Carboy

My homebrewing misadventures

Cooling down fast

Finally putting my own plate chiller to work

More than six months ago, my brother-in-law introduced me to the wonders of the plate chiller. It took me a while to purchase and assemble all the pieces, but I'm happy to report that I've finally got my own setup.

In this photo, you can see all of the essential pieces before assembly:

  • The Shirron Plate Chiller in the center
  • A Thrumometer with a 1/2-inch bore, allowing me to see the temperature of the wort as it runs through the mometer and into the carboy
  • A garden hose shut-off valve, which lets you adjust the flow of water into the chiller to make the wort colder or warmer
  • Half-inch thermoplastic, food grade tubing
  • Quick disconnects to quickly attach the tubes to the chiller
  • Worm clamps to hold the tubing in place

And here she is in action, chilling my latest brew, a La Petite Orange Belgian dubbel, to pitching temperature in just a few minutes. It easily saved me 30-45 minutes at the end of my brew day.

In case you want a close-up of the Thrumometer in action, here it is, nailing the pitching temperature of the wort to a perfect 72° F, just like the Trappist Style High Gravity yeast likes it.

Now that I've got my own plate chiller, I can't imagine going back to an immersion chiller, particularly on those hot summer brew days. Luckily, with this new setup, I won't have to.

Recipe for La Petite Orange

Belgian Pale Ale, All-Grain

5 gallon batch

Ingredients

Grains
7 lbs Pilsner (2 Row) Belgian
8 ozs Dingemans Cara 8
8 ozs Dingemans Cara 20
4 ozs Aromatic Malt
4 ozs Biscuit Malt

Hops
1 oz Celeia (aka Styrian Goldings), 60 mins

Adjuncts:
1 lb Brun Fonce soft candi sugar at start of boil

Yeasts
Wyeast 3787 Trappist Style High Gravity

Original recipe from Northern Brewer.

Mash schedule

Infusion, add 10.62 qts water @ 166.1° F
Let rest for 70 min @ 149° F
Add 6.16 qts water @ 212° F
Mash out for 10 min @ 170° F
Fly Sparge with 16.75 qts of water @ 170 °F

Fermentation schedule

Primary for 7 days @ 68° F
Secondary for 14 days @ 72° F
Keg for 14 days @ 74° F

Stats

  • ABV: 6.7 percent
  • IBU: 18.24
  • Boil Size: 6.53 gals
  • Color: 6.4 SRM
  • Estimated preboil OG: 1.032
  • Actual postboil OG: 1.051
  • Efficiency: 97.43 %

Stats by iBrewmaster

By Tom on 11/27/2016

Stage: Brewing


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