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Author Topic: Chilling  (Read 3879 times)

Offline t-bone

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Chilling
« on: September 04, 2012, 07:28:04 pm »
I have a question concerning wort chilling.  I am currently using a Blichmann plate chiller in a standard setup.

Here's what I want to try.  Listed in order of connection 

Boil kettle to
march pump to
hop filter to
plate chiller to
boil kettle for a whirlpool thru tangential inlet.

I plan to whirlpool and chill for approximately fifteen minutes.  Then let the wort settle for five.  Then pump to carboy.

Good idea or bad?  Any potential drawbacks?

As always thanks for any input

t-bone
« Last Edit: September 04, 2012, 07:44:10 pm by t-bone »

Offline jeffy

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Re: Chilling
« Reply #1 on: September 05, 2012, 05:24:40 am »
I have a question concerning wort chilling.  I am currently using a Blichmann plate chiller in a standard setup.

Here's what I want to try.  Listed in order of connection 

Boil kettle to
march pump to
hop filter to
plate chiller to
boil kettle for a whirlpool thru tangential inlet.

I plan to whirlpool and chill for approximately fifteen minutes.  Then let the wort settle for five.  Then pump to carboy.

Good idea or bad?  Any potential drawbacks?

As always thanks for any input

t-bone

That's kinda what I do, except for the hop filter.  I give the hot wort a big spin to create a whirlpool, then drain off a couple of pots of it, adding back to the top, to get any hop debris out, then proceed the way you describe.  I use hose water for chilling until I hit 90F, then switch to ice water.
Jeff Gladish, Tampa (989.3, 175.1 Apparent Rennarian)
Homebrewing since 1990
AHA member since 1991, now a lifetime member
BJCP judge since 1995

Offline Jimmy K

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Re: Chilling
« Reply #2 on: September 05, 2012, 07:11:54 am »
Looks great. If you whirlpool and chill, I don't think you need to wait 5 minutes for settling. BUT, I've never tried this, so I'm not speaking from experience.
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Offline jmcamerlengo

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Re: Chilling
« Reply #3 on: September 05, 2012, 08:35:57 am »
I am speaking from experience here. I have a therminator, hop rocket and march pump on my brutus system. I can tell you that your plan will give you nothing but headaches. I tried so many different configurations and I found Mike McDoles system to be the best. Here is what to do.

First, remove the high speed thing inside of your hop rocket if you have one. Just a wing nut holding in place.

The best place for the hop rocket is actually INVERTED upside down directly attached to your boil kettle. I tapped mine directly into my kettle using the 1/2 in connection on the bottom of the rocket connected to a ball valve on the kettle which has a 1/2 piece of copper tubing coming out of it clockwise around the side of the kettle as a pickup tube to avoid trub.

I put a cam lock on the top of the rocket(which is now the bottom) and a small piece of hose connects that to my therminator which sits about a foot below the outlet of the rocket so gravity can work its magic.

The outlet of the therminator is connected to a piece of hose on my march pump. I rotated the head of the march pump so that the inlet is on the bottom and the outlet is on the top(rotate 180 degrees from factory position). I also added a ball valve to the outlet side of the pump.

The outlet of the pump is then connected to the top of my boil kettle to a ball valve which has a 1/2 piece copper tubing going back down into the kettle in a counter clockwise direction around the side of the kettle just above where my final boil volume would be.

This setup allows a couple things.

a. I can sanitize everything in place by simply slowly re-circing the last 20 minutes of the boil through everything.

b. I can whirlpool and chill at the same time

c. I can add hops or rice hulls in a hopsack to filter my batches. I simply re-circ the last 20 minutes as normal, then pump everything out of the rocket, take the lid off when the boil is over and add my hopsack of hops or rice hulls at that point.

d. I can avoid a lot of trub pick up with the pick up tubes. I let things settle for about 10 minutes after cooling and get almost no cold break in my fermenters.
Jason
-Head Brewer, Brewtus Brewers in the Shenango Valley. Hopefully opening a brewpub/nano brewery in the next couple years.

Offline phillamb168

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Re: Chilling
« Reply #4 on: September 05, 2012, 09:30:29 am »
Jason that's an awesome idea. What is the high-speed thing in the hop rocket?
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Offline jmcamerlengo

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Re: Chilling
« Reply #5 on: September 05, 2012, 09:34:43 am »
The high speed insert is the dome shaped type of thing that is attached by a wingnut to one of the screens in the rocket.(only the newer versions have it). It was also offered as a free upgrade by Blichmann for those who bought an original one.

And thanks but I cant take credit for it. Tasty McDole gave me the idea!
Jason
-Head Brewer, Brewtus Brewers in the Shenango Valley. Hopefully opening a brewpub/nano brewery in the next couple years.

Offline macbrews

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Re: Chilling
« Reply #6 on: September 05, 2012, 02:26:57 pm »
I have a question concerning wort chilling.  I am currently using a Blichmann plate chiller in a standard setup.

Here's what I want to try.  Listed in order of connection 

Boil kettle to
march pump to
hop filter to
plate chiller to
boil kettle for a whirlpool thru tangential inlet.

I plan to whirlpool and chill for approximately fifteen minutes.  Then let the wort settle for five.  Then pump to carboy.

Good idea or bad?  Any potential drawbacks?

As always thanks for any input

t-bone


I have done that in the past with good results but I did wonder if the multiple hot/cool temperature changes that the wort goes through with each cycle might impact the final product.  Any comments?

Offline jmcamerlengo

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Re: Chilling
« Reply #7 on: September 06, 2012, 07:09:42 am »


I have done that in the past with good results but I did wonder if the multiple hot/cool temperature changes that the wort goes through with each cycle might impact the final product.  Any comments?

No issues that ive experience with that. Ive found it to be much more consistent to chill the whole batch.
Jason
-Head Brewer, Brewtus Brewers in the Shenango Valley. Hopefully opening a brewpub/nano brewery in the next couple years.

Offline t-bone

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Re: Chilling
« Reply #8 on: September 08, 2012, 08:59:13 am »
Thanks for all the info.  I'm not using a hop rocket as a filter I'm using one of these

http://www.brewershardware.com/FILTER1.html

Its worked out pretty good for me.  I'm not affiliated with the company in any way so please don't think I spamming for them.

What pumps are you guys using to pump ice water in the plate chiller?

Thanks

T-bone

Offline t-bone

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Re: Chilling
« Reply #9 on: September 09, 2012, 06:31:30 pm »
Well I tried whirl pooling and chilling with my supposedly good hop filter.  To make a long story short it was a complete disaster.  When I tried it on the first batch the filter got so clogged I had to by pass it.  This was with only three ounces of pellet hops.

I tried leaving the hop filter out on my second batch.  This time the plate chiller clogged up and I had to make a mad dash for my old immersion chiller.

I am definitely going back to a separate whirlpool then chill.

t-bone