I've previously worked in a brewery where we had to heat fermenters in the winter, and we had to cobble together a system that involved a heated glycol loop running in parallel, with manual valves on each fermenter to switch from hot to cold. It worked, but was far from ideal.
Now that I'm setting up another brewery (with 7 and 15 bbl jacketed conicals), I'm trying to leave myself a more elegant "out" in case winter rolls around and we have to do something similar. Anyone out there have a proven solution for both heating and cooling conicals?
Some things I'm considering:
Any feedback from those more experienced in brewing in the cold would be appreciated.
Now that I'm setting up another brewery (with 7 and 15 bbl jacketed conicals), I'm trying to leave myself a more elegant "out" in case winter rolls around and we have to do something similar. Anyone out there have a proven solution for both heating and cooling conicals?
Some things I'm considering:
- Use only FVs with dual-zone jackets and dedicate one hot and one cold. This would reduce the effectiveness of the jackets, and would probably also require applying heat to the cone and therefore yeast, to avoid stratification. I'm also not sure what to use for the working fluid on the hot side; water and/or glycol could grow mold and who knows what else, but obviously it needs to be food safe, so bleach is out. Maybe an ethanol solution?
- Heat the outside of the tanks with something like an electric blanket. Inefficient, since we'd be heating the glycol in the jacket, then the beer, but electric heat is pretty cheap.
- Fabricate some sort of SS coil that could be suspended from a top port. Obvious cleaning and contamination concerns, plus the working fluid issues as in #1.
- Just give in and heat the building. If it can be done economically, this is obviously the best solution, but I don't want to assume.
Any feedback from those more experienced in brewing in the cold would be appreciated.
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