Cleaning a plate chiller

Is there a method and/or product that will ensure the inside of the plate chiller is clean to brewing standards?

I've recently began to suspect that slight off flavors in my beer may be caused from my plate chiller not getting thoroughly cleaned after use. Normally I flush it with scalding water then fill it with VERY hot detergent solution and let it sit for an hour. Then I flush it again thouroughly with hot water. after letting it drain I blow it out with compressed air and let it sit in the sun to try to dry any moisture inside so as to not promote mildew in the plates. I'm considering letting a blow drier run through it to make sure it gets dry on the inside. Of course I run Saniclean through it right before use.

I also use a chugger pump and clean it in the same manner. In my effort to track down the source of my off flavors, I disassembled the pump head and was surprised how much residue was inside the impeller housing after the thorough flushing / cleaning I described above. It stands to reason that there is similar gunk inside my plate chiller.

Agitation by moving the detergent through the plates is the most effective form of cleaning. Just soaking loosens stuff, but it doesn't always come away from the surfaces.

If you have been letting it sit in the sun, grime left inside may have hardened, making them difficult to remove. An acid cleaner, (beer line acid cleaners can do the job) heated to 90F to 120F and recirculated for 10 minutes, works really well as a pre treatment for the hardened proteins. Then follow with a water rinse and then a PBW cycle.

Using your pump, run hot PBW through the chiller, both ways. At least 15 minutes, each way. Keep the temperature above 160F, but below 190F.

Rinse with cold water and drain.

I'm not sure about the leaving it in the sun part for drying it out. That can vary so much that it's hard to judge the evaporation. Perhaps you could try using the oven.

I stopped using my homebrew plate chiller because of this. Due to the small distance between plates bits of hops were getting stuck in there and try as I might I never felt I could get it completely clean.

This issue has come up again for me as I am now starting to work for a small brewery and they are having trouble with their 1 barrel system getting infections. The primary suspect is the plate chiller as we back flush it for 30 mins after use and A LOT of stuff comes out of it. We are currently going to extraordinary lengths using some nasty chemicals to try to get it clean and sanitized. I am trying to convince the brewer to use a convoluted couter-flow chiller instead.

Hi TAH

This is unlikely to be solution but rather a more thinking out loud exercise. I know you can purchase "home-sized" ultrasonic cleaners that manage to get a lot of rubbish skaken out of things in tight spaces (my wife uses it for her jewellry etc), but I'd guess you could buy some more substantial sized units that would fit plate-chillers etc. Used in conjunction with, say, a SaniClean/Iodophor/StarSan solution in the water bath and the same flowing internally through the plates, is it possible that could help?

Hopefully though, the cost of a larger ultrasonic cleaner may encourage your boss to change to your preferred answer to the cooling issue!

Cheers mate

  I have not moved to a plate chiller from a cooling coil for this reason. I cannot see how the thing can be completely clean inside without being able to take it apart and clean any residue. My homemade cooling coil has at least a half inch gap between all coils to allow for a stainless scrubbie to run around the entire surface of all coil loops, and to visually confirm cleanliness. Especially since when cooled the wort at this point is vulnerable to infection. However, after consideration, if I were to go the plate chiller way, I would install a removable sediment screen or filter or trap at the inlet to ensure only clear liquid goes into it.  IMHO, a counterflow coil should also be subject to the same sediment prevention setup, to ensure unseen particulate cannot accumulate. Something  similar to a strainer t-y  at the inlet for basic, to a full filter cartridge for advanced. I would also soak, and recirculate p.b.w and finally hot star-san for a lengthy time. I would keep the chiller full of starsan when not in use and never let it dry (same as beer lines). A hot water star san recirculating sanitize cycle before use. A pressure gauge inline will tell you if you are accumulating sediment before a line blows off, or watch outlet flow carefully.  Valves to isolate the strainer should be installed to allow for cleaning the screen should it become clogged during a pump-out cooling session. Simply close the valves, unscrew the screen cap over a bucket, clean it sanitize it and replace. I would rather have a collection point for sediment like this where you can deal with it ( and know about  sedimentation issues) rather than letting possible sediments enter a plate chiller that costs hundreds of dollars, plugging it up and rendering it useless. Of course I would still use a bazooka screen in the boil kettle outlet to try to minimize larger particulate  from entering the plate chiller tubing run.

I am volunteering at a small brewery (15 hl brewhouse) and we only brew every two weekends.

Thinking about large/medium scale breweries, there are a lot of caustic products specifically engineered/designed to get dissolve fats and proteins which normally constitute the build up in heat exchanger. I would first try checking if I am using the right cleaning temp and concentration for the designed cleaning agent, otherwise would try different caustics... that might help get rid of the gunk.

At the brewery I volunteer at we do use a plate heat exchanger and it is included in our CIP process. Every weekend, after brewing is over, we run a 2% caustic solution until the temperature reaches about 70 C (158 F) according to the temperature probe placed in the outgoing pipe... sometimes we let it recirculate longer (or to a higher temp) just to be sure that we have gotten rid of whatever gunk that might be stuck inside. After that, the lines are rinsed with fresh water at ambient temp.

On a brewing day we rinse the plate heat exchanger line by recirculating hot water through so as to pasteurize it... we let it reach 70 C and keep it there for a min or so...

Every now and then we do run an acid solution, both on the wort and water side as well to get rid of any carbonate or scale build up.

We have never had issues with our plate Heat exchanger and in fact have never found necessary to take it apart. I think I would try to get a stronger caustic solution or pasteurizing it before each use. You might as well try going a little bit experimental and just try running fresh water through it and see if you get any funny/off flavors in the water.

Cheers!

Manuel

When you are rinsing, cleaning, are you going both directions?
I will run PBW through one direction for a few minutes, reverse and am always impressed at how much more comes out. Then again, and again. Usually the fifth time it runs clear. A good caustic flush both ways is a good idea once a year or so even with a great cleaning regimen.