plate chiller plugged up during chill.

[nununene]

I used a plate chiller for the first time and had output of kettle to input of chiller and output of chiller with wort going into the whirlpool port of the kettle. The water line went through a immersion chiller in an ice bath to lower the temp of the incoming cooling water to 65 deg. I'm in New Mexico and the water out of the hose is ~80 deg. That's why I put immersion chiller in ice bath. Anyway, the chiller plugged up with hops and it took me hours to get all the residue out. Does anyone have a good idea to keep hops from entering chiller. I have a hops bag, and do the whirlpool, without chiller, for about 15 minutes prior to hooking up the chiller. Any ideas will be appreciated.

 

[GFHomebrew]

My only thoughts would be bag your hops in kettle so you can remove them before chilling.

 

[Nosybear]

I used a plate chiller for the first time and had output of kettle to input of chiller and output of chiller with wort going into the whirlpool port of the kettle. The water line went through a immersion chiller in an ice bath to lower the temp of the incoming cooling water to 65 deg. I'm in New Mexico and the water out of the hose is ~80 deg. That's why I put immersion chiller in ice bath. Anyway, the chiller plugged up with hops and it took me hours to get all the residue out. Does anyone have a good idea to keep hops from entering chiller. I have a hops bag, and do the whirlpool, without chiller, for about 15 minutes prior to hooking up the chiller. Any ideas will be appreciated.

You have to use a screen of some kind, a bag, a stainless steel screen or other way of containing the particles. I've quit using the plate chiller for exactly that reason - it plugs up.

 

[J A]

I use a hop bag for everything other than very small 60 minute additions and I have zero problem with plate chiller. If you're using a chiller coil, you must have some serious hop gunk to clog it. Even quarter inch tubing should be able to carry some amount of goo before clogging up completely.

 

[Ward Chillington]

Figure out some way to skim from the top of the kettle where the solids aren't or like everyone else suggest, pre-filter it some how..clean sock in a funnel if you ae intent on the chill plate but if you are going to the trouble of the Ice bath, do an immersion coil, there are less chances of contamination over a chill plate IMHO.

How much wort are you chilling??