Bump bump.

Hi,
If you connect all jackets individually (parallel feed) you will feed them with the same glycol temperature.
If you feed the cone with glycol and then take the glycol from the outlet on the cone (the return) and feed the next jackets inlet (supply) with that and so on then you get a serial feed. In this case you get the coldest glycol to the cone it will heat up little and you feed the next jacket with a higher temperature glycol and the jacket after that with even higher temperature. This you can get away with on a small fermenter with few jackets but the first option give better cooling.
You can also if you want put valves on each jacket when you have parallel feed if you want to choice which jackets to cool.

Cheers!

Dan Strömberg
Cooling Market Segment Manager
Phone: +1 714 368 4196
Fax: +1 714 368 4197
Mobile: +1 951 642 2339
Dan.Stromberg@georgfischer.com

Georg Fischer LLC
2882 Dow Avenue, Tustin, CA. 92780
United States

Series or Parallel

I finished writing this and then saw Dan Stromberg's reply... I'm basically saying the same thing

Running the glycol in series: Glycol goes into the bottom jacket and out the top jacket- if more than one zone, there is a jumper between the two.
Advantages: Easier setup/install
Disadvantage: Glycol warms as it passes through each zone. If 3 zones, bottom will be coldest first

Parallel: Glycol goes into and out of each zone independently to/from headers.
Advantages: Independent control of each zone (great for half batches), consistent cooling applied to each zone
Disadvantage: More complicated install (labor and materials), requires more pressure in the overall system (which may require larger headers)

Ok, I guess 3 ways...
Hybrid: We wanted the advantage of parallel, but couldn't afford the larger headers so we plumbed it in a hybrid way. The bottom (cone) zone is independent from the middle and top zones in our FV's. We wanted to make sure that the most heat gets removed from the cone due to the insulating properties of yeast because we bottom crop to re-use our yeast.

Thanks guys.

Glycol -- Series or parallel, for 7 bbl Fv's

We're about to plumb for our 7bbl (and future 15bbl) FVs. I get that parallel is advantageous. But I've also read that it is not really necessary for small tanks. Anyone out there using series or parallel on 7bbl two-zone FVs have an opinion? Any Series brewers who wish they'd plumbed for parallel?? Thanks -- dave

All our tanks, 7bbl and 15bbl, are plumbed in series. Both maintain temp well and crash in 18ish hours using 3/4hp glycol line chillers.

Thanks. Looks like series will do fine for us.

I plumbed the 15 bbl with the single 3/4 inlet and jump to upper jacket then return, Just used what parts we got from Premiere Stainless. 1 Solenoid, TC, Would not do this with tanks >20bbl. just the braided hose, not as clean looking as hard pipe. My 12Hl system in Tonopah will use the Cool-fit. tanks are in the middle of the room and it just will look better.

Lance
Rebel Malting Co.
Tonopah Brewing.
Nevada, USA
775.997.6411
ljergensen@rebelmalting.com

Bump!

I'm about to order 12bbl FV's with 3 cooling zones, and 2 temp probe pockets for the possibility of doing half-batches. My question is wheter or not I should have 2 solenoid valves for each tank or just 1? The lower probe and cone + lower zone would then be on one solenoid. The upper probe and the upper cooling zone would be on the other. Is this overkill? Should I have one solenoid for the whole tank and control the upper cooling zone manually by ball valve when doing half-batch?

Cheers.

You want to be able to control the various jacket independently. Using the highest jacket that is fully covered will prevent thermal stratification, where warm beer separates form and sits atop cold beer at the bottom of the vessel.

We only use the cone jacket if we're having trouble getting our wort cool enough for the yeast, and only use it until another jacket is covered.

Most of our multi-zone ferms don't have independent thermostatic controls for each jacket. We just use ball valves to control which jacket is doing the cooling.