Cooling zones on fermentors!

[IBCbrew]

Need some advise on placement of cooling jackets on conical fermentors.

- 10-20hl (8.5-16bbl) conicals.
- General practise is to have multiple (atleast 2), one near the cone and one near the top of fermentor and maybe one in the middle.
- However, I have been reading in some technical manuals that having a single cooling zone on top is best practice as it results in differential cooling and a natural wort circulation due to this.

Any comments?

[dfalken]

Dual zones will allow you to have less than full fermenters by turning off one zone (which comes in handy if your fermenters are double brew length or more).

[Ray Hodge]

Jackets on cones are really nice, if you are propping yeast in 1/2 to 1 bbl amounts you can do it in the cone, also it keeps the yeast pack cooler than if there was no jacket there. 20Hl is about the size where you would consider dual side jackets especially if they are double brew size, smaller than that I don't think there is such a need. As far as the thermal roll, you can modulate the amount of glycol cooling to each jacket with the supply side ball valves, with the cone set for low flow and the side on full it should roll good enough.