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Glycol Chiller Used for Fermenters & Serving Tanks

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  • Glycol Chiller Used for Fermenters & Serving Tanks

    We have a 5HP chiller (100 gallon reservoir) we're looking to use for both cooling our fermenters and trunk lines to our tap tower. I've heard a lot of people are saying to have a dedicated chiller for the tap tower, and the fermenters. The chiller will only be cooling at most seven fermenters at any one time, and the length of the lines will be a total (full loop) of 150ft. Our serving tanks will then run to our tap tower and that run would be a max of 120 ft. What are some of the issues with only having the 5HP unit cooling everything vs having a dedicated chiller for our trunk lines going to the tap tower?

  • #2
    In my experience your glycol system will only break on your busiest day when it is least convenient, and not being able to pour beer will only make it worse. A stand alone draft line chiller for that size system would be relatively inexpensive peace of mind.
    ______________
    Fred Orndorff
    Rumpus Beer Co.
    Revelstoke, BC

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    • #3
      You'll probably want two systems because:

      A. You tend to want two different glycol temperatures; i.e. ~25f for tanks and ~35f for draft. You could split the difference, but then it's a trade-off between a glycol temp that's not ideal for crashing versus a glycol temp that risks freezing your beer lines.

      B. You tend to run tank glycol at a lower pressure usually 15 p.s.i. possibly more (cooling jackets have huge surface area so every p.s.i. multiplies across a *lot* of square inches) whereas draft cooling lines are narrow, long and designed to cope with higher glycol pressure to push a good volume of glycol through them.
      Last edited by Yellowbeard; 01-17-2018, 06:36 PM.

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      • #4
        Thanks for the info! All very good reasoning to go with a separate chiller. Cheers!

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        • #5
          Don't believe the ratings on glycol chillers for draught lines. They're very optimistic. We found that using one rated for about twice our line length worked best. The previous unit, rated for a little more than our line length, just couldn't keep up in the summer--and it doesn't get all that hot hereabouts.
          Timm Turrentine

          Brewerywright,
          Terminal Gravity Brewing,
          Enterprise. Oregon.

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          • #6
            Originally posted by TGTimm View Post
            Don't believe the ratings on glycol chillers for draught lines. They're very optimistic. We found that using one rated for about twice our line length worked best. The previous unit, rated for a little more than our line length, just couldn't keep up in the summer--and it doesn't get all that hot hereabouts.
            We can definitely get some hot and sticky summers in PA. Is there a particular brand you've had good success with for your draught lines?

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