Pre Filtering Prior To Plate Chilling???

mashman · Feb 7, 2012

I have just ordered myself a plate chiller and knowing that you can't strip them to clean I was wondering if anyone pre filtered hot wort before running it through the chiller in an attempt to hold back trub.
Something like a few layers of muslin type gauze in a funnel or some similar container is what I have in mind so that I don't have the problem of "hop bits" etc blocking it up so that cleaning it will be more straight forward with soda crystals or oxyclean etc.

Any thoughts??

keith1664 · Feb 8, 2012

Don't have one myself but from what I recall reading a fine stainless mesh (#30?) is used over the boiler pickup.

Vossy1 · Feb 8, 2012

I would thoroughly recommend using a pre filter with a sealed PHE.
Unfortunately there's virtually no chance of finding a pre made one, so it will probably be a do it yourself jobby, however you do it. This is mine, an in-line, there is a stocking wrapped around the central perforated tube in use (now I use ss mesh)

The middle picture shows filter 'in situ' after use and the third the inside of the filter.
The filter is housed in a mini 5" Pentek water filter housing, I'd love to replace this with stainless.

mashman · Feb 18, 2012

Cheers Vossy.

Something else that's just occurred to me is that is there a preferred orientation for these plate chillers or am I right in thinking that it doesn't matter and they work any way up ?

evanvine · Feb 18, 2012

mashman said:
and knowing that you can't strip them to clean

Sounds like va very good argument for using a CFC!

Dronfieldbrewer · Feb 18, 2012

design yourself an underback.

This is a vessel that takes the hot wort. it has a fine filter over the outlet and works like a big funnel.

then pump the wort from that through your chiller in the knowlege that if anything has got through the net, it will be tiny.

Aleman · Feb 19, 2012

mashman said:
Is there a preferred orientation for these plate chillers or am I right in thinking that it doesn't matter and they work any way up ?

I use mine vertically, with hot wort entering at the bottom and out of the top, this ensures that the interstices are full of wort and have no trapped air.

I Fill the coolant side the same way then invert it before attaching the wort connections

Northern Brewer · Feb 19, 2012

My plan is to use stainless hose covering for the hop strainer then put a 0.28mm or 0.5mm strainer in line with the pump.

Stainless hose covering like this
and strainer from BES part numbers 7532 (15mm compression with 0.28mm strainer ) or 7536 (1/2" female BSP with 0.5mm strainer).

I hate compression fittings but would prefer a 0.28mm strainer, unfortunately the SS filters are not interchangeble - at least the ones supplied from BES, so I can't put the 0.28mm in the 1/2" BSP threaded fitting. I beleive that the max particle size is 0.5mm for typical PHE to avoid blockages. No doubt this could be fixed by making your own filter.

No idea if this will work OK yet - a couple of weeks away from trying it.

EDIT - being a bit slow tonight - I'l just throw the olive and nut away on the 15mm compression fitting as it will be 1/2" BSP male - doh!

Cheers
NB

Darcey · Feb 20, 2012

Surely with a suitable 'hop filter' in the boiler its not really all that important? The cold break material will be entering your FV anyway. You should be filtering the copper finings and hops with a hop filter? I recently posted about a large amount of 'cold break' in my FV.. after 24 hours the yeast had totaly broken this down and now I have brightish beer in the secondary ready to be crash cooled or have I missed something? :wha:

Darcey · Feb 20, 2012

robbarwell said:
design yourself an underback.

I may be(quite wrong) in assuming that traditionally an underback is used post mash tun to boiler to control flow and filter?!

Northern Brewer · Feb 20, 2012

Darcey said:
Surely with a suitable 'hop filter' in the boiler its not really all that important? The cold break material will be entering your FV anyway. You should be filtering the copper finings and hops with a hop filter? I recently posted about a large amount of 'cold break' in my FV.. after 24 hours the yeast had totaly broken this down and now I have brightish beer in the secondary ready to be crash cooled or have I missed something? :wha:

Hi Darcy, I'm not too bothered about getting a bit of cold break in the FV, more getting particles in the plate chiller that may block it. The braided SS hose covering I aim to use is pretty fine but will probably let particles greater than 0.5mm through hence the possible need for a seperate particle filter.

Aleman · Feb 20, 2012

Northern Brewer said:
Darcey said:

Surely with a suitable 'hop filter' in the boiler its not really all that important?

Click to expand...

I'm not too bothered about getting a bit of cold break in the FV, more getting particles in the plate chiller that may block it. The braided SS hose covering I aim to use is pretty fine but will probably let particles greater than 0.5mm through hence the possible need for a seperate particle filter.

Once you have cleaned that small filter a few dozen times per brew you will realise that what Darcy has said is important! You need to make a Hop stopper (around 8" in diameter) from some #40 Stainless Mesh. Filter properly at source then you don't need to add anything in line.

Although I do like Vossys solution :thumb:

Swift Pint · Feb 20, 2012

I need to sort out my hop filtering arrangements too.

I've got a hop&grape 10g plastic boiler, which came with a copper manifold for filtering out the hops. I then use gravity to feed the hot wort down into my plate chiller & out into the fv.

In the past I've noticed small bits of hop making it into through the plate chiller. I've not been too fussed about these small bits as I can clean the thing out by hooking it up to the tap and giving it a strong blast of water to clear it out. My big problem is that if I use a slighlty higher than average number of hops then they clogg up the copper manifold in the boiler and stop wort from being able to flow out of the tap. This means that I have to continually use my brew spoon to scrape hops away from the manifold when I'm draining the boiler, which is a right hassle.
I know using hop bags would solve this, but I'd rather not have to deal with the hassle of them each time I brew (i will forget to use them most likely.) Any ideas of what I can do to upgrade my hop filtering to stop this from happening??

Edit::

I think I need a Hop Stopper!!! :thumb:

Northern Brewer · Feb 20, 2012

Marvellous Aleman! :thumb: I had doubts about my inline filter's ability to stay blockage free given its small area.

One last question before I go off to the on-line vivarium store and buy the mesh. #30 mesh has hole size of 0.65mm and #40 0.42mm. The former has 58% open area and the latter 43%. I believe that the typical copper soldered plate chiller can be blocked by particles any bigger than 0.5mm. If you've had no issues with #30 in terms of blockin the PHE then I'll go with that as it has a larger open area, just checking.

Cheers
NB

Aleman · Feb 20, 2012

I don't have any issues using #30, and so far when back flushing my PHE into a bucket I don't get any 'bits', which seems to indicate that it is doing a good job. . . . I do have a couple of pieces of #40 mesh here though that I will probably replace it with as and when I need to.

Northern Brewer · Feb 20, 2012

Thanks Tony - a plan is coming together.....

Loetz · Feb 20, 2012

Northern Brewer said:
Thanks Tony - a plan is coming together.....

Ditto.

Vossy1 · Feb 20, 2012

My copper screen is slightly different to the norm, it has a vertical perforated ss mesh filter, the same material you would use for a mash tun FB. This prevents nearly all the hops from getting to the the ball valve 'take off' which sits behind the screen. The filter then only has to cope with the hot break and I minimise the amount of HB by letting the copper rest for 5 mins after the boil. I can then transfer the wort to the fv via the plate chiller as quickly as I want. I have transferred at 15ltr/min in the past making quick work of cooling 60ltr batches however the nylon filter didn't like it :roll:

so I changed the filter overcoat to 30 #ss mash screen.

Loetz · Feb 20, 2012

Vossy1 said:

Cool! How do you get it to stay in place?

Vossy1 · Feb 20, 2012

Cool! How do you get it to stay in place?

The upper metal rod (see pic) is a M8 bolt, there's a nut/washer combo on the other side of the plate drawing it tight against the pot.

Pre Filtering Prior To Plate Chilling???

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