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two glycol zones, one thermal well

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  • two glycol zones, one thermal well

    Hey all,
    We at Taos Mesa Brewing are installing new fermenters, 10 bbl and 20 bbl, and they are dual zoned on the glycol jackets, but only have one thermal well. This doesn't make any sense to us, as it only allows for one solenoid to control the two zones. What is the piping configuration in this setup? Why only one thermal well? Any comments are appreciated.

  • #2
    With fermentors that small it doesn't really make sense to control your jackets individually. The temperature at the bottom of the tank won't be very different from temperature at the top. There's no point in spending money on two solenoids and two temperature controllers. Just use one and plumb your jackets in series.

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    • #3
      Where are the jackets? Typically they are on the cone and sidewall. I don't remember seeing more than a single sidewall jacket in small vessels like these, and a cone jacket allows you to keep yeast cooler (though I am not in favour of cone storage). An alternative method of plumbing is to have a single solenoid valve, then split the feeds, with an isolation valve on each feed, so if necessary they are operated in parallel, but with the option of using the cone only for small volumes, or sidewall only during fermentation, providing that controls the temperature, then open them both for cooling.

      However, you will need to ensure there is sufficient pressure differential between the supply and return to get adequate flow through them both. If you don't have that, then running the jackets in series will be your only option. If you have that little pressure differential, you might find that using the sidewall jacket only is just as effective. I prefer to use sidewall only during fermentation as I have experienced overcooling and stuck fermentations when the cold wort sinks to the cone, along with most of the yeast, and stops circulation currents (and good fermentation) developing.
      dick

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