Glycol to Brites...

[JoshATX]

Please help the new guy (me). I am setting up 2 7bbl brites to my glycol system in the next few weeks. 2" header with 1" lines to the top and bottom jackets of the brites.

Would it be better to split my 1" line after the solenoid to the top and bottom or have a dedicated line and solenoid for both the top and bottom jackets? I am afraid there might be a great amount of pressure loss if I just split after the solenoid...

Thanks for your help in advance,
Josh

[lhall]

I'll tell you the way we do it - your results may vary. After the solenoid, we go into the bottom jacket, come out and go into the top jacket, and out to the glycol return. Same way on the fermenters. That way you are never short-circuiting one jacket. Sure, the glycol after the first jacket is warmer. But we have been doing it that way for eight years with no problems.

[ParishBrewingCo]

Ditto what Linus said. I would add that a 2" header for 7bbl tanks seems really large, as does the 1" drop. Are the jacket threads 1"?

[JoshATX]

Does the bottom to top help create a cooling current in the brite tank? or could you go top to bottom? Our bottling machine manufacturer mentioned the idea of creating cooling currents in the brites.
The Jackets are 1" threads. I was told by the glycol system dealer that a 2" header would help increase flow of glycol to the brites. I will be crashing from around 80 degrees to 36-40 degrees. I am not brewing beer, but making soda and am looking to crash and carbonate in less than 24 hours.
Thanks for the help!

[lhall]

Bottom to top makes it easy to get all the air out, and keep it out. It also means the beer exiting the tank to get to the bottler is being exposed to the coldest glycol. Cooling currents are caused more by the placement of the cooling jackets than the temperature of the glycol. Beer becomes less dense around 4 deg C and you can get temperature inversions.

[JoshATX]

Sounds good, thanks for the help!

[froptus]

I just installed three 7 bbl brite tanks in the same manner as described by Linus. It works well. We used 1.25 inch main return and supply lines with .75 inch lines to the solenoid and tanks. The top and bottom jackets are linked together which I think is fine for small 7 bbl tanks. Anything larger though and I'd have seperate lines for each jacket but still controlled by only one solenoid.