Cleaning Plate Chiller

[goose]

@mabrungard

The intake in my kettle is shrouded with a stainless braid and that does a great job of keeping larger particles out of the flow heading to my plate chiller.  When I backflush or circulate caustic, I only see minor crud in the flow.  I’d say that having an effective prefilter is an important consideration in keeping a chiller clean and sanitary.

+1

[system]

@KellerBrauer

@kevin

I bet if you could take your chiller apart once you get it running crystal clear you would still find gunk in the crevices.

I highly doubt that, but okay.

I’d believe it.  People who have baked their chiller and carbonized whatever hop or protein deposits are inside find that black water does come out for a while.  Is that a problem, though?  Probably not, as long as you pasteurize it with some hot wort recirculation.  When I used a plate chiller, I didn’t trust just using sanitizer because most of the ones we use as homebrewers are quickly inactivated by organic material.