I have had good success using my plate chiller till my last batch when my ground water has gone up 10 degrees to 71f. My normal chill time was less than 20min for a 15 gallon batch. I would recirc my wort to the top of the boil kettle on full blast until I would get close to 100F (usually I would see 115-120 coming out of the chiller back into the pot when first turned on) then dial down the output till I was in the 68f range and go right to the conical. This last time took me almost an hour for this process. Made my normal 4 hour brew day extended to 5.
I still have my old immersion chiller so I will probably use the ice batch method next brew day. If I do choose this method is it still normal to chill the wort down by reciring first then add the IC t the ice or just try a one pass?
Here is how my chiller is oriented on the top tier
water in water out
chiller
wort out wort in
I still have my old immersion chiller so I will probably use the ice batch method next brew day. If I do choose this method is it still normal to chill the wort down by reciring first then add the IC t the ice or just try a one pass?
Here is how my chiller is oriented on the top tier
water in water out
chiller
wort out wort in