awful lot of work.

[@Blackoakx2222]

@@sometimesifly_356 it's really only 10 extra minutes of work, the PBW soak for 24 hours does the heavy lifting

[@justinwinslow310]

Jaded chiller is king! best purchase for me as well!

[@FloraBrewing]

I'm just sad I didn't get one earlier!

[@1Venger]

Yeah I love simplicity of a good immersion chiller I have here in Brazil, I too have a problem of hot ground water and when it gets to 30°c I switch over to pump and ice frozen in 2 litre bottles (6x) to get down to the rest of the pitching temperature. It takes a while but no worries about the cleaning after.

[@FloraBrewing]

Love it!

[@DGPHolyHandgrenade]

Might be old info at this point. Plate chillers are more finicky about what you pump through them. So if you have a lot of trub or hop material making it through your filters in the boil kettle, it can clog the plates, and make it difficult to clean as described here. You can try running things backwards to force gunk out the way it came in instead of trying to just push it through. However, a recirculation with hot pbw for about 15 mins should dislodge anything and get it flushed out. As far as getting all the water out, you can try using some compressed air or co2 to flush it out. I have similar problems with my counterflow chillers. They're easier to clean since all the pipework is bigger, much easier to flush out all the gunk. But I still find I need to flush it with air to get all the moisture out, lest I come back next brewday to have some copper rust in my cf chiller

[@seriomarkj]

Still rocking the icebath...and I don't really mind it...sure it takes a while, but i can just relax and wait for time to do its thing...and zero problems so far, and I also don't use that much ice, (huray chicago groud water? ) but its always interesting to see how other people do it

[@FloraBrewing]

The name of the game is do what works for you! I really enjoy no chill bc I can transfer the next day and don’t have to clean the night of!

[@Tricky_Adventures]

I have one of those cheap immersion chillers. Works ok and is easy to clean. I also put the kettle into a small ice bath to help it out. That hydra chiller looks nice but expensive (all that copper). I plan to get a super cheap non-food grade submerged pump ($20-$30) and do a short normal water passthrough for 5 mins to get it cooled down a bit, then switch it over to the pump in ice water to go through the immersion chiller. I think that should significantly and cheaply cut down on my chill down time.

[@tman9338]

Let me know how it works. Trying to chill 29 gal batch will less water waste

[@Tricky_Adventures]

@@tman9338 Found a good link on doing this: beercreation.com/best-wort-chillers-pump/ They recommend 500 and up gph pumps. I just purchased the "GROWNEER 550GPH Submersible Pump", only $18. It's outlet is removable and has a threaded hole, so I just need to get a threaded nipple and easily attach it to my chiller input. I just brewed a new batch a few days ago (Flora's Cranberry Blonde), so it will be like 6 weeks from now that I use this new chiller setup. I will update the thread with what I think after using it.

[@FloraBrewing]

Yeah it's expensive for sure, beats the hell out of the smaller ones though

[@Tricky_Adventures]

@@tman9338 If you are doing 29 gal batches, I want to be your friend, lol. Once I have my chilling temp down a bit, I put it into the fermenter and top it off with chilled water to get it down faster to my pitching temp. I tried out the cheap pump with my cheap immersion chiller and it worked pretty well for me. I found it seemed to take less time to chill down and used less water. I did 7 min with cool water recycle in sink, drained, and then did 15 min with ice bath water in sink. I was going to stop at 10 min, but wanted to see how far it would go down in an extra 5 min. 4 gallons of hot wort starting at 209 F. Half sink filled with "cold"water at 66 F. Dropped to 145 F in 7 mins. Drained. Refilled with cold water and half my normal ice from my freezer as I was low on ice. 5 mins down to 108 F, another 5 mins down to 94 F, last 5 mins down to 92 F. Next time I will plan to do 2 separate cold water bathes for 5 mins each and then do a separate ice water bath for about 10 mins. I will also turn on my recirculating pump when the temperature drops a bit, since I think that will help it cool a bit faster too. If you are doing that kind of large batch size, and wanted to do something similar. I would suggest getting the hydra chiller and connecting it up to a cheap pump with more water volume than my sink. I would also get a pump with a bit more gph flowrate as you will likely have to push the wort farther than I had too, and the hydra chiller with it's more coils would have greater resistance and would need a higher gph pump. I think though that it might work real well for you and save a huge amount of water.

[@tman9338]

@@Tricky_Adventures Great idea. Did 10 gal batch test. Froze 2 1 gal buckets of water for ice and put in 10 gal mash tun with 5 gal of water Output of mash tun to chugger pump to immersion chiller to mash tun. Low flow on chugger valve got me to 145 deg. In 6 min. 100 Deg. At 16 min, added ice from freezer to drop to 70 Deg at 32 min. Will try cold water for 1st 5 min to save ice next test. Also save first 3 gal of hit water for sanitizing. Estimate 15 gal of water used for this test. Any tips before 20 gal test?( got spare immersion pump and counterflow chiller avail. )

[@thegrantdanielsband]

I'm thinking immersion chiller with a pump recirculating into a cooler mixed with water and ice from your icemaker that you save ahead of time!! will save a lot of water and cool really fast 🙂

[@jamierussellmowatt]

I bought 25m copper pipe and wrapped it around a corny keg to make a home made immersion chiller and its a beast. I have to put it in pre boil because when I put it in with 15 mins to go it will drop from boiling down to 90 degree c in seconds without even putting water through it.

[@eternaldrive]

You could try rigging that smaller immersion chiller up in front of the hydra and throw it into an ice bucket (ice packs or frozen bottles of water would avoid the cost of ice). This should chill your ground water a little before it hits the actual chiller. Some people will run the wort through the immersion chiller which is in an ice bath. I've never tried it because I am a little leary about cleaning it out.

[@tman9338]

I can’t afford off flavors or contamination risks with the multiple batches. Pale ale to Stouts.

[@Justin-le4ip]

I have been using an immersion chiller since I started brewing in 1995. Those days you could not buy one & we made them ourselves. I used a 50ft copper coil to make my own & it is still going strong. It cools down a 10 gal batch in very little time. Olskool is Cool!

[@FloraBrewing]

love it! I have a book from the 90's that has all these DIY equipment instructions I can't wait to find time to make some!

[@Rockit66]

I had that counterflow chiller once, but it is just too big. So i got myself Zcillers instead. It is also a counterflow chiller, but it's smaller, and the inside tube is twisted. So it does not need the wire to create more surface area. And it works just as good as the big one, or even better. Less liquid left inside. I use my chiller so often that I don't need to clean it with any solution everytime. just run hot water through it until u see clear water. One always sterilise it anyway with boiling wort for next brew. I don't bother with the watre left inside either. Just blow most of it out.

[@FloraBrewing]

Good to know! Ill have to look into them

[@TheWinkingPigBarBQ]

I have a counterflow wort chiller (not this one) on a 10-gallon, tiered, gravity feed system and I don't have to use a pump on it, gravity does the work for free. In most cases and especially if I'm pitching a Kveik yeast I have to worry about getting the wort too cold. I have a ball valve and thermometer I added to the outlet of the chiller to adjust the wort flow through the chiller to get the pitching temperature I'm looking for and it works very well. For Kvek yeasts, I have to open the wort flow 100% and throttle the water flow to the bare minimum to hit the high pitching temperatures for these yeasts.

[@FloraBrewing]

I love the tiered systems...maybe in the future

[@glleon80517]

I live in Arizona where the ground water is Hot! I use a cheapy immersion chiller which is easy to clean. That gets me down to about 90F in 15-20 minutes. Transfer to sealed fermenter, stick it in fermentation fridge set to to my fermentation temp overnight. Relax, have a beer, pitch the next morning. Everything else is too much trouble. Never had a bad batch with this method.

[@johnoak788]

Hey George, I also live in AZ and do the same! Makes for a relaxing brew day

[@glleon80517]

@@johnoak788 I could use the pool water but I would have to pump it to the garage since I live on a ridge. In the heat of summer even the pool is too hot, enter the fridge. The desert is its own thing.

[@lisacarruthers9649]

Someone has probably already suggested this, but squirting C02 through the plate chiller might work. Haven't tried it though.

[@neiljones641]

The counterflow chiller comes into it's own when you're using an all in one brew system like Grainfather, as the pumps are all ready there. Unplug the recirculation arm and plug in the counterflow chiller.... job done. The same for cleaning, while your cleaning the all in one, just run it through the chiller. I can see an immersion chiller is easier for your set up, but generally they do use more water.

[@FloraBrewing]

Yeah I think once I’m able to have a proper hose with the electric brewery I will be more inclined to use it, it’s super fast

[@michaelford8494]

as far as using the immersion chiller with the clawhammer system. do you have any problems with it being on the heating element. how do you set it up so it wont damage the element. Thanks. great videos.

[@Falney]

Cleaning the plate chiller. get a cheap air compressor for airbrushing and a simple air duster attachment. Once you do your final clean, rinse it with distilled water so that there is no deposits, just push air through it for a minute or two. What moisture isn't pushed out will get dried out.

[@rswear]

I used to bake my plate chiller. 30 min. at 350. (removed the fittings first) After it cooled a bit I would turn it upside down and tap it and crud would fall out. The baking also sanitized it of course. That said, I still like my counter flow chiller much better.

[@SKIILEE]

My tapwater in Sweden is around 47F (8,3C) all year around, so though a counter flow chiller is really fast (from boil directly down to 13-14C or 55,4-57,2F with open pump into the fermenter) Is really nice, I prefer to wait 5 min longer and use a spiral chiller instead because of the cleaning :D

[@CrazyAboutVinylRecords]

When buying an immersion chiller make sure it will fit into your brew vessel. For example, the JaDeD Hydra will not fit into the Grainfather G30, but the JaDeD Scylla will.

[@garypenapalominos4622]

Love your videos! Some homebrewers say that sodium percarbonate is effective to clean plate chillers, but I have not tried it. Cheers

[@FloraBrewing]

Yeah I tried it not much luck

[@icemanknobby]

I use a standard immersion chiller that came with my brewzilla, as I live in Thailand the water from the tap always around 30deg C so I always have to finish cooling the wort down in the fridge to pitching temperature which can take several hours, I guess it’s not worth me investing in anything else as I would have to put in the fridge anyway unless I introduce ice somewhere. No other alternatives for me?

[@savvase.9809]

Do you have a video for cold crashing homebrew?

[@andrewfking]

Made my own immersion from hardware store components and hooked it up a bucket of ice water via a cheap pond pump. Overall, cost less than most basic ones and works awesome.

[@FloraBrewing]

Love it!

[@Xyphren]

"high five" I did the same, most chillers are rolls of copper anyway right? way cheaper if you can solider up some fittings!

[@andrewfking]

@@Xyphren That was 90% of my time was getting the right adapter for the next step. Went from compression to barb, but for every combo it seemed they were out of one step or only had one, so it ended up slightly mismatched with an extra adapter but entirely functional.

[@dannewman7974]

Try using the old immersion chiller as a HERMS coil. As an aside, I've never had to use a pump with my counterflow chillers: I use gravity instead. (I'm also fortunate in that my ground water is 55F on the hottest days of summer -- life in the mtns in SoCal.)

[@jamesthomas8481]

Have you tried using carbonated water? Run idk maybe club soda or something like that through it. Cheers.

[@captainnibby]

Immersion works fine for me- right now my cold tap water is 43... doesn't get much warmer in summer here in MN (even in 90+ weather) so it's a good solution.

[@derekp6636]

eh...looked at all the options and I just grabbed a 50' immersion chiller for my larger kettle. Those methods all look awesome and fancier but I'm a simple homebrewer. My previous 25' got connected via hoses to my 16' prechiller to double the 'prechiller' length. Looks like a rube goldberg machine but 2 buckets of ice for the pre-chiller are $2 and get my Texas water down to pitching temps

[@FloraBrewing]

Man IDK what CA is doing with their ice pricing, it's crazy expensive here

[@DIYBrewing-drinkbeer]

Ok, I take back my previous comment. My 30 plate chiller always takes so long to clean properly. Just got a counterflow and it's AMAZING.

[@GarnettM]

Go to a RV center or hardware store get a pressure valve for blowing out the water system in your RV it hooks up to the air compressor and it'll remove every bit of fluid even using your emergency car tire compressor see if you can get the brass one there is plastic but the threads will strip out on the filler tip, Tell me you can get one, I'm in Canada but we have them here all over for winter, Can get you one if you can't find one Look up E TRAILER camo blow out RV plug on here it's the brass one there's ones with the quick coupler, But get the one with the threads on the tip way easy to use.

[@arthur14260]

I don't share your opinion on plate chiller. I use it without any pump on my gravity homebrew sistem. It's amazingly compact and efficient. I don't have any issues with the cleaning: After my brew, I connect the water cooling system where the wort flowed and before a new brewday fill it in the cleaning solution, and reverse it to get out the solution.

[@FloraBrewing]

I do that every time and it never seems to get everything out! How high is your kettle that you can get gravity to do that? I have to recirculate it back into my kettle to fully chill or it only gets down to 100ºF

[@arthur14260]

@@FloraBrewing The plate chiller is just under my kettle and just upper the fermenters. I don't have to do recirculation, my 40 plates chiller put 60L to 70°F (around 20°C) in constant flow in around 10-15 minutes ( the water from the network is around 60°F/16°C). When you use it, be sure that the cooling water flow is in the reverse way that the wort is.

[@hackattack7811]

I always do an ice bath with the lid off and stir. I know people say to keep the lid on to prevent infection, but if you use a wort chiller, the lid is off also. I've never had any problems. You can fill little plastic water bottles and put them in the freezer a day or two before if you don't want to buy ice. And you'll save alot of money not using so much water.

[@FloraBrewing]

When the pool is full 100% when it’s low as hell why not fill it, right? Just happy I’m not filling 5gallon jugs for the plants anymore

[@FloraBrewing]

And totally thought this was a comment on the latest video haha! New setup new justifications ;)

[@hackattack7811]

@@FloraBrewing filling the pool is a great idea. I never thought of that.

[@allandriver2066]

A lot of plate chillers run mild steel end plates. Your caustic cleaner might be rusting them?

[@FloraBrewing]

good to know!

[@speedbuggy7240]

Hi, I'm new to home brewing. I've watched a lot of vids and started to build a system. I'm torn between an immersion and a plate, but after watching this vid I'll probable go with an immersion. But with any chiller, why couldn't someone get a water cooler (igloo or Rubbermaid) that has a screw on top. Then put a quick disconnect at the bottom and drill a hole in the lid and put another quick disconnect for a facet or garden hose. Fill with ice (bought or homemade) and run the water trough it before going to any chiller. Especially for the hotter regions. Wouldn't that work?

[@Leadership_matters]

People do that

[@garyx2903]

Plate chillers are easy to keep clean. Always sanitize before use. After boil, circulate the hot wort through plate chiller back to kettle for 15 mins. Run chiller until at desired temp and pump to fermenter. Boil your kettle and pbw and run it through the plate chiller. Run hot rinse water through plate chiller. Run hot starsan through plate chiller also run it through the water side to prevent calcium buildup. You don't always have to run pbw through it just every few times or whenver you feel it is dirty. I have had zero problems in over a dozen brews without using pbw in chiller and just rinsing it with pump and hot water then hot sanitizer. Fill with sanitzer solution afterward also.

[@FloraBrewing]

Maybe I’m just lazy but it’s so much more work than the immersion!

[@garyx2903]

@@FloraBrewing I don't find it to be much work at all. I don't do a thorough cleaning every time I use it because of the practices I follow. On brew day I already have the plate chiller filled with starsan and the hoses covering the ports so no entry is possible. I pump some fresh starsan through it after filling my bucket with warm starsan from kettle and run it through pump and shoot the first few litres onto the floor. Then after mashing and boiling I turn on the pump and use the chiller. the hot wort sterilizes the chiller again and cools the wort. After use i'm cleaning my kettle anyway (and if not then I just pump the rest of the warm starsan from the bucket through the wort side of the chiller to clean it out and leave it full of starsan, then water side) I clean kettle and run the pbw solution through the chiller every few brews, then I fill my kettle full of starsan anyway and pump that through the chiller til clear liquid comes out, then I repeat on other side wort/water so both are pumped through and full of starsan. Idk, it's just routine for me and i'm usually bathing in starsan anyway. I find that leaving the chiller full of starsan is the best way. Even if I ever saw anything weird come out of the chiller it's not a big deal because it's been soaking in starsan, and then boiling wort is going to shoot through it, and then in the fermenter, the yeast will take over all life anyway. I've never had a bad batch due to improper sanitation so I must be doing it right.

[@asabovesotabelow]

@3:00 I was just going to ask how much time do these things save? I have yet to aquire one but it is on my things to get list!!

[@907MakaBelly]

Thanks for the info! Yet another reason I want the Clawhammer starter system and keep using immersion. When you use The Clawhammer on a propane burner do you still use the circulating pump?

[@MrTatoPaz]

Meu jovem, não se preocupe. Quando deixar de ser novato na produção de cerveja (sqn), vai aprender as nuances da variação estatística de "Se está boa, então está certa". Hahaha muito bom o teste. Obrigado por compartilhar ele honestamente!!!

[@christhompson8856]

Are you using a whirlpool arm with the Jaded Hydra or is it not necessary?

[@jerryramirez3646]

After watching this video I got concerned about my plate chiller from my own Clawhammer. I back flushed it before my last brew day with mash temp water to see what came out. To my surprise it was clear with small flecks not too concerned with this output. And it had been on a shelf for 1 month. Now this is after I clean it after previous brew session. Can I ask you was the crud from the wort side? Or water side? Also maybe the pump I have is weak and not pushing the crude out. Are you using that riptide? Great job on what your doing 😀

[@TheTrueCelt28]

I bake my plate chiller after brew day. 400° for an hour rinse again and bake 15 min for drying. then rinse with acid before use on brew day. No issues here. Oh, and I use a pre-filter.

[@FloraBrewing]

baking?! Wow interesting. Still more work than I want to do haha

[@TheTrueCelt28]

It was more than I wanted to do, but I'm used to it now. Still like my counterflow chiller, but I need to upgrade the fittings. Cheers 🍻

[@PaulSolin]

I’m not saying it’s the most efficient method, but stirring the pot in the sink with ice water cooled my wort in just under 6 minutes (1 gallon brew). If I don’t use enough ice, it will take about 10-15.

[@palmada]

Yeah ice is fine for 1 Gallon but the more volume of wort you have to cool down, the worse it is

[@arty4673]

I use the Jaded chiller. It's great but I still have to use a ice bath with a pump. Sucks having 90 degree water ugh

[@josephoeta9027]

Nice video

[@valentinpodkriznik8985]

I to love a great imersion chiller...but I definetly need to think of an upgrade to a counterflow one. It would make chilling 20gal batches soo much quicker 😅

[@FloraBrewing]

Yeah counterflows are meant for large batches so with that volume it might do you good. With just 5 gallons it is pretty comparable to the immersion.

[@valentinpodkriznik8985]

@@FloraBrewing yup agre. At the moment I have a large imershion one I DIYd myself but it is not to great. It took quite some time to chill the happyhour brew 😅

[@tman9338]

Love to hear setup for chilling 20 gal batch. My water bill shot up with 2 20 gal batches and I neeedto figure out recirc setup using less water.

[@valentinpodkriznik8985]

@@tman9338 I only did about two batches whot water from the tap, because the water bill was huge after that haha. 😅 Now I am using a recirculation system that uncludes rain water and four 1000l thanks (at first the thanks were ther to collect water for watering plants in the summer months) :) The tanks are stationed outside at a higher point as my garage where I brew, so I use gravity to get water trough my chiller and then I pum it back.

[@conrayjones9290]

Try using steam to clean then use compressed air to dry.

[@abekantarovich9231]

A very efficient way is to place your wort chiller in the kettle in a cooler filled with water and a recirculating pump. I use frozen water bottles and it cools the wort very quickly with no water waste. No need to buy ice either.

[@Xyphren]

As a cheep ass, the hand made counterflow is my weapon of choice. I built a 1" OD outer tube with 25 feet of 1/2" inner copper tube from Lowes. It matches that triple immersion for speed and its clean up is easy and fast. Its last to get my sanitizer, always comes out clean. Just like people do with the Immersion, when brewing Ill get a pump to move boiling wort through the unit to ensure its nice and sanitized. When i'm ready to chill, ill get the whirlpool goin and fire up the cold water. as for plate chillers, Use BKF cleaner. you need a heavier acid cleaner that will scrub the oxidation off the copper. that brown liquid is oxidized beer and copper. Plate chillers win in the Industrial brewing scale for one reason only: Space. Scale each of these up to industrial sizes and then the plate chiller makes the most sense.

[@FloraBrewing]

Yeah space saving is 100% necessary when you're doing big batches. I know one day I'll have to go back to the plate chiller. Thanks to everyone's comments I think I'll have better luck in the future

After brewing, I backflow high-pressure water through a plate chiller, and switch sides a few times. Then recirculate hot sodium hydroxide solution in both ways I do that for at least 8h, wait a few days with the solution inside it and then I switch sides. Then I switch to the high concentrated acid solution. And finally, wash it with water. Every few brews I bake plate chiller in the oven for 2h on 250°C. And repeat everything. It is a lot of work, to get the gunk out of it, and still, you can't be sure that it is clean, it is a fast way to cool wort with, but I know that on the long run I will have to find something better... I am looking for a professional 2 stage plate chiller that I will be able to disassemble and clean that way.

[@abrad3061]

Look up barley and hops window ac chiller

[@laloyjea]

I would be curious to know if hot citric acid solution could help the cleaning of plate chiller? I buy it in powder form and mix it in hot water. I clean my kettle with it after brewing and it removes everything with no effort. Thanks for the video!

[@Xyphren]

BKF (bar keepers friend ) does a great job. it uses Oxalic Acid as its cleaner and then uses either borax or Gyp (not sure) as an Abrasive. cleans plate chillers REALLY well.

[@beerman1957]

I had a 40 plate chiller. To clean a plate chiller, you need alkaline or caustic liquid to break up proteins. Hot PBW can be used and you can also recirculate the PBW several times. After PBW, you can clear rinse with cold water. To dry mine out, I would put it in the oven upside down and 350F for 30 mins. Lastly, you can rinse with StarSan, but it’s a waste of time. Plates are a pain, but they do work well.

[@palmtree5544]

The 40 plate chillers are much more efficient. You are really doing something wrong or you have a knockoff plate chiller. Running tap water thru the plate chiller right after using is a great initial way of cleaning.

[@JansenEdwards]

I have been considering obtaining an ultrasonic cleaner to clean metal parts, which may work out for plate chillers since it's vibrations vs. just a solution. However, when you're using cleaning supplies on the plate chiller, are you letting it sit for 8-10 hours or longer with solution inside of it? I'm curious because I don't know much about HOW to clean them, nor do I use them, but I've been considering getting one. Cheers!

[@FloraBrewing]

I only really let sanitizer sit in them for long periods, I'm afraid the other stuff will degrade them in the ends so I'm pretty conservative wiht it

[@DMCSerenity]

I’m not sure the ultrasonic cleaner would be that effective with all the plates inside the housing. It’s almost a closed system.

[@Dj-yq3un]

For the plate chiller can you not just pump cleaner and rinse water through it? In both directions would be ideal.

[@FloraBrewing]

still never seems to get it all for some reason

[@Dj-yq3un]

@@FloraBrewing thanks for the heads up on that!! I’m sick of my submersion chiller because I can’t fit it and my hop spider at the same time come flame out... the counter flow looks really handy!

[@kraiuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu]

cheers from brazil,youre awesome

[@FloraBrewing]

Thanks!

[@JoshSinnott97]

Some no chill recipes on this channel would be awesome!

[@FloraBrewing]

I just made an imperial red that was no chill, it will come out in the next couple weeks! This Berlinerweisse is also :kzbin.info/www/bejne/bH3Mg3qdntGZmrM

[@ChuckUnderFire]

Dude.... as someone that has everything on this list but the counterflow. I gotta say, the whirlpool is by FAR the least problematic. I have a very high quality plate chiller system called Chill Wizard by Sabco. It’s nice. But it’s still prone to clog if you aren’t super diligent (and a bit paranoid) about a super clean wort transfer. Which basically RUINS your brew day, and means you kinda need to keep your whirlpool chiller ready and waiting “just in case”. That said... SUPER effective. Once your done? Just plan to run cleaner and rinse for ages. The debris never REALLY clears, but it gets low enough that the flow is good. So sanitizing with heat, WELL, is critical. Every detail of this review is SPOT ON. Wish you had done this about 5 years ago so I could have avoided troubles early.

[@ChuckUnderFire]

My plate chiller cleaning routine: 1:Run water line into the wort-out port (hot water if possible). Run for 10 mins. 2: Run same line into wort-In port. Run 10 mins 3: let settle for 5 mins 4: repeat steps 1-3 for the next 3 days as often as you have the patience (or water) 5: When ready to drain, tilt towards out port for 1 day. Then tilt toward In port for 1 day. Repeat until no more drops come out. Don’t sweat water coming from the water ports. NOTE 1: There will still be flakes occasionally, but the water will not be brown. NOTE 2: if you’re really worried about sanitation, put CLEAN chiller in the oven at 350 for an hour. I personally sanitize during the boil with the boil (expect a drop in the boil temp when doing this at first.) NOTE3: careful with the caustics. You may have brown because of acidic corrosion. Rinse rinse rinse.

[@ernestmoney7252]

Why not just add ice to the wort?

[@aubreyhier3898]

If you want you can send that chiller to me in Kansas! Lol.. I’d love to have a wort chiller!

[@FloraBrewing]

I honestly think the shipping would be more than it's worth. Check out craigslist I'm sure there's some used ones for sale and it's not like you can really screw them up, it's just copper tubing.

[@Wrongald]

The "no-chill" chill method seems the easiest and most sustainable to me... ...recipes need some adjustment though...

[@FloraBrewing]

100% I just made an Imperial Red no chill, do you adjust for bitterness?

[@Wrongald]

@@FloraBrewing I'm not at your level, not very experienced, but I reduce the hop addition times by 20 minutes. Any aditions after 20 minutes I brew a seperate concotion for and add after the (no)chill. I use a "cube" so any 20 minute addition goes straight into the cube, for a 0-minute or whirpool I make some "tea"... ... for what it's worth...

[@aorakiboydog]

Yes I’ve gone back to no chill after living in Australia now in New Zealand with tank water have no issues with it and so easy .

[@TheWinkingPigBarBQ]

If you use Kveik yeasts and a counterflow chiller you can use a bare minimum of water and if you have a garden you can save the water to water your garden.

[@jamieeverson9048]

A chiller is my next purchase.. I hate to admit that I’m still using ice baths.

[@FloraBrewing]

If I were you I would skip over the cheap immersion chillers and go straight to something with a ton of coils, it will save you from having to repurchase in the future :)

[@ChicheDepo]

Hola...podrias habilitar los subtitulos a Español.

[@Focused-ni9qh]

I’ll be honest these chillers seem overly complicated and cumbersome. I use ice baths. I have a countertop Home Depot ice maker which makes 27 LB of ice per day. It makes 9 cubes every 7 minutes. So a day before Brew Day I fill up 1 gallon ice bags and save up 5 lbs. Easy. Only $120 for the ice maker

[@joshbent653]

It's not that hard to pump pbw though a playe chiller An immersion chiller is a much more waister of water

[@Kberrysal]

Some people bake their plate chiller in the oven

[@FloraBrewing]

I just heard that for the first time!

[@Kberrysal]

@@FloraBrewing That's another company who says the plate chiller that you can disassemble and put in a dishwasher

[@aorakiboydog]

I cleaned my plate chiller for days and crap still came out , I cut it open and yuk ! I always stored it with sanitiser as it will always be wet inside . Verdict theses things are unhygienic , waste of money .

[@FloraBrewing]

Yeah same. I'm glad I'm not the only one. One day I'll cut mine open haha

[@randallcooper4399]

I had the same experience until I learned to bake it @500F, and then rinse the ash out. It's the only way I am aware to clean the gunk out and know for sure that you're killing bacteria. Even pumping concentrated hot pbw for hours doesn't seem to work.

[@finnroohomebrewing]

Hahaha this shitty old one. That like mine lol. 25 minutes cool down to pitching temp. That's all good but yeah I like the look of that big bad boy coil. Great video cheers 😎👍

[@Adam-su2jj]

Never pay for ice. You have a freezer. You should have a freezer just for ice.

[@adambroad3479]

I clean my plate chiller in reverse to wort flow and flush with c02. Good video though babe.

[@noahhastings6145]

You're supposed to watch Netflix first, then chill afterwards. Bad technique.