Brew Haus TV, Episode 2: Cheap Plate Chiller

I recently purchased a very affordable, 30 plate chiller from DudaDiesel.com. A lot of folks consider this product, but then end up buying one of the more common brands (Shirron, Blichmann Therminator). My research found that this very affordable chiller has almost twice the surface area of a Shirron, so I made the plunge. If you are curious about this chiller, or about plate chillers in general, check out this episode.

plate chiller shirron blichmann therminator ebay surface area homebrew brew beer chill immersion brewery home diy cheap hose wort water

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• plate
• chiller
• shirron
• blichmann
• therminator
• ebay
• surface
• area
• homebrew
• brew
• beer
• chill
• immersion
• brewery
• home
• diy
• cheap
• hose
• wort
• water

[aegammon]

Great video! As a result, I just ordered the 40 plate version of the same chiller. I'm a little concerned with hop and grain residue clogging it. Do you filter the wort, in-line, or prior to leaving kettle, before it enters the chiller?

Also, what stainless camlocks are you using and where did you get them?

[mawelge]

@aegammon I think you'll like the chiller. I will definitely be using a pre-chiller in the summer. I have had no problems during the colder months.

You definitely want to use some kind of hop strainer when employing a plate chiller. See my hopstopper video. It works well for me.

[patonbike]

Where did you buy these fittings? They should be like 2 dollars at Home Depot? How long does it take to 5 gallons at gravity fed flow rate?

Did you have your hose valve wide open ?

[mawelge]

@patonbike I agree, it definitely seemed like a rip off on those fittings....I have already replaced them with stainless steel camlocks.

I have not yet tried to recirculate through the chiller...and I haven't had too. Now that it's cold I can chill wort to 60 with a single gravity feed. When doing this I open the valve about half way.

[Drabbit2583]

Just curious how yours is working out. I tried using mine yesterday, which I got from a different site, and was quite disappointed with it. Took about 45 minutes to transfer, which I wouldn't have minded if the pitching temp was down to 70 degrees or so. But it wasn't, could only get it to about 80 with my tap water running at around 65. Flows were opposite and had my pot spigot opened a crack so the wort was flowing very slow! Any ideas? How has yours been working?

[mawelge]

@Drabbit2583 Bummer. Mine has worked great thus far....it's working much better now that the ground water is in the 50's. Make sure you have your water on full blast and restrict the flow of wort.

[drkaeppel]

This is an awesome vid. I will definitely look into this when I upgrade to 10 gallon batches. Don't think my 25 foot immersion chiller will cut it.

PS I'm digging the music! Old Crow Medicine Show and Radiohead are always at the top of my playlists.

[nikushim666]

Whats the max rated pressure on that chiller (I would like to use it as a evaporator in a AC system)

[tlazaroff]

Got one of these recently based on your recommendation.  Giving it the first run tomorrow.

[rawimpact]

diy counterflow chiller for less than 40 bucks is better... more distance wort travels means faster cooling

[mlsthmpsn]

Ground water (i.e. well pumped) or municipal water? Ground water does not fluctuate that much throughout the year, however municipal water sits in those water towers and fluctuates greatly with seasonal air temperatures.

My ground water, from my well, is 48-53*F year round.

[SELFSUFFICIENTMAN]

I heard OLD CROW!!!!

[epicbeerdude]

do you still use this or have you found a better cooling alternative/plate chiller ?

[MrAwood2012]

sweet set up . for your plate chiller place it in a large bucket of ice and salt , you will chill the whole thing a lot more . and a lot faster. a cheap place to get a plate chiller is a plumbing wholesaler . ask for the heating dept and than ask for a stainless steel heat exchanger. the hard where off the heat exchanger is 10 x cheaper at the plumbing wholesaler . tell the sales guy u will hook him up with some of your beer and he might give u a sweet deal

[james92y]

If you already had a wort chiller ( or could make one cheap ) could you run your water hose to the wort chiller, set your wort chiller in a bucket of ice water, then the exiting water into the plate chiller .... would that help ?I'm sure it would, but what other methods are you thinking of as a pre-chiller ?

[mkl3opt]

@aegammon Since it is made in China I hope there is no lead in the product.